Inside Volume 78, No.4, October 2014 Articles and Features 148 Thermodynamic modelling of reactions in materials chemistry Ian Brown 154 What makes a metal? Nicola Gaston 158 Wohlmann’s waters and the Colonial Laboratory Peter Hodder 164 Nanocomposites: From ancient masterpieces to value-adding nanotechnology Andrea N. D. Kolb 168 Obituary: Dr Ian Walker Mike Crean 169 Some unremembered chemists: Sir Arthur Harden, FRS (1865-1940) & William John Young (1878-1942) Brian Halton 179 Results of the reader survey Other Columns 138 Comment from the President 176 Patent Proze 138 From the Editor 181 Conference Calendar 139 Membership update 182 Author Index 140 NZIC April News 183 Subject Index 174 Dates of Note 137 Chemistry in New Zealand October 2014 Comment from the President In June, I attended the opening Ms Jennifer Mason, Ferrier Research Institute function and some of the proceed- Dr Phillip Rendle, Ferrier Research Institute ings of a meeting of the Organis- Congratulations to all prize winners and new Fellows of the ing Committee of Pacifichem 2015 Institute. in Queenstown. This was the first meeting of the Pacifichem Organ- Here at Waikato, we recently held the annual Analytical ising Committee ever to be held in Chemistry competition for Year 13 students. It is a real plea- New Zealand and the New Zealand sure to see the excellent practical results that some of these Institute of Chemistry was nomi- young analysts can achieve and the beautifully laid out and nally the host. I very much enjoyed accurate calculations that the very best teams manage. All President/Editor meeting the members of the com- teams enjoyed the day and it is a wonderful chance for stu- mittee who represent many of the dents and their teachers alike to meet University staff and in countries of the Pacific basin. The some cases, actually get some quality “hands-on” time with task for the committee to achieve at this meeting was to re- equipment that is not always readily available in their school. view and select proposals for the technical program of Paci- Our local branch sponsors this event and it events such as fichem 2015. My brief encounter with this process gave me these that serve to highlight one of the functions of NZIC - a real insight into what a huge task this is and it is clear that encouraging and supporting future chemists! a quality program will result from this process. Mark Wa- terland, the New Zealand representative on this committee, On that note, this year, NZIC Chemical Education Trust and representatives of the American Chemical Society are Grants were made to the following schools: Garin Col- to be congratulated on arranging a very successful meeting lege, Sacred Heart College (New Plymouth), Freyberg High which also showcased a beautiful part of our country to the School, St Joseph's Maori Girls' College, Waitaki Girls' international committee. High School, Hastings Girls' High School, East Otago High School, Kings High School, John Paul II College (Grey- The NZIC prizes for 2014 were awarded as follows: mouth), St Mary's Diocesan School, Dunstan High School Prize for Chemical Science: Dr Peter Tyler, Ferrier Re- and Te Awamutu College. These grants were for the purchase search Institute of additional resources such as glassware, instruments and molecular models to enhance the teaching of chemistry and Shimadzu Prize for Industrial and Applied Chemistry: were up to $400 in value. I would like to encourage members Dr Bradley Williams, Ferrier Research Institute to consider making a contribution to the Trust. Most of the ABA Books Denis Hogan Chemical Education Prize: Dr Trust’s funds arise from members adding a small donation Suzanne Boniface, Victoria University of Wellington (often between $10 and $50) to their annual subscription. All Members elected to Fellows of NZIC: donations to the Trust are tax deductible. Dr Paul Benjes, Callaghan Innovation Research Ltd (Gly- Finally, at the time of writing I have completed a very en- cosyn) joyable visit to the Auckland Branch and have arranged my Dr Gavin Painter, Ferrier Research Institute visits to the rest of the branches in the near future, so look forward to meeting many of you then. Dr James Crowley, University of Otago From the Editor Thanks again to those of you ered to be very important to the majority of readers. The sci- who responded to the reader sur- entific articles got more of a mixed reception, with quite a vey. The results are summarised number of comments relating to the issue of articles being on page 179. With such a diverse too academic or technical. readership ranging from students to retirees, academics to indus- Several respondents raised the question of whether we should trial chemists and with the sub- move from a printed to an online