Oil spill cleanup
By Katrina Krämer, 1 June 2018 https://www.chemistryworld.com/feature/oil-spill-cleanup/3008990.article Source: © Daniel Beltra Is the cure worse than the disease? Katrina Krämer looks at the new alternatives to traditional dispersants and surfactants 20 April 2010 spelled disaster for the Deepwater Horizon oil rig. While drilling into a promising petroleum well off the coast of the US […]
Tetrahydrofuran steers chemists towards a low-valent neptunium precursor
Source: © Royal Society of Chemistry Synthetic route that lead to NpCl4(THF)3 and NpCl3(py)4 Scientists based in the US have made a neptunium complex that can act as a precursor for neptunium(III) chemistry. The complex is made from a readily available aqueous stock solution of neptunium(IV) so saves the need to use scarce neptunium metal. […]
A way to visualize valence electrons
Simulations suggest an existing technique could be used to track the movement of electrons during a reaction In order to understand and optimise reactions, chemists would love to be able to see precisely where the valence electrons are going. But this would require an imaging technique with picometre-scale spatial resolution, attosecond (10-18s) scale time resolution […]
Plant machinery functions inside synthetic protocell
Self-assembling microdroplets filled with chloroplasts show photosynthetic potential Source: © Royal Society of Chemistry Photosynthetically active membrane-free protocells were prepared by sequestering negatively charged chloroplasts into positively charged coacervate microdroplets. The Hill reagent was used to confirm that the chloroplasts were still photosynthetically active Photosynthetically-active artificial cells could be just around the corner now that […]
Five tips for getting the most out of moving to a lab in a new land
Five tips for getting the most out of moving to a lab in a new land A postdoctoral fellowship or placement in another country is considered a rite of passage for early to mid-career scientists. Moving countries, or ‘mobility’, has traditionally been the way to personally and scientifically enrich your career, enhance technical and leadership […]
Bizarre bimetallic compounds break C–F bonds
First ever molecular Mg–Al bond constructed in study that reveals main group metal–metal bonds can readily react with aromatic fluorine Bimetallic main group complexes can activate aromatic fluorine, a study by researchers in the UK has found.1 The reaction has a mechanism very similar to a typical nucleophilic aromatic substitution with a Grignard reagent and […]
