Leo Merz

Building 2D crystals from 5-fold-symmetric molecules

Concepts of close packing in monolayers of 5-fold-symmetric buckybowls are discussed. When the symmetry of lattice and molecular building blocks are incompatible, new strategies evolve. Corannulene forms a hexagonal lattice on Cu(111) by tilting away from the C(5) symmetry and aligning one hexagonal ring parallel to the surface. The chiral 5-fold-substituted chloro and methyl derivatives do not show this tilt and maintain the 5-fold symmetry as adsorbates. Consequently, a nonperfect tiling is observed. Their lattices are quasi-hexagonal: one in an antiparallel fashion with almost pm symmetry and the other with azimuthal and positional disorder on the hexagonal grid. Our results are in remarkable agreement with computational and mechanical modeling experiments of close packing of hard pentagonal discs in macroscopic two-dimensional systems and prove the validity of such modeling strategies.

Reversible phase transitions in a buckybowl monolayer.

Like penguins on ice, buckybowl molecules move closer together when cooled on a copper surface (see model of a corannulene molecule adsorbed on Cu(111)). Upon heating, the molecules spread out into the original crystal phase again. The lower density at room temperature can be explained by the increase in entropy owing to the excitation of bowl vibrations at the surface.

An evaluation of the relationship between two- and three-dimensional packing in self-organised monolayers and bulk crystals of amphiphilic 2,2′:6′,2″-terpyridines

2,2′:6′,2″-Terpyridine (tpy) ligands with pendant octadecyloxy, 4-octyloxyphenyl or 4-octadecyloxyphenyl substituents at the 4′-position have been prepared and structurally characterised. Monolayers of the compounds have been prepared on highly oriented pyrolytic graphite (HOPG) and investigated by STM. The monolayer structure corresponds to the bulk crystal structure if the latter contains planar sheets. The tpy ligands are prochiral and form homochiral domains within the monolayer, providing a spectacular visual representation of the symmetry-breaking concomitant with the formation of a monolayer.

SCNAT 2016 Chemistry Travel Award by SCNAT, SCS and SSFC

The «Platform Chemistry» of the SwissAcademy of Sciences (SCNAT) together with the Swiss Chemical Society (SCS), and the Swiss Society for Food Chemistry (SSFC) announced the «2016 Chemistry Travel Award». This program aims to support excellent PhD students in chemical sciences through sponsoring them to participate in an international conference. Students from all fields of chemistry and from any Swiss institution were invited to participate and many applications were received. The selection committee is set up with representatives of the three organisors and who are working in diverse fields of chemistry: Prof. Dr. Christian Bochet (SCS, University of Fribourg), Dr. Thomas Gude (SSFC, Swiss Quality Testing Services), Dr. Marc Suter (SCS, Eawag), and Prof. Dr. Oliver Wenger (SCNAT, University of Basel). They each reviewed and rated all of the applications (except their own students’), based primarily on the submitted conference abstract and the scientific achievements. On behalf of SCNAT, SCS and SSFC we hereby congratulate the winners and wish them a very successful conference participation. We proudly present the winners of the «2016 Chemistry Travel Award»:

«Chemical Landmark» 2016

On September 9, the Swiss Academy of Sciences (SCNAT) awarded the «Chemical Landmark» 2016 to the former Institute of Chemistry of the University of Zurich. The celebration at the Rämistrasse 74/76 attracted an audience of about 60 participants to this oldest still preserved building of the university. The new head of the Department of Chemistry, Prof. Karl Gademann opened the session and moderated through the day’s program under the motto “honor the past, embrace the future”. The president of the university, Prof. Michael Hengartner thanked the SCNAT for the distinction and emphasized that employing excellent scientists is only one key ingredient to success, and that research-assisting infrastructure is another key ingredient. Representing SCNAT, Prof. Christian Bochet welcomed everyone and shortly introduced the academy and the «Chemical Landmark» program, which aims at keeping alive the memory of important historical events and persons in the field of chemistry in Switzerland. In her laudation, Prof. Cristina Nevado gave an insight into the history of chemistry at the University of Zurich, Dr. Roland Kunz expanded the historic view with an architectural retrospection and Prof. Roland Sigel and Stephan Borger neatly moved on to the future of chemistry at the University of Zurich and their building infrastructure: Starting 1833, chemistry at the University of Zurich began as a success and immediately grew. Relocations and expansions were necessary several times, and from 1893 on, with Alfred Werner as young professor, the spatial constraints increased further. He attracted so many students that the lecture halls were overcrowded. Additionally, the lab space was ‘untenable’, even known as ‘the catacombs’. Due to their use of the cellars as labs, the chemists were even reprimanded for incurring too large a bill for artificial lighting. Only after Werner threatened to accept a call from the University of Vienna, did Zurich agree to finance a new building for chemistry. For 1.4 Million Swiss Francs, the ‘Kantonsbaumeister’ H. Fietz constructed the new building, which housed the ‘neue Kantonsschule’ as well as the chemistry