publication. The addition of ject interests of members cross- more photos, more colour and a more up to date look and feel ing every chemical field, there to freshen up the journal were also requested. Contributions will always be conflicting views from sources other than the regular columnists, personal pro- on what constitutes a relevant files and coverage of global chemistry issues were additional and interesting publication. Given the response rate of a little suggestions. over 10%, the results can hardly be considered to be com- For a publication such as ours which has a limited budget and prehensive. However, there were a number of points which relies almost exclusively on voluntary contributions, there came through quite clearly. will always be constraints on what we can do. For example, First and foremost, Chemistry in New Zealand is valued pri- colour printing is more expensive, special issues or topics re- marily as a way for members to keep in touch with what is quire enthusiastic authors who are prepared to write articles happening throughout the country. The majority of respond- and moving to an online publication would exclude some ents consider the journal to be relevant to them and feel that members and require additional resources. Nevertheless, I it helps them engage with NZIC. So, not surprisingly, the think we have gathered some useful feedback and sugges- survey also showed that the Branch news section is consid- tions that can be discussed with Council. Watch this space. 138 Chemistry in New Zealand October 2014 NZIC Membership New Zealand Institute of Chemistry Membership update New Members 2013-2014 (MNZIC) Wilson, Northern Southland College; Daniel Preston and Oliver Watkins Rui Li, South Otago High School all University of Otago Auckland Branch: Amir Ali, Al- Madinah School; Daniel Carleton, Overseas: Dr Seino Jongkees, Japan Overseas: Siobhan Bradley, Univer- Grayson Laboratories; Alex George, sity of South Australia Kapish Gobindlal, AUT; Chhaya Student members Narayan, Elim Christian College; Resigned Auckland Branch: Omer J Chaud- Mr Peter Skrine, Kaitaia College; Dr hary, Gaya H De Zoysa, Andrew Auckland Branch: Dr James (Jim) Christian Miller, Prof Kevin Smith, S Eastabrook, Hugo Ka Ho Fong, Mitchell, Lynne Forster, Andrew University of Auckland; Dwayne Mario Kurbanik, Nelson Lam, Katie Dalebrook, Orla Finch, Norman Walsh, Taipa Area School; ZhengXi Lim, Ashley C Lindsay, Bowen Liu Lodge, Marsilea Booth and Tim Zhang, Ballance Agri-nutrients Stefanie Maslek, Rachelle Quach, Muller Waikato Branch: Jasmine Ahmu, Matthew Sullivan, Aaron Tay, Alex Canterbury Branch: Sarah Wilson- Huntly College; Sandhya Coll, West- Anthony Samy, Homayon Arabsha- Coutts, Francine Smith, Matthew mount School; Dr Laura G Ray- hi, Sandhya Badrinarayanan, Alan Ashworth, Paula Rippon, Mr Martin mond, Scion; Michael Blackstock, Cameron, Ravind Chandra, Daniel Downing Whangamata Area School Chorley, Shama Dissanayake, Mor- gan Jay-Smith, Sarah Ngen and Manawatu Branch: Dr Alan Wayne Manawatu Branch: Jon Hawkins, Xindi (Andy) Wang all University of Limmer, Prof Geoffrey Malcolm, New Plymouth Boys’ High School; Auckland Dr Alan Metson, Nessha Wise and Dr Kevin Kannan, Nga Tawa Dioc- Heather Velvin esan School; Dr Ajay Pannu, Massey Waikato Branch: Kethsiri Alwis, University; Denise Pester, Tararua Dylan McQuiston, Daniel Rohrlach, Otago Branch: Assoc. Prof. John College; Christopher Rowse, Zelam Nicholas Kuan and Onyekachi Ray- Franklin Cutfield and Carolyn Agricultural Chemicals mond all University of Waikato McLellan Wellington Branch: Bruce Ander- Manawatu Branch: D Nirosha T Waikato Branch: Dr Shelley Wil- son, Otaki College; Dr John Beal, de Silva, Lujia (Luke) Liu, Kelsey son, Dr Graham Saunders, Dr Rob- Andrew Durant, Callaghan Innova- Mortensen, David Nixon, Chris- ert Wilcock, Jane Spenceley and tion Research Ltd.; Dr J. Robin Ful- topher Lepper and Edwin Lowe all Hayden Bosgra ton, Dr Martyn and Dr David Her- Massey University man all Victoria University; Paul Wellington Branch: Anna Greaney, Wellington Branch: Lucy Olivia Falloon, Hutt International Boys’ Dr Neil Whitehead, Serena Smal- Gloag, Leah Graham, Nina Leeb, School; Dr Hilary Hamnett, ESR; ley, Alec La Grow, Claire Turner, Andrew McGrath, Kristiana San- David Koedyk, Baldwin Shelston Vidhya, Damodaran, Dr Anna De toso, Kalpani Somarathne, Rosie Waters; Dr Ashna Khan, Dr Karl Raadt, Dr Alan Geoffrey Clark and Somerville, Thomas Bevan, Valen- Shaffer and Dr Olga Zubkova all Noel Campbell Dowrick tine Chan, Christoph Hasenoehri, Ferrier Research Institute; Dr Ying Alex Hunt-Painter, Stefan Munneke Overseas: Russell McQueen (Sherry) Xu, CRL Energy Ltd. and Lia van den Kerkhof all Victoria Deceased Canterbury Branch: Prof Alison University Downard,