Chemistry Europe

Now open for submissions! Our new open access journal, ChemistryEurope, serves the chemistry community by bringing together the brightest minds and by providing a platform for original and inspirational work from across the discipline. Submit here: https://lnkd.in/eweECxfS

I’m heading out to San Francisco for the 245th Electrochemical Society Meeting. I’ll be representing ChemElectroChem, Batteries & Supercaps and our Chemistry Europe portfolio. If you’ll be there and want to know more about our journals, don’t be afraid to reach out! I’m looking forward to connecting with as many of our authors, readers, and board members as possible!

Thank you Renana Gershoni Poranne for visiting our editorial office in Weinheim today and discussing the past, present, and future of scientific publishing with the editors of Chemistry Europe and Angewandte Chemie!

#Polymethylhydrosiloxane, PHMS, is a side product of chemical processes used in the #silicon industry. Its Si-H bonds can be used as a hydrogen source for reductions such as hydroaminations, working towards turning what can be considered “chemical waste” into a useful reagent. More recently, PMHS was also shown to help in #Wacker-type oxidation of olefins with oxygen, e.g. from air. This industrially relevant process, usually relying on palladium catalysts and operating in air, gives access to ketones and was already demonstrated to also work with first-row transition metals. NABA ABUHAFEZ and Rafael Gramage-Doria (Université de Rennes, France) now demonstrate that a readily available porphyrin-cobalt complex can be used for this transformation with much improved atom economy, as only one equivalent of PMHS is needed in contrast to earlier reports. Operating under conditions feasible for industry and in ethanol as a relatively benign solvent, this process also needs only 1 mol% of catalyst and works very fast. Our Pick of the Week, out #OpenAccess in #ChemCatChem: "Cobalt-Catalyzed Wacker-Type Aerobic Oxidation of Olefins into Ketones Enabled by PMHS: Giving Value to a Chemical Waste with Optimal Atom-Economy" https://ow.ly/RUCT50RQNOy

The new issue of ChemMedChem (Chemistry Europe) is out (https://lnkd.in/dkQcmJY2), with a Front Cover showing that NSP13 helicase, catalyzing the unwinding of viral RNA in the virus replication, represents a promising target for designing broad-spectrum antiviral drugs. Inhibition of this protein could be achieved by designing compounds blocking the end-points of the RNA channel, a structural motif that is highly conserved across coronavirus. More information can be found in the Research Article by Giorgio Di Paco, Marina Macchiagodena, Piero Procacci (https://lnkd.in/dgDf_rms)

We are excited to announce the upcoming EurJOC - Lives in Chemistry Virtual Symposium, organized to celebrate the launch of Larry Overman's autobiography, part of the “Lives in Chemistry” book series. Featuring talks by Martin Oestreich (Technische Universität Berlin) & David MacMillan (Princeton University). Register here 👉 https://lnkd.in/eD9uWgYv

It’s electrifying! Turning organic synthesis electric can unlock new reactivities or make known reactions more sustainable by using electrons as atom-economic and waste-free redox reagents. The field of #electrosynthesis is abuzz, but optimizing reaction conditions can be challenging due to the large parameter space, all the way from electrolyte choice and concentration to electrode materials, arrangements and choice of potential and current. This raises problems with #standardization and, following, #replicability as well as #reproducibilty. Antoine Juneau, Marzieh Abdolhosseini, Camille Rocq, Hanh Pham, Mia Pascall, Rustam Khaliullin, Canesi Sylvain, Eric McCalla and Janine Mauzeroll (McGill University) report a cost-effective electrochemical reactor for high-throughput screening. Their design allows running up to 24 reactions in parallel while controlling each of them separately. Using an established hypervalent iodine-mediated reaction, the team demonstrated the effectiveness of their design in running over 200 electrosyntheses under different conditions. The Supporting Information contains detailed information, including troubleshooting advice, for setting up the reactor. Our Pick of the Week, published #OpenAccess in #ChemElectroChem: “Overcoming Challenges in Electrosynthesis Using High-Throughput Electrochemistry: Hypervalent Iodine-Mediated Phenol Dearomatization, a Case Study” https://ow.ly/n09U50RHeWR

Adding an alkyl or an alkenyl group to a molecule can change its properties drastically. Be they small or bulky, short- or long-chain, the changes brought about by the introduction of these hydrocarbon groups are what makes them interesting all the way from pharmaceutical chemistry to materials science. However, the reagents for these transformations are often difficult to handle, not least due to their often significant health hazards. In their Review, Johanna Templ and Michael Schnürch (Technische Universität Wien) provide a comprehensive overview of an alternative substance class that can be used for this purpose: quaternary #ammonium salts, QAS. These non-toxic and easy-to-handle #reagents can be used in various #alkylation strategies, broadly classified into metal-free nucleophilic substitutions and transition metal-catalyzed transformations. Despite their benefits and many successful examples, the full potential of QAS is not yet explored. Making a convincing case for change, the authors provide concrete guidance for researchers. Our Pick of the Week, published #OpenAccess in Chemistry – A European Journal #ChemEurJ: “Strategies for using Quaternary Ammonium Salts as Alternative Reagents in Alkylations” https://ow.ly/gVSV50Rzz7G

The f-block elements are more commonly known as „rare earths“. There are certainly rarer metals, but the f-block holds great promise for modern technology, using the appealing magnetic and optical properties of its members. For some applications, for example in information storage, the presence of several metal ions in well-defined molecular environments is necessary. Such #supramolecular systems require careful assembly, which is not always trivial – and especially not for the f-block. Francis Delano & Selly Demir (Michigan Chem, Michigan State University) report a “bridge splitting” approach which is unprecedented for binuclear rare earth complexes. The #pyrazine ligand, well known for enabling electronic communication in the Creutz-Taube ion, is able to bridge two #yttrium or #erbium centers from easily accessible chloride-bridged precursors. Employing a broad array of analytical and computational techniques, the team fully characterized these redox-active complexes. Through the presence of terminal chlorido ligands, larger supramolecular assemblies are within reach. Our Pick of the Week, published #OpenAccess in #EurJIC, the European Journal of Inorganic Chemistry: "Unprecedented Pyrazine-Bridged Guanidinate Rare Earth Complexes Through a Bridge Splitting Reaction Path" https://ow.ly/aMX350RuL2U Fancy even more f-block chemistry? Look no further: https://ow.ly/vefX50RuL2T

The new issue of ChemMedChem (Chemistry Europe Europe) is out (https://lnkd.in/dkQcmJY2) with a front cover showing the initial screening strategy for hit identification on WRN helicase. The main challenge was to understand the type of false positives which came out of standard DNA unwinding or ATPase assays. Beyond DNA binders, direct interferences of compounds with WRN protein were the major source of artefacts as illustrated by the extensive characterization of inhibitors (ML216 and NSC617145) wrongly considered as WRN probes. Some learnings on how to minimize and triage out those in vitro artefacts are shared for best hit discovery on WRN helicase. More information can be found in the Research Article by Alisa Heuser, Wassim Abdulrahman PhD, Elisabeth Bechter, Jutta Blank, Sylvia Buhr, Dirk Erdmann, Patrizia Fontana, Fanny Mermet-Meillon, Marco Meyerhofer, Ross Strang, Maxime Schrapp, Catherine Zimmermann, Marta Cortes-Cros, Henrik Moebitz, Jacques Hamon (Novartis) https://lnkd.in/d-Uuk2Cv