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At arguably one of the prettiest locations in England, the Nineteenth Lakeland Symposium brought together an international group of delegates from academia and industry to discuss a breadth of topics at the cutting edge of synthetic and heterocyclic organic chemistry.
A racemic mixture of tartaric acid forms mirror-image domains with equal propensity when adsorbed on a copper surface. When one enantiomer is present in a slight excess, however, only ordered domains comprising the major isomer are formed.
Converting methane into more useful and readily transportable compounds has previously required the use of metal-based oxo catalysts, but now sulfur and phosphorus are showing their mettle.
Metal ions have been incorporated at specific pre-programmed locations into a well-defined, three-dimensional DNA structure. Applications of such cages could arise from the functionalities of the metal centres, guest encapsulation or biomimetic properties.
The catalytically active form of an iridium complex changes reversibly in the presence or absence of hydrogen. Such catalysts may be essential for the adoption of organic hydrogen-storage materials as an alternative to petroleum-derived fuels.
Iron has important roles in areas as diverse as physiological processes and industrial activities, but has traditionally been eclipsed by other transition metals in synthesis processes. Carsten Bolm looks at how iron is now also becoming an increasingly sought-after catalyst.
Crossed-beam experiments have shown that, counterintuitively, breaking the C–H bond during the F + CHD3 reaction is impeded by its vibrational excitation
Incorporating binding sites for metal ions into DNA strands that assemble into well-defined three-dimensional structures has enabled researchers to build metal-nucleic acid cages. There is potential for the geometry, pore size and chemistry of such materials to be easily tuned, which may prove useful for applications in molecular sensing and encapsulation.
When a racemic mixture of tartaric acid is adsorbed on a Cu(110) surface, the (R,R) and (S,S) enantiomers separate to form enantiopure domains that cover equal amounts of the substrate. Repeating the experiment with just a small excess of one enantiomer, however, has a drastic effect on the surface assembly with only the majority isomer forming ordered superstructures.
Building artificial chemical systems that mimic the behaviour of cells could offer new insights into biological processes. Now, researchers show that by compartmentalizing the autocatalytic formose reaction inside lipid vesicles, and using small-molecule precursors as a ‘metabolic’ fuel, they can create a system that is capable of communicating with living bacterial cells.
Chemical methods of achieving asymmetric protonation are classified according to reaction mechanism, with a view to developing a greater understanding of this most fundamental of asymmetric processes, and thus improving the potential for its application in synthesis.
Spin transitions — metal ions changing from high- to low-spin states — can be triggered by a range of stimuli and have normally only been observed in octahedrally coordinated ions. Now, a four-coordinate, square-planar iron(II) compound, SrFeO2, exhibits such a spin transition, accompanied by a transition from an antiferromagnetic insulator to a ferromagnetic half-metal.
Platinum nanoparticles are excellent catalysts, but maintaining that effectiveness at ever smaller particle sizes is crucial to make best use of the precious metal. Now, a dendrimer has been used as a template to make subnanometre clusters, with a defined number of atoms, that exhibit high catalytic activity.