Themed collection “All Aboard” – contributions from NJC Board members

The Editors present NJC and this 4th “All Aboard” issue, with a review of the year 2012 and what is in store for 2013.

In this work, we discuss consecutive histidines – the common denominator for both His-tags used in molecular biology and for quite remote biological phenomena; polyhistidine sequences are found in some bacterial chaperones, in Zn²⁺ transporters, prion proteins, in histidine-rich glycoproteins, snake venoms and antimicrobial peptides.

Three equivalent presentations of the trefoil knot 3₁ have been drawn including the metal template (s). This article focuses on the importance of the presentation for designing synthesis strategies of topologically complex molecules.

This perspective evaluates whether a more rational approach is available in lanthanoid hydroxo cluster chemistry by analysing the structures of a variety of clusters in relation to factors such as the specific lanthanoid element, the bulkiness of the protecting ligand, the binding mode of the ligand, and the experimental conditions employed during the synthetic methodology.

Homogeneous outer sphere hydrogenation is discussed, emphasizing bifunctional catalysts, ionic hydrogenation catalysts and frustrated Lewis pair catalysts.

Sensing materials based on luminescent silica nanoparticles can improve the performance of molecular probes in many applications. We highlight here their huge potentialities in ion detection.

Crystals of solvated cobalt- and zinc-containing metallocycles undergo single-crystal to single-crystal (SCTSCT) transformations upon desolvation to yield their close-packed forms; this is in stark contrast to the analogous cadmium-based metallocycle, which affords an empty, transiently porous phase upon desolvation.

Kinetics of a 1 : 1 complexation of catechol to aqueous vanadium(V) inside water-in-oil reverse micelles reveals increased stabilization of the V(V)–catechol complex in the reduced water environment under confinement.

Bisphenylsulfone-based hexacatenal molecules self-assemble to form thermotropic columnar liquid-crystalline phases that are responsive to electric fields. They also form fibrous aggregates in organic solvents through the dipole–dipole interactions of sulfonyl groups and nanosegregation.

Nonadentate ligand incorporating (5,6-diphenyl-1,2,4-triazin-3-yl)pyridine picolinamide in each donor arm extracts select lanthanides from an highly acidic aqueous phase.

Three resorcinarene derivatives that have four 21-atom side chains have been studied. Polar head groups dominate monolayer behavior but the octamethoxylated derivative was the best pore-former.

Net transfer of the OSO₂CF₃ (triflate) group proceeds by CH, CF, and SO bond cleavage steps.

A strapped-porphyrin based molecular turnstile may be switched between its open and closed states by an external effector.

Through-space resonance delocalization (phane effect) in cyclophanochromenes stabilizes the reactive o-quinonoid colored intermediates remarkably.

L-Serine and DL-serine have been treated with oxalic acid, yielding different crystal forms: their structure, relative thermal stability, dependence on relative humidity and possible interconversions have all been investigated.

A series of ruthenium(II) complexes with face-capping [9]ane-S₃ ligands are described. The compounds function as supramolecular receptors for anions via three tripodally arranged 3-aminopyridine ligands.