Category: News

ChemCYS 2018

As part of the Bioinorganic Chemistry Group at KU Leuven, I had a chance to visit the ChemCYS conference where I presented poster contribution on molecular beauty. The conference provided an excellent opportunity to meet Prof. Martyn Poliakoff from University of Nottingham (United Kingdom) who is worldwide known for his effort to popularize chemistry via his YouTube channel. The meeting with him reminded me of the importance of creating chemistry related YouTube videos. An old video from of my son (at the time ca. 2 years) pipetting is shown below. Buch of new videos is coming soon. 😊

Go to video: http://www.geoset.info/presentation/our-youngest-scientist/

 

Paper on Polyoxovanadate Configomers accepted in Angewandte Chemie

A new manuscript dealing with the configurational isomerism problem in polyoxovanadates (POVs) has been accepted for publication in Angewandte Chemie International Edition.

Under very innovative synthetic conditions, Prof. Wolfgang Bensch and his PhD student Ms. Lisa Mahnke (CAU Kiel) have discovered a new extraordinary POV isomer with formula [V14Sb8O42]4-. Compared to the studied isomers in our previous work, this unusual POV exhibits one vanadyl moiety pointing towards the interior of the cluster.

It was soon afterward that was realized that this is not a new single POV structure, but a blueprint of a complex configurational isomerism in POV chemistry. Insights into the relative stability of the possible forming species and comparison of fragment transfer between the reactant molecules and the product have rationalized why this particular isomer forms and what other isomers are most likely to be isolated in near future.

The overall study has been further complemented by magnetochemical experiments (Prof. Paul  Kögerler, RWTH Aachen) and ESI-MS studies (Prof. Schalley, FU Berlin).

 

FWO Postdoctoral Fellowship for Development of Novel Artificial Proteases

The journey in science never stops. Now, it goes further west.

The Research Foundation Flanders (FWO) has recently awarded me with a postdoctoral fellowship! From January 2018 I will be proudly joining the Laboratory of Bioinorganic Chemistry at KU Leuven, led by Prof. Dr. Parac-Vogt.

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RWTH Start-up Grant for the Development of All-inorganic Nanomolecular Switches

RWTH Aachen has recently informed that will award a Start-up fund of ca. 18 000 € to Dr. Stuckart and myself. The RWTH Start-up funds are awarded to postdoctoral research fellows in all disciplines aiming at independent academic careers. Our proposal, supported by Prof. Dr. Paul Kögerler, has ranked among the 15 most innovative and promising postdoctoral Start-up applications at RWTH Aachen University.

The joint proposal addresses development of a new kind of nanomolecular switches based on polyoxometalates. Dr. Stuckart and myself are looking forward to our first joint publication and to many other exciting project results afterwards.

Paper accepted for publication in Dalton Transactions

Very recently Dalton Transactions approved our paper for publication:
The Cu(I)-catalysed Huisgen 1,3-dipolar cycloaddition route to (bio-)organic functionalisation of polyoxovanadates.

This paper describes a new route towards the preparation of (bio-)organic functionalized Lindqvist-type polyoxovanadates and based on density functional calculations it explains how the properties of these compounds are tailored by the attached functional moieties.

POM Highlights: New Lindqivst-type polyoxocuprates

Abstract ImageAs we have indicated, polyoxocuprates are en emerging class of POM-materials that will have impact on material sciences, especially on the design of novel metal organic frameworks.

Recenty Li, Zheng and coworkers have reported on a new Lindqvist-type polyoxocuprate (Inorg. Chem., 2017, 56 (8), pp 4635–4642). These polyoxocuprates are stabilized by cadmium(II) or manganese(II) cations and templated using tris-type ligands. The Mn(II) containing derivatives assemble into extended framework materials.

Concept paper in print

POCus – Frontispiece

The concept paper on polyoxocuprates (POCus) just recently came out in print in the Special 750th Issue of Chemistry – A European Journal! 🙂

The design of the frontispiece is inspired by the legend of the Gordian Knot associated with Alexander the Great. In the current work we used it as a metaphor for solving an intractable problem in polyoxometalate chemistry by “thinking outside the box”.

 

 

How can we develop Wikipedia articles that we can trust?

Information share and quality education are core prerequisites for a global prosperous future. However, much of the world that needs these commodities cannot afford them. Over the past sixteen years, Wikipedia has served to educate and share information. Unfortunately, its role in the world education is still rarely acknowledged by the academic community. In this short article, I simply discuss my view on the issue and propose a way to improve it.

Continue reading “How can we develop Wikipedia articles that we can trust?”

Polyoxometalates Channel on Youtube

Picture1Polyoxometalates (POMs) obtain their own channel on Youtube. On this channel, I will be posting video materials referring to the POM research projects I carry. Some supplementary materials which refer to structure visualization will be also uploaded on this channel.

Do not forget to subscribe! 🙂