Physical chemistry articles within Nature

Featured

  • Article |

    Femtosecond X-ray liquidography is used to track the vibrational wavepacket trajectories of gold atoms in solution, enabling time-resolved observations of the emergence of vibrations and the evolution of the formation of covalent bonds.

    • Jong Goo Kim
    • , Shunsuke Nozawa
    •  & Hyotcherl Ihee

  • Article |

    Information from quantum coherence observations guides synthetic modifications of an iron-based chromophore, increasing the excited-state dynamics lifetime by a factor of 20, with implications for photo-induced electron-transfer applications.

    • Bryan C. Paulus
    • , Sara L. Adelman
    •  & James K. McCusker

  • News & Views |

    An electrically neutral radical has been found to be a potent chemical reducing agent when excited by light. Remarkably, it is produced from a positively charged precursor that has long been used as a strong excited-state oxidizing agent.

    • Radek Cibulka

  • Article |

    Photoexcited acridine radical catalysts are found to have redox potentials more reducing than lithium, which is attributed to the population of higher-energy doublet excited states via a twisted intramolecular charge-transfer species.

    • Ian A. MacKenzie
    • , Leifeng Wang
    •  & David A. Nicewicz

  • Article |

    Real-time nuclear magnetic resonance studies of electrolyte decomposition and self-discharge in redox flow batteries provide insights into the underlying mechanisms of the reactions, such as radical formation and electron transfer.

    • Evan Wenbo Zhao
    • , Tao Liu
    •  & Clare P. Grey

  • News & Views |

    The reliance of infrared spectroscopy on light transmission limits the sensitivity of many analytical applications. An approach that depends on the emission of infrared radiation from molecules promises to solve this problem.

    • Andreas Barth

  • News & Views |

    In 1985, scientists reported the discovery of the cage-like carbon molecule C60. The finding paved the way for materials such as graphene and carbon nanotubes, and was a landmark in the emergence of nanotechnology.

    • Pulickel M. Ajayan

  • Letter |

    An analogue quantum simulator based on ultracold atoms in optical lattices and cavity quantum electrodynamics is proposed for the solution of quantum chemistry problems and tested numerically for a simple molecule.

    • Javier Argüello-Luengo
    • , Alejandro González-Tudela
    •  & J. Ignacio Cirac

  • Article |

    A method for the site-selective C–H borylation of arenes and heteroarenes is described, in which BBr3 acts as both a reagent and a catalyst.

    • Jiahang Lv
    • , Xiangyang Chen
    •  & Zhuangzhi Shi

  • News & Views |

    Superconducting magnets have been used to trap cold oxygen molecules and study their collisions. This method could lead to a better understanding of low-temperature interactions for a broad range of molecules.

    • Dajun Wang

  • News & Views |

    Atoms of a metal alloy have been tracked as they form crystal nuclei — the first ordered clusters of atoms or molecules produced during crystallization. The findings might help to develop a general nucleation theory.

    • Peter G. Vekilov

  • Letter |

    Recombination of excitons to produce molecular light emission is made more efficient by controlling electron spin within the molecule to produce spin-triplet excitons only, without the usual accompanying spin-singlet excitons.

    • Kensuke Kimura
    • , Kuniyuki Miwa
    •  & Yousoo Kim

  • News & Views |

    A classic study found that crystalline ice adopts an amorphous form when compressed. Experiments now find that alternative phase transitions can occur — with implications for theories about water’s structure.

    • John S. Tse

  • News & Views |

    A spectroscopic imaging method has reached a resolution 1,000 times better than the limits of standard optical imaging techniques — and reveals vibrational modes of molecules previously seen only in computational models.

    • Eric C. Le Ru

  • News Feature |

    150 years after Mendeleev organized the elements by their characteristics, a special issue explores the enduring influence of this scientific masterpiece.

  • Letter |

    A fundamental electronic noise—beyond electronic thermal noise and voltage-activated shot noise—that is generated by temperature differences across nanoscale conductors is demonstrated, with possible implications for thermometry and electronics.

    • Ofir Shein Lumbroso
    • , Lena Simine
    •  & Oren Tal

  • News & Views |

    Different forms of molecular crystals often have distinct properties, which can greatly influence their potential applications. A way of controlling the crystal form of a protein has now been reported.

    • Robert G. Alberstein
    •  & F. Akif Tezcan

  • News & Views |

    Charged groups on protein surfaces often take part in molecular interactions. Two unstructured proteins have been found to use charge complementarity to form a tight complex that has biologically useful kinetic properties.

    • Rebecca B. Berlow
    •  & Peter E. Wright

  • Article |

    A high-affinity complex of histone H1 and prothymosin-α reveals an unexpected interaction mechanism, where the large opposite net charge enables the two proteins to remain highly disordered even in the complex.

    • Alessandro Borgia
    • , Madeleine B. Borgia
    •  & Benjamin Schuler

  • Letter |

    Stacking-disordered ice crystallites are shown to have an ice nucleation rate much higher than predicted by classical nucleation theory, which needs to be taken into account in cloud modelling.

    • Laura Lupi
    • , Arpa Hudait
    •  & Valeria Molinero

  • News & Views |

    When a particle-laden droplet evaporates on a solid surface, the particles form a ring-like deposit. The explanation for this phenomenon, provided in 1997, has led to advances in many areas of science and engineering.

    • Ronald G. Larson

  • Letter |

    A blend of two organic molecules excited by a simple LED light source can release the stored excitation energy slowly as ‘long persistent luminescence’ over periods of up to an hour.

    • Ryota Kabe
    •  & Chihaya Adachi

  • News & Views |

    Identifying and imaging catalytically active sites on solid surfaces is a grand challenge for science. A microscopy technique has been developed that images 'noise' to detect active sites with nanometre-scale resolution. See Letter p.74

    • Christian Dette
    •  & Shannon W. Boettcher

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