Building a Global Culture of Science—The Vietnam Experience

We detail the lessons learned, challenges, achievements, and outlook in building a chemistry research center in Vietnam. Through the principles of “global science”, we provide specific insight into the process behind establishing an internationally‐competitive research program—a model that is scalable and adaptable to countries beyond Vietnam. Furthermore, we highlight the prospects for success in advancing global science education, research capacity building, and mentorship.     

Realizing the Promise—The Development of Research on Carbon Nanotubes

The present reflection on the development of research on carbon nanotubes (CNTs) stems from the publication of the report “Realizing the Promise of Carbon Nanotubes” by the US National Nanotechnology Initiative in 2015. The report is a critical assessment of the state‐of‐art of CNT research and highlights some unresolved issues related with this field. Starting from the results of this assessment, we carried out an analysis of the publications’ pool in CNTs and related domains, by exploiting bibliometric tools. We focused on the item of competition/collaboration between disciplines and nations, with the purpose of evaluating the position of chemistry (as a discipline) as well as the position of the main European countries and the European Union (EU) as a whole in the context of CNT research. The results of such analysis outline very clearly the interdisciplinary landscape wherein CNT research is situated and show the highly competitive place occupied by EU in the field.     

The mass spectra of benzofuroxans—an example of an ortho effect

The fragmentation behavior of a series of nine benzofuroxans has been studied under electron impact conditions. It was found that benzofuroxans without a nitro group in the 4-position fragment principally through loss of N₂O₂ (the furoxan ring), whereas those with a nitro group ortho to the furoxan ring exhibit predominant loss of NO from position 1 of the furoxan ring.     

Natural Product Synthesis on Polymeric Supports—Synthesis and Biological Evaluation of an Indolactam Library

Potent activators of protein kinase C in fibroblasts: This property was determined for several indolactam V analogues ( 1 ) with a new cell-based assay system. This tumor-promoting indole alkaloid and analogues thereof can be synthesized efficiently on the solid phase. The key steps of the combinatorial approach are a regioselective amination of the indole ring and an enantioselective enzymatic reaction.     

The structural rule of Mo—Fe—S cluster compounds

By means of the structural rule, 9N-L, of transition metal cluster compounds, a relationship between the spin property and the structure of Mo-Fe-S clusters is proposed. The relationship can be further revealed by performing EHMO quantum chemical calculations. Also the theoretical maximum values of spin are in accordance with experimental results.     

The ICP as an ion source—origins, achievements and prospects

The origins and development of the application of the ICP as an atmospheric pressure ion source for mass spectrometry are described and an outline of the technique as it is currently used for multi-element ultratrace analysis of solutions is given. Present achievements and limitations are discussed and the areas of likely development in the near future are outlined.     

The orientation—inversion motions of ammonia trapped in matrix an inertial model

Good doorway stationary states for the inversion and orientation of ammonia trapped in rare gas and nitrogen matrices are determined in order to interpret the narrowing of the v₂ inversion doublet and the hindering of the molecular rotation. A pseudomotional crystal model (MC) is developed to describe the coupling between the optical (inversion + orientation) modes and the lattice vibrations. With respect to the rigid crystal model already studied, the MC model introduces additional statical, dynamical and kinetical contributions in the optical mode hamiltonian. Among these additional terms, the cubic and quartic anharmonicities of the motion of the molecule center of mass, the effective mass corrections and the damping due to the matrix surrounding are shown to be very different in the three matrices Ar, Xe and N₂. Numerical results on the inversion doublet splitting and on the rotational level spacing of ammonia agree with the observed data.     

The First Catalytic Synthesis of an Acrylate from CO2 and an Alkene—A Rational Approach

For more than three decades the catalytic synthesis of acrylates from the cheap and abundantly available C₁ building block carbon dioxide and alkenes has been an unsolved problem in catalysis research, both in academia and industry. Herein, we describe a homogeneous catalyst based on nickel that permits the catalytic synthesis of the industrially highly relevant acrylate sodium acrylate from CO₂, ethylene, and a base, as demonstrated, at this stage, by a turnover number of greater than 10 with respect to the metal.