Chemical safety articles within Nature Chemistry

Featured

  • Comment |

    Fires are relatively common yet underreported occurrences in chemical laboratories, but their consequences can be devastating. Here we describe our first-hand experience of a savage laboratory fire, highlighting the detrimental effects that it had on the research group and the lessons learned.

    • Mitchell P. Jones
    • , Kathrin Weiland
    •  & Alexander Bismarck

  • Article |

    Flexible metal–organic frameworks (MOFs) in which guest uptake and release occur above certain threshold pressures are attractive adsorbents. Now, the gated sorption behaviour of such a zinc-based mixed-ligand MOF has been tuned to match the narrow temperature and pressure range required for safe, efficient acetylene storage by adjusting the ratio of two different functional groups on its benzenedicarboxylate ligands.

    • Mickaele Bonneau
    • , Christophe Lavenn
    •  & Susumu Kitagawa

  • Editorial |

    Two Q&As in this issue consider aspects of chemical safety in industry and academia. And when it comes to the latter, a Review Article concludes that much more research is required to better understand — and improve — safety in academic laboratories.

  • Q&A |

    Dave Laffan, a Director in Chemical Development at AstraZeneca, talks to Nature Chemistry about safety in industry labs and his role on the Safety, Health and Environment committee.

    • Katherine Geogheghan

  • Q&A |

    Marc Reid, a researcher at the University of Strathclyde and co-founder of Pre-Site Safety, talks to Nature Chemistry about safety, both as an academic scientist and as a director of a safety-focused company.

    • Katherine Geogheghan

  • Review Article |

    Despite the regular occurrence of high-profile accidents leading to serious injuries or deaths among lab personnel, the state of academic lab safety research has languished. Existing studies in this area are summarized and critiqued in this Review and suggestions are made for future research directions.

    • A. Dana Ménard
    •  & John F. Trant

  • In Your Element |

    Joel D. Blum considers the two faces of mercury. It has many unique and useful properties in chemistry — yet it comes with a dark and dangerous side.

    • Joel D. Blum

  • In Your Element |

    Somobrata Acharya explores the history, properties and uses of lead — an ancient metal that is still very relevant to today's technologies, but should be used with caution.

    • Somobrata Acharya

  • Research Highlights |

    A thermally induced rearrangement of a triazole that releases nitrogen gas is the key to the development of a self-extinguishing polymer.

    • Stephen Davey

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