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The properties of molecular electronic devices can be tuned by tailoring the structures of the molecules from which they are built. Researchers now show that two closely related molecules — each containing a string of four aryl groups — behave very differently when strung between gold electrodes, with the non-symmetrical structure leading to diode-like behaviour.
The 2009 Nobel Prize in Chemistry has been awarded to Venkatraman Ramakrishnan, Thomas Steitz and Ada Yonath for studies of the structure and function of the ribosome.
Artificial vesicles consisting of encapsulated fluorescence resonance energy transfer (FRET)-donor molecules and a FRET-acceptor bilayer dye-membrane provide ultrasensitive pH information in aqueous media by displaying pH-dependent fluorescence colour covering the entire visible light range. An exceptional white fluorescence was observed at pH 9.
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.
