ChemElectroChem, the new sister journal of ChemPhysChem and Angewandte Chemie, is ready for takeoff! The journal is now open to submissions in all the areas of electrochemistry.ChemElectroChem was launched by Wiley-VCH and ChemPubSoc Europe (an organization of 16 European chemical societies) and is aimed to become a top-ranking peer-reviewed electrochemistry journal for primary research papers and critical secondary information from authors across the world. The journal covers the entire scope of pure and applied electrochemistry, including energy applications, electrochemistry at interfaces, nanoelectrochemistry and bioelectrochemistry.
ChemElectroChem will be edited by Dr. Greta Heydenrych, the editor of ChemPhysChem. All contributions will be published online, ensuring rapid publication and a colorful presentation of the results. Authors who wish to make their articles available to non-subscribers may also use the OnlineOpen option provided by the journal. For a great start, Professors Bing-Wei Mao (Xiamen University, China), Wolfgang Schuhmann (Ruhr-Universität Bochum, Germany) and Jean-Marie Tarascon (Université de Picardie, France) have agreed to act as Co-Chairs of the Editorial Board.
"I am personally convinced that a journal with these goals is timely and will play an important role in bringing together different aspects of the broad interdisciplinary approaches based on electrochemistry", said Co-Chairman Schuhmann. "I am very curious and excited about this new possibility to publish high-quality electrochemical research papers".
Professor Mao is also looking forward to the new journal. "ChemElectroChem offers the most focused platform to publish the latest achievements in electrochemistry", she said. In a statement, Mao also pointed out that "electrochemistry is distinct, with charged interfaces that universally exist in nature and artificial devices, and shares a common physical and chemical basis with many other subjects, making it a truly interdisciplinary science and technology".
Redox reactions play an important role in life sciences, catalysis, corrosion, photovoltaics, and electrochemical storage, says Co-Chairman Tarason. "These various scientific research disciplines are thus strongly related and we could define the field of electrochemistry as a branch of chemistry that has the precision of physics and the in-depth view of materials science. In this context, having a dedicated journal bridging these different disciplines is appealing and this is what our aim has been in creating ChemElectroChem", he said.
Read the full statements of the Co-Chairs on the journal's homepage: www.chemelectrochem.org.
Kira Welter
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The winners of this year's American Chemical Society (ACS) National Awards will be honored on April 9th, 2013, at the 245th ACS National Meeting, which will take place in New Orleans, USA.
H.-M. Cheng et al. present the concept of elemental photocatalysts for applications in pollutant degradation and water splitting. How a combination of an electrochemical flow cell and an inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometer can be used to detect lost trace substances in electrolytes is highlighted by W. Schmickler. Y. Matsuda and S. Wategaonkar et al. identify and evaluate in their article SH···Y (Y=S,O) hydrogen bonds in the H2S dimer and the H2S-methanol binary complex by using VUV ionization-detected IR predissociation spectroscopy. Finally, H. Zuilhof et al. calculate the pKa of the conjugate acids of alkanolamines, neurotransmitters, alkaloid drugs, and nucleotide bases by means of density functional and ab initio methods.
Issue 4 is a special issue on the Aggregation of Small Molecules, and includes contributions by leading scientists in the field. The special issue has been guest edited by Wolfram Sander (Ruhr-Universität Bochum, Germany), Gautam Desiraju (Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, India), and Mark Johnson (Yale University, New Haven, USA). The minireview by T. Ebata, T. R. Rizzo et al. discusses the structure of cold inclusion complexes of crown ethers with various neutral and ionic species in the gas phase. K. Kleinermanns, G. Jansen et al. report in their article the structural assignment of larger benzene-acetylene clusters by comparison of isomer- and mass-selective UV and IR-UV double resonance spectra with quantum chemical calculations. The binding enthalpies for Mg2+(H2O)x complexes (x=2-10) are determined in the article by D. R. Carl and P. B. Armentrout. Finally, R. Sedlak, P. Hobza et al. review the performance of the MP2.5 and MP2.X methods, tested on the S22, S66, X40, and other benchmark datasets.
