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Sample Articles • Research & Industry News • Lab & Writing Tips • Insights by Great Chemists Sample Articles Your free copy ChemistryViews.org is a comprehensive free-to-view news and information site with an associated scientific magazine, ChemViews Magazine. It is provided by ChemPubSoc Europe, an organization of 16 European chemical societies, to the global chemistry community. ChemistryViews.org is closely linked to society journals such as Angewandte Chemie and Chemistry – A European Journal . Sampl e Article s 2 Why Does C 2 Cause so Many Problems? Research 3 How Amino Acids Formed in the Universe 4 Snapshot of Light as Both a Particle and Wave 5 International Chemical Trade Industry 6 Insulation through an Organic Polyurethane-Based Aerogel 7 Microalgae – Underestimated All-Rounders 8 Tips and Tricks for the Lab: Column Choices Education 9 Applying for a Job at Merck 10 What is Shale Gas? How Does Fracking Work? 11 Fresh Wind in the Austrian Young Chemists Section 12 Chemistry of a Hangover – Alcohol and its Consequences Fun 13 The Chemistry of Breaking Bad 14 Guess the Chemist (51) & The Science of Football 15 Awards Accepting Nominations & Event Calendar Videos & Tips 16 Writing Tips & Carbonate Looping 17 Why Agree to an Article Transfer? s © Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA ChemistryViews.org | 1 Research Why Does C 2 Cause so Many Problems? Anne Deveson, Dieter Cremer, Gernot Frenking, Mario Piris, Sason Shaik DOI: 10.1002/chemv.201600022 This small modest molecule has been the subject of a lot of attention over the past years as to what the bonding situation is between these two atoms, as can be seen from the selection of references given here [1–8]. To put it in very simple terms, there appear two main theories—a quadruple bond and not a quadruple bond (in fact somewhere in between two and three bonds). In the latest issue of Chemistry—A European Journal , four groups put forward arguments in favor of one or other of these two theories [9–12]. Dr. Anne Deveson has asked the main authors of these four papers, Professor Dieter Cremer (Southern Methodist University, Dallas, TX, USA), Professor Gernot Frenking (Marburg University, Germany), Professor Mario Piris (Euskal Herriko Unibertsitatea, Donostia, Spain), and Professor Sason Shaik (The Hebrew University, Jerusalem, Israel), to tell us why this is so important. Please describe your findings in an easy to understand way. Mario Piris: The carbon atom has four valence electrons and four valence orbitals. Consequently, carbon could unpair these four electrons by putting each one in a different valence orbital, or in each of the resulting four sp 3 hybrid atomic orbitals. The pairing of each of the electrons of two adjacent carbon atoms could, in principle, result in a quadruply bonded dimer. However, the quantum mechanics of the molecular electronic structure puts in place other (subtle) effects that might result in a reduced bond order. Indeed, we found that C 2 bears a bond order intermediate between ethylene and acetylene. […] Read more on ChemistryViews.org 2 | ChemistryViews.org © Wiley-VCH Verlag Gmbh & Co. KGaA Research How Amino Acids Formed in the Universe Vera Koester, Uwe Meierhenrich DOI: 10.1002/chemv.201500104 Within the Rosetta mission of the European Space Agency (ESA ), Darmstadt, Germany, the Philae lander made the first soft landing on a comet nucleus by touching down on comet 67P/Churyumov- Gerasimenko in 2014. Philae carried out eleven experiments. Comets largely consist of condensed ices and dust and circle the sun on elliptical orbits. They are remnants of the birth of our solar system and are therefore important witnesses from ancient times. Professor Uwe Meierhenrich, University of Nice Sophia Antipolis, France, is known for his research on the identification of amino acids in space and was involved in the preparation and realization of the Rosetta mission. What got you interested as a chemist in space research? During my PhD thesis, I became fascinated by stereochemistry and chirality-related questions. I wanted to know why biological organisms develop proteins that contain exclusively L-enantiomers of amino acids and genetic material that specifically employs units in D-configuration. To understand this evolutionary period called biomolecular symmetry breaking, we need to understand and reproduce the formation of the first organic molecules, of chiral molecules, if possible. Experiments used on a space mission like Rosetta are unique and can help us to find answers to these fundamental questions. […] Read more on ChemistryViews.org © Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA ChemistryViews.org | 3 Research Snapshot of Light as Both a Particle and Wave Vera Koester DOI: 10.1002/chemv.201500036 Can an image capture the dual behavior of light? It is well known that light can behave as a particle and as a wave, but it took until 2015 to capture this dual behavior of light simultaneously in an image [1]. Fabrizio Carbone and his team at the École polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), Switzerland, fired a pulse of infrared laser light at silver nanowires, which were located on a layer of multilayered graphene. The laser light stimulated electronic plasma oscillations in the nanowires, as it adds energy to the charged particles in the nanowire, thus causing them to oscillate. This electromagnetic far field is accompanied by an electromagnetic near field located directly on the wire surface. Light travels back and forth on the nanowire. When waves traveling in opposite directions meet, they form a standing wave. To image this standing wave of light, the scientists shot a stream of electrons close to the nanowire. As the electrons interacted with the confined light on the nanowire, they either sped up or slowed down. By using an ultrafast microscope, Carbone’s team imaged the position where this change in speed occurred. By doing this they were able to visualize the standing wave, which acts as a fingerprint of the wave-nature of light. At the same time, this phenomenon shows the particle-like character of light: As the electrons pass close to the standing wave of light, they hit the photons. This affects their speed, and this change in speed appears as an exchange of energy packets, called quanta, between electrons and photons. […] Read more on ChemistryViews.org 4 | ChemistryViews.org © Wiley-VCH Verlag Gmbh & Co. KGaA Industry International Chemical Trade DOI: 10.1002/chemv.201500014 The international chemical industry has seen a slow recovery according to the latest Facts & Figures report [1] by the European Chemical Industry Council (cefic). The value of worldwide chemicals sales in 2013 was 3,156 billion €, an increase of 2.4 % compared to the previous year. This was mostly driven by China, where chemicals sales swelled from 918 billion € in 2012 to 1,047 billion € in 2013. The European Union and the United States had very similar total chemicals sales in 2013 and share the second rank. […] Chemicals Sales in 2013 – Absolute Values (EU = EU-28, NAFTA = North American Free Trade Agreement, excluding pharmaceuticals, [1]) Read more on ChemistryViews.org © Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA ChemistryViews.org | 5 Industry Insulation through an Organic Polyurethane- Based Aerogel Vera Koester (Image: © Presse Photo BASF) DOI: 10.1002/chemv.201400093 Dr. Marc Fricke, laboratory head for Advanced Materials & Systems Research , BASF Polyurethanes GmbH, Lemförde, Germany, has developed a novel type of aerogel, which will be offered as an extremely thin and mechanically strong insulating panel, together with his team. It shows exceptional insulation performance, is light, has moisture-regulation performance, and will be produced as an aerogel panel that is easy to apply. What kind of material is the new insulation panel made of? The material is an organic aerogel based on polyurethane chemistry that shows an interesting combination of properties. This includes not only very low thermal conductivity – the λ value is quite low – but in addition it is a strong panel, and it is water vapor diffusive. Owing to its open-porous structure, it can absorb water or water vapor condensates within the nanopores, and it can release the water again. This makes it especially interesting for construction materials, especially for insulation applications. We can fine-tune the properties by using its chemistry. And you are going to present this at the aerogel workshop at the TU Harburg? Yes, I am looking forward to the academic discussion during this workshop organized by Professor Smirnova where the who's who of the chemical as well as the process engineering aerogel […] Read more on ChemistryViews.org 6 | ChemistryViews.org © Wiley-VCH Verlag Gmbh & Co. KGaA Industry Microalgae – Underestimated All-Rounders Felix Derwenskus, Claudia Holdmann DOI: 10.1002/chemv.201500106 Microalgae, as one of the most important global biomass producers , do not only largely contribute to our global oxygen production, they are also able to produce several high value compounds with a high nutritional value. Next to natural antioxidant colorants, microalgae can contain high amounts of protein and omega-3-fatty acids which may help to prevent heart diseases. On the other hand, microalgae produce oil which might be a future fuel. Nevertheless, there is still a lot of research to do to make these things profitable. 1 Life at the Beginning of the Food Chain Microalgae represent a diverse group of plant-like, unicellular organisms. Nowadays, it is estimated that about 300.000 different species exist on earth. Around 40.000 species are actually described and a few are analyzed in detail [1,2]. The term "microalgae" includes prokaryotic cyanobacteria as well as eukaryotic microalgae species (Fig. 1) capable of growing in presence of sea water (e.g. oceans), fresh water (e.g. lakes, rivers) and on several kinds of ground surfaces (e.g. soil) [3]. […] Read more on ChemistryViews.org © Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co.
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