ChemComm Chemical Communications www.rsc.org/chemcomm RSC Publishing is a not-for-profit publisher and a division of the Royal Society of Chemistry. Any surplus made is used to support charitable activities aimed at advancing the chemical sciences. Full details are available from www.rsc.org IN THIS ISSUE ISSN 1359–7345 CODEN CHCOFS 48(81) 10057–10148 (2012) Cover Inside cover See M. Bele´n Serrano-Santos See Martin Pumera et al., et al., pp. 10087–10089. pp. 10090–10092. Image reproduced by permission Image reproduced by permission of Thomas Scha¨fer from of Martin Pumera from Chem. Commun., 2012, 48, 10087. Chem. Commun., 2012, 48, 10090. PROFILE 10068 Interview with Steve Davies Colleagues, students, zebra fish, fruit flies, worms and bankers—Steve Davies is happy to work with them all for the good of chemistry. He reveals why he is a very lucky man. FEATURE ARTICLE 10069 Synthesis of p-extended porphyrins via intramolecular oxidative coupling Jan P. Lewtak and Daniel T. Gryko* Fusion of porphyrins with other aromatic units at the meso- and b-positions results in very strong bathochromic shifts of absorption. This journal is & The Royal Society of Chemistry 2012 Chem. Commun., 2012, 48, 10059–10067 | 10059 EDITORIAL STAFF ChemComm Editor Robert Eagling Chemical Communications Deputy editor Joanne Thomson www.rsc.org/chemcomm Senior publishing editor Philippa Ross EDITORIAL BOARD Development editor Ross McLaren Chair Can Li, Dalian Institute of Chemical Members Publishing editors Richard R. Schrock, Massachusetts Physics Penny Brothers, The University of Will Dennis, Rowan Frame, Celia Gitterman, Institute of Technology Jean-Louis Reymond, University of Berne Auckland Alan Holder, Marc Hutchby, Eleanor Merritt, Associate Editors Manfred Scheer, University of Keiji Maruoka, Kyoto University Tamsin Phillips, Matthew Reaveley Antonio M. Echavarren, Institute of Regensburg Heather Maynard, University of Publishing assistants Chemical Research of Catalonia Jonathan L. Sessler, University of California, Los Angeles Rachel Blakeburn, Bethany Johnson, Kate McCallum Steven De Feyter, Catholic Texas at Austin Nicholas J. Turner, University of Publisher University of Leuven Jonathan W. Steed, Durham Manchester Emma Wilson Daniel Gamelin, University of University For queries about submitted papers, please contact Washington T. Don Tilley, University of California, Philippa Ross, Senior publishing editor in the first Michael Krische, University of Texas Berkeley instance. E-mail [email protected] at Austin Yong-Qiang Tu, Lanzhou University For pre-submission queries please contact Robert Eagling, Editor. Email [email protected] ADVISORY BOARD Chemical Communications (print: ISSN 1359-7345; electronic: ISSN 1364-548X) is published 100 times a year by Varinder Aggarwal, University of Bristol Andrew B. Holmes, University of Achim Müller, University of Bielefeld the Royal Society of Chemistry, Thomas Graham House, Jerry L. Atwood, University of Missouri Melbourne Catherine Murphy, University of Illinois Science Park, Milton Road, Cambridge, UK CB4 0WF. Dario Braga, University of Bologna Amir Hoveyda, Boston College Atsuhiro Osuka, Kyoto University All orders, with cheques made payable to the Royal Society of Chemistry, should be sent to RSC Xiao-Ming Chen, Sun Yat-Sen University Steven M. Howdle, University of Ian Paterson, University of Cambridge Distribution Services, c/o Portland Customer Services, Derrick Clive, University of Alberta Nottingham Maurizio Prato, University of Trieste Commerce Way, Colchester, Essex, UK CO2 8HP. Marcetta Darensbourg, Texas A&M Karl Anker Jørgensen, Aarhus Robin Rogers, University of Alabama Tel +44 (0)1206 226050; E-mail [email protected] University University Michael Sailor, University of California, 2012 Annual (print+electronic) subscription price: £2953; Scott E. Denmark, University of Illinois Kimoon Kim, Pohang University of San Diego US$5511. 2012 Annual (electronic) subscription price: Kuiling Ding, Shanghai Institute of Science and Technology Zhong-Qun Tian, Xiamen University £2805; US$5235. Customers in Canada will be subject to a Organic Chemistry Susumu Kitagawa, Kyoto University Carsten Tschierske, Martin-Luther surcharge to cover GST. Customers in the EU subscribing to Shaojun Dong, Chinese Academy of Shu Kobayashi, University of Tokyo University the electronic version only will be charged VAT. If you take an Sciences Jérôme Lacour, University of Geneva Wilfred A. van der Donk, University of institutional subscription to any RSC journal you are entitled Gregory C. Fu, Massachusetts Institute Teck-Peng Loh, Nanyang Illinois to free, site-wide web access to that journal. You can arrange of Technology Technological University Herbert Waldmann, Max Planck access via Internet Protocol (IP) address at www.rsc.org/ip. Tohru Fukuyama, University of Tokyo Tien-Yau Luh, National Taiwan Institute of Molecular Physiology Customers should make payments by cheque in sterling payable on a UK clearing bank or in US dollars payable on a Alois Fürstner, Max Planck Institute for University Li-Jun Wan, Chinese Academy of US clearing bank. Coal Research Doug MacFarlane, Monash University Sciences Lutz Gade, University of Heidelberg David MacMillan, Princeton University Henry N. C. Wong, Chinese University of Periodicals postage paid at Jamaica NY 11431. Philip Gale, University of Southampton Ilan Marek, Technion, Israel Institute of Hong Kong US Postmaster: Send address changes to George W. Gokel, University of Missouri Technology Eiji Yashima, Nagoya University Chemical Communications, Air Business Ltd, c/o Worldnet Shipping Inc., 156-15, 146th Avenue, 2nd Floor, Jamaica, Craig Hawker, University of California, E. W. ‘Bert’ Meijer, Eindhoven University Xi Zhang, Tsinghua University NY 11434, USA. Santa Barbara of Technology Advertisement sales: Tel +44 (0) 1223 432246; Fax +44 (0) 1223 426017; E-mail [email protected] INFORMATION FOR AUTHORS For marketing opportunities relating to this journal, contact [email protected] Full details on how to submit material for publication in Regulation 2003, this publication may only be reproduced, Chemical Communications are given in the Instructions stored or transmitted, in any form or by any means, with for Authors (available from http://www.rsc.org/authors). the prior permission in writing of the Publishers or in the Submissions should be made via the journal’s homepage: case of reprographic reproduction in accordance with http://www.rsc.org/chemcomm. the terms of licences issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency in the UK. US copyright law is applicable to users Authors may reproduce/republish portions of their in the USA. published contribution without seeking permission from the RSC, provided that any such republication is The Royal Society of Chemistry takes reasonable care in the accompanied by an acknowledgement in the form: preparation of this publication but does not accept liability (Original Citation)–Reproduced by permission of for the consequences of any errors or omissions. The Royal Society of Chemistry. {f The paper used in this publication meets the This journal is © The Royal Society of Chemistry 2012. requirements of ANSI/NISO Z39.48–1992 Apart from fair dealing for the purposes of research or (Permanence of Paper). private study for non-commercial purposes, or criticism Royal Society of Chemistry: Registered Charity No. 207890. or review, as permitted under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 and the Copyright and Related Rights COMMUNICATIONS 10087 Characterization of structural changes in aptamer films for controlled release nanodevices M. Bele´n Serrano-Santos,* Eduard Llobet, Veli C. O¨zalp and Thomas Scha¨fer The dimension of the conformational changes of DNA-aptamers has been determined by acoustic wave-based sensors upon recognition of adenosine-50-monophosphate (AMP). 10090 Micromotors with built-in compasses Guanjia Zhao, Samuel Sanchez, Oliver G. Schmidt and Martin Pumera* Magnetized iron containing microjets can sense the direction of an external magnetic field and align the directionalities of their movements accordingly. 10093 Biocarbon-coated LiFePO4 nucleus nanoparticles enhancing electrochemical performances Xueguang Zhang, Xudong Zhang,* Wen He,* Yuanzheng Yue, Hong Liu and Jingyun Ma We report a green biomimetic method to synthesize biocarbon-coated LiFePO4 nucleus nanoparticles using yeast cells as both a structural template and a biocarbon source for high-power lithium-ion batteries. 10096 Metal nanoparticle catalysts decorated with metal oxide clusters Neema A. Mashayekhi, Yi Y. Wu, Mayfair C. Kung* and Harold H. Kung* A method was developed to synthesize metal nanoparticles decorated with mononuclear metal oxide units dispersed in clusters or patches of another oxide. This journal is & The Royal Society of Chemistry 2012 Chem. Commun., 2012, 48, 10059–10067 | 10061 COMMUNICATIONS 10099 Synthesis, solvatochromism, aggregation-induced emission and cell imaging of tetraphenylethene-containing BODIPY derivatives with large Stokes shifts Rongrong Hu, C. F. Azael Go´mez-Dura´n, Jacky W. Y. Lam, Jose´L. Belmonte-Va´zquez, Chunmei Deng, Sijie Chen, Ruquan Ye, Eduardo Pen˜a-Cabrera,* Yongchun Zhong, Kam Sing Wong and Ben Zhong Tang* A series of tetraphenylethene-containing BODIPYs with tunable emission colors and large Stokes shift are reported. 10102 Microfluidic size selective growth of palladium nano-particles on carbon nano-onions Faizah Md Yasin, Ramiz A. Boulos, Boon Yong Hong, Andrew Cornejo, K. Swaminathan