The cover paper of issue 2, by J.-F. Pilard et al., describes carbon and chromium surfaces for imaging DNA-protein interactions. In a Review, P. Politzer and J. S. Murray discuss the factors governing halogen-bonding interactions (see picture). The Concept by S. Seiffert describes microgel capsules tailored by droplet-based microfluidics. In the Articles section, R. Winter and Y. Zhai study the effect of molecular crowding on the temperature-pressure stability diagram of ribonuclease A, while in the Communications section, K. P. Velikov and co-workers present novel gelator-based microcapsules with controllable morphology and temperature responsiveness, and Murtomäki et al. describe electrochemically controlled proton-transfer-catalyzed reactions at liquid-liquid interfaces..
2013 starts with a bumper issue of ChemPhysChem. In a Review, U. Pischel, J. Andréasson et al. discuss the future of information processing with molecules. The Minireview by W.-S. Yeo and I. Choi deals with self-assembled monolayers with dynamicity. J. Wang, F. Ding, and L. Ma report on recent progress and challenges in graphene nanoribbon synthesis. The Concept by S. Shaikhutdinov and H. J. Freund demonstrates that metal-supported aluminosilicate ultrathin films can act as a versatile tool for studying the surface chemistry of zeolites (see picture).
The Highlight by X. Liu and X. Huang shows recent developments in the detection of single lanthanide ions, which is optically achieved by implementing a two-step upconversion process in YAG:Pr3+ nanocrystals. Also, Y. Ooyama and Y. Harima present in their Review a new direction in the epoch-making molecular design of organic dyes for high photovoltaic performance and long-term stability of DSSCs. Solvatochromism and nonradiative decay of intramolecular charge-transfer excited states of fluorophores using the bands-of-energy model, thermodynamics, and self-organization are discussed in the Minireview by V. S. Pavlovich. J. C. Fierro Gonzalez et al. demonstrate in an Article how thermal treatment of iron-oxide-supported gold samples influences the catalyst's activity in the oxidation of CO. Finally, the Article by N. K. Sarangi and A. Patnaik reports a novel two-dimensional phase-dependent
Nicholas J. Turro, Professor of Chemistry at Columbia University, passed away on November 24, 2012, at the age of 74. He was a world-renowned researcher in the field of organic photochemistry and an excellent teacher and advisor. "He was the greatest mentor I know", says Dr. Steffen Jockusch, who worked with Turro for more than 18 years, first as a Postdoctoral Research Fellow and then as an Associate Research Scientist. "Over the many years I worked in his research group, I have seen how he made all newcomers welcome and shaped them to become good, professional scientists when they left, no matter what their level was when they arrived".
Divalent europium nanocrystals are a promising class of materials with many interesting applications. The Minireview by Q. Lin and co-workers describes the synthesis, properties, and uses of these materials. In an Article, A. Rebane, H. L. Anderson, D. T. Gryko et al. study the enhancement of two-photon absorption in porphyrins containing nitro groups (see figure). In the Communications section, J. Hao and R. Dong describe how reverse solid vesicles of a metallosurfactant can be prepared by removal of shape-selective organic solvents, and A. R. Patel, K. P. Velikov and colleagues present stable and temperature-responsive surfactant-free foamulsions with high oilvolume fraction.
The Highlight by R. C. Haddon discusses recent high-pressure experiments on hydrogen and chalcogenide-nitrogen molecules, showing evidence of the metallic character of these species. In an Article, F. Pourpoint, J. P. Amoureux et al. show that aluminum-carbon internuclear distances can be measured in samples with 13C natural abundance by rapid fitting of experimental NMR data to an analytical expression. T. Asahi, S. Kobatake, and H. Nishi demonstrate that silver nanoparticles can enhance the photocycloreversion reaction of a photochromic diarylethene in the vicinity of the nanoparticle (see picture); while M. M. Velázquez and colleagues achieve the functionalization of reduced graphite oxide sheets with a zwitterionic surfactant. Finally, in the Communications section, M. Haranczyk and co-workers describe the similarity-driven discovery of zeolite materials for adsorption-based separations.
In a Review, H. A. Karimi-Varzaneh, P. Carbone et al. try to explain how good coarse-grained polymer models are (see picture). The Article by A. Groß und co-workers describes how energy barriers can be lowered in surface reactions through concerted reaction mechanisms while that by M. Orrit and colleagues deals with spectral diffusion in single-molecule spectroscopy. Finally, in the Communications section, A. A. Sokol et al. present a study of the activation of CO2 over ZnO by localized electrons and R. G. Compton and colleagues explain how new chemical insights can be obtained using weakly supported voltammetry.
