When chemists think of the neutral radical ammonium, few think of it as behaving like an alkali metal. However, in many ways, particularly its electronegativity, which can be transferred from compound to compound, it acts like a pseudo-atom akin to sodium, according to computations by a team from the UK and the US. My full […]
atoms
UW-Madison chemists devise better way to prepare workhorse molecules - Writing in the current online issue (June 9) of the journal Science, a team led by University of Wisconsin-Madison chemistry Professor Shannon Stahl reports a new, environmentally friendly way to make substituted aromatic molecules that can be customized for different industrial needs. Molecular movements could […]
Fluorine in organic chemistry is an important topic across the synthetic pharmaceutical, agrochemical and materials areas because switching out hydrogen atoms selectivity for this element allows chemists to tune the reactivity of specific groups within a given molecule. Now, chemists in Switzerland have turned to fluorine to help them make specific carbon-carbon bonds. The formation […]
Water molecules characterize the structure of DNA genetic material - Water molecules surround the genetic material DNA in a very specific way. Lignin cut down to size by nickel catalyst - A nickel-based homogeneous catalyst that breaks down lignin - the tough polymer that forms plant cell walls - into useful building blocks suitable for […]
The ‘molecular octopus’: A little brother of ‘Schroedinger’s cat’ - For the first time, the quantum behaviour of molecules consisting of more than 400 atoms was demonstrated by quantum physicists based at the University of Vienna in collaboration with chemists from Basel and Delaware. Neutral atoms made to act like electrically charged particles - Completing […]
Novel nanosensor platform for direct detection of a cancer biomarker in blood - In a recent development, scientists in Spain have developed a rapid nanochannel-based immunoassay capable of the filtering and subsequent detection of proteins in whole blood without any sample preparation. This is the first time that a simple assay to detect proteins in […]