Recycling of “green” solvents : Recycling of ionic liquids with high efficiency is of key importance on going from the laboratory‐scale to large‐scale industrial application of these solvents.
Bringing order : A new class of periodic mesoporous organosilicas (PMOs) with a urea‐bridged organosilica precursor under acid‐catalyzed and inorganic‐salt‐assisted conditions was obtained. The large‐pore hybrid materials have ordered mesostructure with uniform pore size distributions, which can be seen from the TEM images.
Making connections : A hydroxy‐centered trinuclear nickel cluster has been employed to construct a highly connected, highly symmetric framework with a uninodal nine‐connected topology. An array of triakis tetrahedra leads to a biporous intersecting‐channel system (see picture).
A simple and scalable method is presented for harvesting, purification, and on‐chip processing of mammalian plasma membrane vesicles (PMVs) optimized for downstream proteome analysis. After immobilization on a microfluidic flowcell of PMVs, the embedded membrane proteins are proteolytically digested, and the peptides harvested and analyzed by LC‐MS/MS. Over 93 % of the detected proteins are plasma‐membrane‐derived.
Fundamental properties: The molar absorption coefficients of CdSe quantum rods are determined experimentally as a function of their dimensions (see figure). Far above the band gap a simple dependence on volume is seen. The behavior at the band gap manifests a concentration of oscillator strength with decreased diameter in agreement with strong quantum confinement behavior.
The next generation : The grafting of titanocene complexes on the surfaces of MCM‐41 and SBA‐15 led to a new generation of anticancer drugs, which are very active against human cancer cells.
Gal‐PUGNAc (see picture), a highly selective inhibitor for β‐hexosaminidases HEXA and HEXB is cell‐permeable and modulates the activity of HEXA and HEXB in tissue culture, increasing ganglioside GM2 levels. Gal‐PUGNAc should allow the role of these enzymes to be studied at the cellular level without generating a complex chemical phenotype from concomitant inhibition of O‐GlcNAcase.
Aryl–alkyl cross‐coupling products are obtained by the iron‐catalyzed oxidative heterocoupling of organozinc reagents under mild conditions. This novel reaction pathway is versatile, allowing for the use of primary and secondary aliphatic diorganozinc reagents as coupling partners as well as tolerating functionalized aryl‐ and alkylzinc reagents.
The fiveway junction : The synthesis of ligands with five symmetrically diverging binding sites is described and their assembly into large spherical structures (such as that shown here) investigated.
All‐organic nanostructured host–guest materials (see picture) show enhanced, tunable fluorescence due to a high concentration of dyes with controlled spatial and geometrical organization that allows controlled resonant energy transfer. Homogeneous films of deoxycholic acid host–guests, provide coatings that convert near‐UV light into blue light with an efficiency higher than that of the standard polymeric blends.
Work‐alcoholic! The elusive enantioselective catalytic α‐alkylation of aldehydes, a widely sought transformation, was brought to execution by the use of alcohols capable of forming stabilized carbocations (see scheme, TFA=trifluoroacetic acid).
