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Confining reactants inside a porous coordination polymer allows unstable intermediates along a reaction path to be studied by a method usually reserved for stable crystalline compounds.
Obtaining financial support for scientific research is generally more difficult for work that is fundamental in nature rather than applied. Bruce C. Gibb contemplates how topics such as complexity might get their share — and why it is vital that they do.
Improvements to the efficiency and lifetime of polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cells can be realized by finding more active and stable electrocatalytic cathode materials. A computational search has found two such alloys and confirmed their enhanced properties experimentally.
By studying non-covalent assemblies in the gas phase, it is possible to examine the mobility of the components within a single complex — rather than between different complexes — using hydrogen/deuterium exchange reactions.
Dinitrogen ligands — key for understanding how atmospheric nitrogen can be reduced — almost exclusively have even-numbered oxidation states. Now, however, lanthanide complexes with [N2]3− ligands have been synthesized and investigated.
Catalysis using gold has fast become a major research field with great potential, and many new discoveries are being made. Graham Hutchings reflects on how this has come about.
The concept of the chemical bond has been around for quite some time and there are many models that try to explain what is going on in that hazy world of electron density that glues atoms together. But molecules that challenge our notion of just what a chemical bond is continue to be reported, often presenting us with more questions than answers.
The highly selective oxidation of just one carbon–hydrogen bond out of almost 50 in a late-stage precursor can be used to construct the macrocyclic core on which the erythromycin antibiotics are based, and demonstrates the potential of such C–H activation approaches for natural product synthesis.
An amphiphilic molecule that contains a protein-specific ligand and an NMR-active tag forms the basis of a protein sensor. A measurable NMR signal results only in the presence of active protein that causes disassembly of clusters of the amphiphile.
Exponential signal amplification is achieved when a single molecule of analyte initiates a chain reaction in which a dendrimer releases a coloured 'reporter' molecule, and ultimately four further molecules of the analyte.
In a Dutch city famous for the treaty that led to the creation of the European Union, delegates gathered at a conference to discuss recent advances in the chemistry of macrocyclic and supramolecular systems.
The 2009 Nobel Prize in Chemistry will soon be awarded amid the usual speculation, angst, disagreement and elation — but is it really worth all the fuss?
The unfolding of a mechanically weaker protein domain can be inhibited by inserting it into a stronger domain, creating the possibility of forming multifunctional elastomeric proteins.