Category: Physical

Drawing a map with chemicals!

Buildings and natural preserves create geographical maps. And now, molecules could build a molecular map! By investigating the presence of molecules in the environment, researchers have built some 3D molecular maps, which are the story tellers of our interactions with our living places!

Simple Measurement of Alcohol Content with an Infrared Camera

Title: One-Shot, reagent-free determination of the alcoholic content of distilled beverages by thermal infrared enthalpimetry Authors: Juliano Barin et. al. Publication Info: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.talanta.2017.05.011 During the manufacture of chemical products, the ability to rapidly and accurately monitoring the concentrations of various components is critical.  For the alcoholic beverage industry,…

Health Assessment in Your Home via Disposable Breath Analysis Sensors

Title: Diagnosis and Classification of 17 Diseases from 1404 Subjects via Pattern Analysis of Exhaled Molecules Authors: Hossam Haick et al. Publication Info: ACS Nano, 2017, 11 (1), pp 112–125 DOI: 10.1021/acsnano.6b04930 This work reports on the development of a portable, inexpensive, and non-invasive breath analyzer that couples the use…

Quantifying the Effects of Individual Nanoparticles

Title: Electrocatalytic Activity of Individual Pt Nanoparticles Studied by Nanoscale Scanning Electrochemical Microscopy Authors: Jiyeon Kim, Christophe Renault, Nikoloz Nioradze, Netzahualcóyotl Arroyo-Currás, Kevin C. Leonard, and Allen J. Bard* Publication Info: J. Am. Chem. Soc., 2016, 138 (27), pp 8560–8568 DOI: 10.1021/jacs.6b03980 The mere mention of…

A Simple Organometallic Fluoride Sensor

Title:  Stibonium Ions for the Fluorescence Turn-On Sensing of F– in Drinking Water at Parts per Million Concentrations DOI: 10.1021/ja308194w Author:  Iou-Sheng Ke a, Mykhaylo Myahkostupov b, Felix N. Castellano *b, and François P. Gabbaï *a Journal:  Journal of American Chemical Society Affiliation:  a) Department of Chemistry, Texas A&M University, College…

Online Resources for Doing Organic Chemistry

Yes!!! 100% conversion to product, zero impurities, and a workup so easy I finished it while writing this sentence!Well, that’s what writing it down on an o-chem problem set might make it seem like at least. Turns out doing organic chemistry in practice isn’t so straightforward,…

Copper (I) Hydroxide–Cuprice

Chemists probably would not willingly search for CuOH unless there is some theoretical basis for its existence. Without changing the oxidation states, a readied reaction could be 2 CuOH –> Cu2O + H2O. Its existence has been speculated on, now the really interesting work begins with the compound’s isolation (for a synthetic chemist).

Controlling Nanoscale Architecture – Stepping Towards Synthetic Light Harvesting Complexes

Title: Anisotropic Organization and Microscopic Manipulation of Self-Assembling Synthetic Porphyrin Microrods That Mimic Chlorosomes: Bacterial Light-Harvesting Systems     Journal of the American Chemical Society Authors: Chappaz-Gillot, C., Marek, P. L., Blaive, B. J., Canard, G., Bürck, J., Garab, G., Hahn, H., Jávorfi, T., Kelemen, L., Krupke, R., Mössinger, D., Ormos,…

The ChemCam Instrument Suite on the Mars Science Laboratory Rover Curiosity: Remote Sensing by Laser-Induced Plasmas

Title: The ChemCam Instrument Suite on the Mars Science Laboratory Rover Curiosity: Remote Sensing by Laser-Induced Plasmas Authors: Wiens, R. C., S. Maurice, and the ChemCam Team Journal: Geochemical News Affiliations: Los Alamos National Laboratory (USA), Institute de Recherche en Astrophysique et Planetologie (France) Take Home Importance According to Authors: The ChemCam…

Thanksgiving chemistry- cranberries and your blood

To do the biological study of how particular (good) chemicals like antioxidants affect people, there needs to be a quick, reliable, and consistent way to measure those chemicals in humans. Furthermore, a good method would test for multiple chemicals, because the health benefits from some chemicals only exist in the presence of others (phenolic acids and flavonoids in this case). The authors of this paper demonstrate a gas-chromatography mass-spectrometry (GC-MS) method to investigate how some of the chemicals present in cranberries (from cranberry juice) go into your bloodstream after you ingest them.

Stack Exchange Strategies for the Synthesis of Covalent Double-Channel Photosystems by Self-Organizing Surface-Initiated Polymerization

Title: Stack Exchange Strategies for the Synthesis of Covalent Double-Channel Photosystems by Self-Organizing Surface-Initiated Polymerization Authors:  N. Sakai and S. Matile Journal: Journal of the American Chemical Society Affiliation: University of Geneva, Geneva, Switzerland Take Home Importance: Well-ordered polymeric ‘columns’ of different chromophores in the same polymer were prepared…

Molecular-scale versions of diodes invert “normal” diode behavior

Article Title: Inverse Rectification in Donor-Acceptor Molecular Heterojunctions Authors:  Shannon K. Yee, Jibin Sun, Pierre Darancet, T. Don Tilley, Arun Majumdar, Jeffrey B. Neaton,  and Rachel A. Segalman Journal: ACS Nano Affiliation: University of California- Berkeley: Department of Mechanical Engineering, Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, Department of…

Belt-Shaped π-Systems: Relating Geometry to Electronic Structure in a Six-Porphyrin Nanoring

Title: Belt-Shaped π-Systems: Relating Geometry to Electronic Structure in a Six-Porphyrin Nanoring Authors:  J. K. Sprafke, D. V. Kondratuk, M. Wykes, A. L. Thompson, M. Hoffmann, R. Drevinskas, W.H. Chen, C. K. Yong, J. K€arnbratt, J. E. Bullock, M. Malfois, M. R. Wasielewski, B. Albinsson, L. M. Herz, D. Zigmantas, D.…