Physical sciences articles within Nature Chemistry

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  • Review Article |

    The formation of single-layer-thick molecular networks at metal surfaces is governed by the interplay between intermolecular and interfacial interactions. This Review highlights how, with films built by vacuum deposition, these interactions can be modulated to form substrates that may be useful as catalysts or templates for further deposition steps.

    • Ludwig Bartels

  • Article |

    Ready access to sugars in which the various hydroxyl groups are differentially protected will be of benefit in the production of vaccines, antibiotics and drugs. Here, a chemoenzymatic method that provides a direct route to such protected sugars is described.

    • Dennis G. Gillingham
    • , Pierre Stallforth
    •  & Donald Hilvert

  • Article |

    Highly diastereoselective Negishi cross-coupling reactions between 2-, 3- and 4-substituted cycloalkylzinc reagents and aryl iodides are described. In all cases, the thermodynamically most stable diastereomers of the cross-coupling products were obtained. NMR spectroscopy and density functional theory calculations were performed in order to rationalize the observed stereoselectivities.

    • Tobias Thaler
    • , Benjamin Haag
    •  & Paul Knochel

  • Article |

    The incorporation of non-natural base pairs into double-stranded DNA, especially those mediated by metal–ligand interactions, offers new opportunities for synthetic DNA materials. The structural implications of such modifications will help guide developments in this area, and a solution structure of a B-type DNA duplex containing consecutive metal-mediated base pairs has now been elucidated.

    • Silke Johannsen
    • , Nicole Megger
    •  & Jens Müller

  • Article |

    Silicon, like carbon, favours a four-coordinate geometry and this underpins the frameworks of the wide range of inorganic and organosilicon compounds, from silicate minerals to polysilanes. Although some pentavalent silicon compounds have already been reported, this work presents the first example where two five-coordinate silicon atoms are bonded to each other.

    • Naokazu Kano
    • , Hideaki Miyake
    •  & Shigeru Nagase

  • Research Highlights |

    The isolation of an intermediate species during the self-assembly of a giant molybdenum oxide wheel suggests that a smaller cluster templates the wheel's formation before being evicted.

    • Anne Pichon

  • Research Highlights |

    Specific molecules in the brain can be imaged and used to make a three-dimensional model of the organ.

    • Neil Withers

  • Research Highlights |

    Key intermediates and their roles in secondary organic aerosol formation from isoprene have been elucidated.

    • Gavin Armstrong

  • Article |

    The bulk properties of materials that lack long-range order have been widely studied, but their local structures remain difficult to elucidate. Now, using scanning tunnelling microscopy, researchers have been able to look more closely at the structural motifs of robust, two-dimensional glassy networks assembled through metal–ligand interactions.

    • Matthias Marschall
    • , Joachim Reichert
    •  & Johannes V. Barth

  • Article |

    Precise calculations of molecular properties from first-principles set great problems for large systems because their conventional computational cost increases exponentially with size. Quantum computing offers an alternative, and here the H2 potential energy curve is calculated using the latest photonic quantum computer technology.

    • B. P. Lanyon
    • , J. D. Whitfield
    •  & A. G. White

  • Article |

    Well-resolved images of small molecules and their motions can be obtained with high-resolution transmission electron microscopy. It has now been shown that this technique can also be used to visualize individual chemical reactions involving the dimerization of fullerenes and metallo-fullerenes trapped inside carbon nanotubes by monitoring how the positions of their atoms change over time.

    • Masanori Koshino
    • , Yoshiko Niimi
    •  & Sumio Iijima

  • Research Highlights |

    A synthetic functional model of the oxygen reduction site in the enzyme cytochrome c oxidase has been used to investigate the effects of hydrogen sulfide on respiration.

    • Stephen Davey

  • Research Highlights |

    More predictable chemical patterns have been created by using nanoparticles instead of ions.

    • Neil Withers

  • Research Highlights |

    Atmospheric organic aerosols from very different sources evolve towards similar characteristics, simplifying the models needed to investigate their effects on climate and air quality.

    • Anne Pichon

  • In Your Element |

    Mitch André Garcia considers the disputed discovery of element 104 and takes a look at how the chemistry of this synthetic element is developing.

    • Mitch André Garcia

  • News & Views |

    Synthetic procedures for making nanoparticles often result in samples that contain a range of different particle sizes. By using hollow self-assembled metal–organic spheres as templates, however, it is possible to make silica nanoparticles with uniform shapes and sizes in a precisely controlled fashion.

    • Boris Breiner
    •  & Jonathan R. Nitschke

  • News & Views |

    Embedding platinum nanoparticles in a polymer matrix produces a system that reacts like a homogeneous catalyst, but provides the stability and separation advantages of a heterogeneous one.

    • Gadi Rothenberg

  • News & Views |

    Although it may seem counter-intuitive, the attraction between positively charged radical ions offers a new approach to driving controlled motion in molecular machines.

    • Harry L. Anderson

  • News & Views |

    Small-molecule enzyme-inhibitors often display insufficient affinity and selectivity for their targets causing unwanted side effects when used as drugs. Molecularly imprinted polymers prepared using the enzyme as a template could offer a solution.

    • Börje Sellergren

  • News & Views |

    Electrically tunable materials are used to construct switches and memory devices. Applying an electric field within a specific temperature range to cyanometallate complexes triggers their charge-transfer phase transition, altering their optical and magnetic properties.

    • Osamu Sato

  • News & Views |

    Among the wide variety of synthetic processes that chemists have developed, only a few can be carried out under physiological conditions. A condensation reaction that is controlled by the constituents of cells has led to the formation of nanostructures within living cells.

    • Bing Xu

  • Editorial |

    The editorial process at Nature Chemistry differs in some important ways from that employed at other chemistry journals.

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