The 2012 Nobel prize in chemistry has been awarded to Robert Lefkowitz of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute and Duke University in Durham, US, and Brian Kobilka of Stanford University, US, for "studies of G-protein coupled receptors" (GPCRs). Such receptors let body cells sense and respond to outside signals such as light, danger, odor or the flavor of food. "GPCRs mediate most of the physiologic responses to hormones and neurotransmitters", Kobilka told ChemPhysChem. "They are also fascinating membrane proteins from a basic science perspective. We hope that our research will translate into safer and more effective therapeutics."
In issue 14, Q. Lou and D. A. Shipp examine recent developments in achieving atom transfer radical polymerization (ATRP) with minimal amounts of catalyst. The Article by C. A. Fernandez, P. K. Thallapally et al. gives insights into the temperature-dependent "breathing" of a flexible fluorinated metal-organic framework. In the same section, Y. Tor and colleagues introduce modified 6-aza-uridines as highly emissive pH-sensitive fluorescent nucleosides, and R. J. Behm and co-workers study the growth of PtRu clusters on Ru(0001)-supported monolayer graphene films. In the Communications section, S. Madhavi et al. present a high-performance insertion anode for lithium-ion batteries; O. J. Curnow and R. G. A. R. Maclagan study two chloride monohydrates trapped in a hydrophobic pocket; and M. Tadokoro and colleagues describe the pre-melting structure transformation of water clusters in nanoporous molecular crystals (see picture).
The Highlight by R. S. Payal and S. Balasubramanian presents a new massless model for use in dynamic atomic force microscopy (AFM) experiments, which aids in the study of solid-liquid interfaces of viscous liquids (see picture). In an Article by H.-C. Siebert and co-workers, the molecular organization of various collagen fragments is described, as revealed by AFM and diffusion-ordered NMR spectroscopy. Finally, in a Communication, R. Ludwig and colleagues show that ionic liquids can be more hydrophobic than chloroform or benzene.
Dr. Detlef Schröder of the Institute of Organic Chemistry and Biochemistry (IOCB) at the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic died unexpectedly on August 22, 2012, at the age of 49. Schröder was a worldwide recognized scientist in the field of mass spectrometry with a broad experience in all areas of gas-phase ion chemistry. His research interests ranged from the investigation of fundamental aspects of diatomic molecules to the elucidation of organic and inorganic reaction mechanisms or the study of problems of astrochemical and biochemical interest. His premature death is a great loss for the scientific community.
Sason Shaik (left), Professor at the Lise Meitner-Minverva Center for Computational Quantum Chemistry at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, and Martin Quack (right), Professor at the Laboratory for Physical Chemistry at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich (ETH Zurich, Switzerland) will each receive the August Wilhelm von Hofmann Medal from the German Chemical Society (GDCh: Gesellschaft Deutscher Chemiker) during the 4th Chemistry Congress of the European Association for Chemical and Molecular Sciences (EuCheMS), which will take place from August 26-30, 2012, in Prague (Czech Republic).
Issue 12 is a special issue on Electrochemistry and Energy and includes invited contributions by leading scientists in the field. The manuscripts featured in this issue are related to the 5th Gerischer Symposium, which took place in Berlin (Germany) last year. The special issue has been guest edited by Hans-Joachim Lewerenz (Helmholtz Zentrum Berlin for Materials and Energy, Germany), and Dieter Kolb, who sadly passed away in October last year, is the Honorary Guest Editor of the edition. An obituary by G. Ertl and H. J. Lewerenz summarizes his merits and accomplishments. In a review by R. Gómez et al., the electrochemistry of nanostructured TiO2 electrodes is presented. The minireview by L. Gundlach and F. Willig summarizes interesting experimental data related to electron-transfer dynamics at electrodes. Finally, in an article by Scragg et al., the authors show how to maximize the thermal stability of solar-cell materials.
In issue 11, K. B. Crozier and K. Wang review the fundamentals of optical tweezers and describe an optical nanotweezer that exceeds the performance limitations of conventional tweezers while avoiding thermal effects with a heat-sinking approach (see picture). In a Highlight, J. M. Thomas discusses new ways to determine the crystal structure of organic molecules using sophisticated techniques for the analysis of powder X-ray diffraction data and shows how the application of these techniques has recently led to the first crystal-structure determination reported for L-arginine. In the Articles section, K. Gerwert, C. Kötting and co-workers present a universal label-free method for the spectroscopic investigation of polyhistidine-tagged proteins; H. Yao and K. Ashiba show how effective color tuning can be achieved in ion-based organic nanoparticles; and A. Lledos, E. S. Shubina and colleagues report a theoretical study of metal involvement in dihydrogen bonding. Finally, in the Communications section, E. Coronado, A. Palii, et al. describe the electric field control of the spin state in mixed-valence magnetic molecules.
