Category Archives: Chemistry
Riboflavin as a bioorthogonal photocatalyst
The combination of catalysis and bioorthogonality promises have an impact on drug discovery and bioimaging. Bioorthogonality, a term coined by Carolyn R. Bertozzi in 2003, refers to any chemical reaction that can occur inside of living systems without interfering with […]
A new method to make valuable olefins from abundant carboxylic acids
Organic chemistry is the science and the art of making carbon containing molecules. In these, carbon atoms may be linked by a single, double or triple bond to another carbon atom. Bonds are not more than the way we humans […]
Strong donor-acceptor coupling does not require covalent bonding
Interfacial electron transfer constitutes the key step in the conversion of solar energy into electricity and fuels. Required for fast and efficient charge separation, strong donor−acceptor interaction is typically achieved through covalent chemical bonding…or not.
Experiences with donor−acceptor molecular diads […]
Recovering native chemical information from surface-enhanced Raman scattering
For centuries, metals were employed in optical applications only as mirrors and gratings. New vistas opened up in the late 1970s and early 1980s with the discovery of surface-enhanced Raman scattering and the use of surface plasmon (collective electronic oscillations […]
Geological phenomena implying dissolved species bring new insights on fundamental thermophysics
Over geologic time scales, seawater transforms the basalt of the ocean floor by chemical attack. At the end of this alteration process, the basalt turns partly into clays and partly into dissolved salts in sea water. Lithium, a chemical element […]
Enantioselective polymerization of a biodegradable polymer using a substituted aminoacid as a catalyst
The idea that certain natural products such as rubber are composed of giant molecules, or polymers, consisting of many repeating units linked by covalent bonds arose largely from the work of the German chemist Hermann Staudinger (1881–1965) in the early […]
Combatting antimicrobial resistance with a ruthenium-based photorelease antimicrobial therapy
Antimicrobial resistance is a complex problem that contributes to health and economic losses worldwide. Resistance to antimicrobial therapies reduces the effectiveness of current drugs, leading to increased morbidity, mortality, and health care expenditure. Because globalization increases the vulnerability of any […]
Plasmons galore for myriad applications
Worldwide research efforts on plasmons and metamaterials have been growing exponentially for the past ten years. Now, Antonio I. Fernández-Domínguez (IFIMAC), Francisco J. García-Vidal (IFIMAC & DIPC), and Luis Martín-Moreno (ICMA) discuss new directions for the future, such as the […]
How to study magnetic Weyl fermions experimentally
Imagine there exist a material in which an electron could be split into two quasiparticles. These two quasiparticles both would carry electric charge, move in opposite directions but could not move backwards. Furthermore these quasiparticles would be massless. And we […]
Quantum dots embedded in graphene nanoribbons
Graphene nanoribbons (GNRs), are strips of graphene with ultra-thin width (
GNRs are very interesting structures, partly due to their attractive electronic properties. Those properties vary dramatically with changes in the nanoribbon’s atomic structure in terms of width, crystallographic […]