UCL Chemistry

Recent computational work by Prof Kaltsoyannis (J. Am. Chem.Soc., 2012, 134 (15), 6500–6503), carried out in collaboration with the experimental teams of Profs Aldridge and Mountford from the University of Oxford, and Prof Jones from Monash University, regarding the properties of the first reported stable two-coordinate acyclic silylene, has been highlighted in “Spotlight on Recent JACS Publications” (J. Am. Chem. Soc., 2012, 134 (17), 7195) and in Nature (Nature, 2012, 485, 49–50)

Dr Antonio Tilocca has edited with Alastair Cormack a theme issue of Philosophical Transactions of Royal Society A titled "Structure and Biological Activity of Glasses and Ceramics". The issue illustrates recent developments on topical biomaterials, including silicate and phosphate bioactive glasses, contributed by leading researchers in the field.

Prof.James C. Anderson and Rafael Bou Moreno

There is a need for the development of industrial processes that use chemical feedstocks that do not rely upon oil. This research shows that carbon dioxide, at atmospheric pressure and ambient temperature, reacts with titanium imido complexes through heterocumulene metathesis reactions to form symmetrical ureas.

P. Moody, Dr. M. E. B. Smith, Dr. C. P. Ryan, Dr. V. Chudasama,
Dr. J. R. Baker, Prof. S. Caddick.

Bromomaleimides are versatile scaffolds that allow facile conjugation of thiolated biomolecules. Here we demonstrate that bromomaleimide-linked GFP–rhodamine FRET pairs cleave in the cytoplasm of mammalian cells. We believe that bromomaleimide scaffolds provide a potential core structure for prodrugs designed to release bioactive cargo following cell internalisation.

The ability of some organometallic compounds to form agostic bonds has been first recognises by M.L.H. Green and M. Brookhard in 1983. In this perspective contribution, a more personal look of how this area has developed over the last decades is reported.

The ability of water to bounce on a surface provides an indication of many of the surface’s properties. The technique described in this article uses water bouncing to determine the hydrophobicity of a surface, with a relationship established between water contact angle and number of bounces. Which, in-turn, is shown to be dependent on the surfaces microstructure.

The excellence of teaching in the Department of Chemistry has been recognised again by UCL with Dr Chris Blackman receiving a 'beginning of academic career' Provosts Teaching Award, the fifth award in the five years the scheme has been running.

Professor Stephen Price is part of a UCL team that has developed a piece of experimental apparatus to study the chemistry of dications: molecules that have two positive charges, which is featured on the UCL News site here.

Dr. Andrew Wills and Profs. Aeppli, Bramwell and McMorrow beat off strong competition from five other universities, and projects including the first artificial pancreas and news ways of identifying genetic defects in unborn children, with their discovery of magnetricity.

Angelos Michaelides, Ben Slater, and other researchers from the department and the Thomas Young Centre have developed an iPhone application; a game called 'Waterfall'. It is available for free from iTunes or via:www.koolistov.net.