Issue 10 is a special issue on nanomaterials. It has been guest edited by Professors Florian Banhart (University of Strasbourg, France), Harald Fuchs (University of Münster, Germany), Zhiyong Tang (National Center for Nanoscience and Technology, Beijing, China) and Thomas Webster (Brown University, USA) and contains more than 20 invited contributions in the field. The Concept by M. J. Serpe et al. presents polymer-based microgels and their assemblies for organic-molecule removal from water. In a Minireview, K. Fox, N. Tran, and P. A. Tran discuss recent advances in the applications of nanophase hydroxyapatite. The Article by A. Govorov and Z. Fan deals with the theory of chiral plasmonic nanostructures comprising metal nanocrystals and chiral molecular media and that by R. A. Alvarez-Puebla, L. M. Liz-Marzán et al. presents spiked gold beads as substrates for single-particle surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS). In the Communications section, R. S. Weatherup and colleagues study the mechanisms of Ni-catalysed graphene chemical vapour deposition and Y. Gan, Y. Yin and co-workers show how hydrogen peroxide is added in a seed-mediated growth process for producing silver nanoplates with not only significantly improved synthetic yield, but also greatly shortened reaction time and enhanced reproducibility.
In issue 9, W. K. Zhang and N. N. Liu review recent advances in single-molecule force spectroscopy studies of macromolecular interactions. In a Minireview, J. C. G. Esteves da Silva and L. Pinto da Silva discuss the fascinating properties of firefly chemiluminescence and bioluminescence (see picture). The Highlight by H. Terrones shows how fullerene peapods have opened the possibility of studying reactions in a confined space and the Concept by K. Okano and T. Yamashita describes chiral environments formed by a vortex flow. Finally, the Article by H.-L. Xu, Z.-M. Su, Z.-R. Li et al. deals with spiral intramolecular charge transfer in Möbius cyclacenes and the Communication by R. Boulatov and Y. Tian presents a quantum-chemical validation of the local assumption of chemomechanics for a unimolecular reaction.
Issue 8 is a topical issue on Nanobubbles. Apart from a number of interesting papers in other fields, such as the Review by A. Kraegeloh et al. on STED microscopy and its applications, the paper by W. Q. Deng and co-workers, which presents a computational study on acene-modified dyes for dye-sensitized solar cells, or the Article by L. C. Cune on magic pairs and structural transitions in binary metallic clusters (see picture), the topical issue also contains contributions by J. R. T Seddon and colleagues, who discuss nanobubbles at surfaces and in bulk, D. Lohse et al., who show that diffusive shielding stabilizes bulk nanobubble clusters, and several other authors. The Nanobubbles issue was guest edited by Philip Ball.
Issue 07 is a special issue on ionic liquids. It includes around 40 invited contributions by leading scientists in the field and has been guest edited by Ralf Ludwig (Rostock University, Germany), Edward Maginn (University of Notre Dame, USA) and Sundaram Balasubramanian (Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research, India). The Minireview by H. Shirota shows a comparison of the low-frequency spectra of aromatic and nonaromatic cation-based ionic liquids. In the Articles section, E. L. Quitevis, G. A. Voth et al. study nanostructural organization in acetonitrile/ionic liquid mixtures, and F. Maier and colleagues investigate organic reactions in ionic liquids. In the Communications section, T. Yan and co-workers describe the effects of specific adsorption on the differential capacitance of imidazolium-based ionic-liquid electrolytes..
In the Minireviews section of issue 6, N. Menzel et al. describe important synthetic routes to the fabrication of porous nanostructured electrocatalysts and discuss their applications, showing how the performance benefits from the nanostructure, and J.-S. Noh, W. Lee and colleagues present design rules for nanogap-based hydrogen gas sensors. The Article by X. Xu and I. Y. Zhan shows that gas-phase thermodynamics can be used as a validation of computational catalysis on surfaces while that by S. Irle, K. Morokuma and co-workers gives theoretical insights into chirality-controlled single-walled carbon nanotube (SWCNT) growth.