The 9th Young Faculty Meeting – The Crossroad for Sharing Ideas Across the Alps

In the second talk of the morning session, Laura RodríguezLorenzo (Adolphe Merkle Institute, Fribourg) presented her investigations on how the cellular uptake of polymer-coated nanoparticles can be influenced upon surface functionalization with fluorescent probes, which is a widespread method to determine the fate of nanoparticles in the cellular matrix. To tackle this challenge, Laura proposed an elegant approach involving a comparison of the cell uptake of two differently functionalized gold nanoparticles. In the first case, the fluorescent markers were directly attached to the polymer-coated nanoparticle’s surface, and in the second case, the fluorescent markers were shielded in between two polymer layers. Very interestingly, Laura’s results showed that the presence of certain surface fluorophores had The 9th Young Faculty Meeting – The Crossroad for Sharing Ideas Across the Alps

Chemical Landmark 2015 - Designation of the Former Institute of Chemistry of the University of Fribourg.

Prof. Dr.Katharina Fromm (SCNAT, Uni FR) moderated the program and welcomed the guests. Dr. Jürg Pfister, secretary general of SCNAT, briefly introduced SCNAT and the «Chemical Landmark» program, Prof. Dr. Andreas Zumbühl presented the Fribourg Chemical Society, and Beat Vonlanthen (Conseil d’État FR) proudly conveyed the congratulations of the cantonal government of Fribourg. In his laudation, Prof. em. Dr. Alexander von Zelewsky provided an insight into the history of the institutes. The university was founded upon the initiative of the conseil d’état Georges Python in 1886. Shortly after, in 1896 the faculty of science was opened. Chemistry was installed in a former waggon factory, which had been used as an arsenal for the artillery. Already the first institute of chemistry was from the beginning committed to bilingualism. The first appointed chemistry professor was A. Bistrzycki from Germany. The first associate professor René Thomas-Mamert was called from France. The academic career ladder was different at that time: Thomas-Mamert started in Fribourg in 1896, finished his doctorate in 1897 and was subsequently promoted to full professor. Bistrzycki already had a group of eleven students whom he brought with him to the new and unknown University of Fribourg. Among them was Chaim Weizmann, eponym of the «Fribourg Chaim Weizmann Lecture», who later became the first president of Israel, co-founded the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and founded the research institute that was later called Weizmann-Institute.

New President, New Board Member and New Chief Science Officer of the «Platform Chemistry».

On December 12 the board of SCNAT confirmed the election of Prof. Dr.Christophe Copéret (ETH Zürich) as president of the platform chemistry. Prof. Dr. Copéret has been a member of the board since January 2013 and takes over the presidency fromProf. Dr. Katharina Fromm (Uni Freiburg) who will remain on the board of the platform.Additionally, the SCNAT board confirmed the election of Dr. Klemens Koch (Pädagogische Hochschule Bern and Gymnasium Biel-Seeland) as a new member of the board of the platform. In addition, the General Secretariat of SCNAT appointed Dr. Leo Merz as Chief Science Officer of the «Platform Chemistry» as ofOctober 2014, succeedingDr.AdrienLawrence who directed the platform from 2013 to 2014. We would like to thank Katharina Fromm and Adrien Lawrence for their dedication and commitment in their work for the «Platform Chemistry» of the SCNAT. Finally, we would like to welcome Klemens Koch to the board of the platform.

2015 Chemistry Travel Award by SCNAT, SCS and SSFEC

At the beginning of the year, the ‘2015 Chemistry Travel Award’ was announced by the «Platform Chemistry» of the Swiss Academy of Sciences (SCNAT), the Swiss Chemical Society (SCS), and the Swiss Society for Food and Environmental Chemistry (SSFEC). This award program was initiated to support excellent PhD students from Swiss institutions to participate and actively present their work (poster or oral presentation) at international conferences. Many applications from students working in diverse fields of chemistry and at many institutions were received. The applications were reviewed by a selection committee composed of representatives of all three organisations: Prof. Dr. Gérard Hopfgartner (SCS, University of Geneva), Prof. Dr. Christian Bochet (SCS, University of Fribourg), Prof. Dr. Oliver Wenger (SCNAT, University of Basel), and Prof. Dr. Umberto Piantini (SSFEC, SCNAT, HES-SO VS). The committee was impressed by the high level of the applications. The selection was primarily based on the submitted conference abstracts and the scientific achievements.

The 8th Young Faculty Meeting – An Active Crowd Attuned to Modern Challenges

*Correspondence: Dr. Y. C. Simona, Prof. Dr. H. J. Jessenb, Dr. L. Merzc aAdolphe Merkle Institute, Université de Fribourg, Chemin des Verdiers 4, 1700 Fribourg, E-mail: yoan.simon@unifr.ch; bUniversity of Zurich, Department of Chemistry, Winterthurerstrasse 190, 8057 Zurich, E-mail: henningjacob.jessen@uzh.ch; cSwiss Academy of Sciences (SCNAT), Platform Chemistry, Laupenstrasse 7, 3008 Bern, E-mail: chemistry@scnat.ch