ChemistryOpen

The sum of its parts: Nanocomposites of Fe¹⁰BO₃/Fe₃O₄/SiO₂ and GdFeO₃/Fe₃O₄/SiO₂, synthesized by a gel combustion technique using citric acid as fuel and chelation, exhibited strong magnetic properties indicating that they might have potential applications in diagnostic analysis of cancer through use in neutron capture therapy.

π Electrons can do that! They can bend the otherwise linear d¹⁰-ML₂ complexes through backbonding. Bonding analyses reveal that the second π-accepting ligand is, in a sense, hunting for “fresh” (not yet stabilized) d_π electrons. The magnitude of the effect depends on the nature of both metal and ligand; LML angles adopt values as small as 128.6°.

Glowing sandwich! Self-organized TiO₂-nanotube layers can be used for immunoassay-type sensing. TiO₂ nanoparticles coated with CdTe quantum dots are used as signal amplification elements. We show that this, in combination with the advantages of a TiO₂-nanotube electrode, leads to an outstanding detection limit in electrochemiluminescent techniques.

The fast and the fluoride: A pyridine derivative functionalized with tert-butyldimethylsilyl ether has been synthesized and used as a selective chromofluorogenic fluoride sensor in water/cetyltrimethylammonium bromide solutions. The chromofluorogenic response arises from the fluoride-induced hydrolysis of the silyl ether moiety, which generates a coloured and highly emissive phenolate anion.

Like beads on a string: A synthetic method for the directional construction of strings of spherical fullerenes along stacks of planar oligothiophenes is described. The key to success was the preparation of fullerenes with two solubilizing tri(ethylene glycol) tails (bold) and an aromatic aldehyde for covalent capture by hydrazides along the oligothiophene stacks (red).