News Release

British journal publishes inorganic chemistry research of NJIT professor

Peer-Reviewed Publication

New Jersey Institute of Technology

Long-range solid-state ordering and high geometric distortions induced in phthalocyanines by small fluoroalkyl group," by lead author Sergiu M. Gorun, PhD, (http://chemistry.njit.edu/people/gorun.php) an associate professor in the department of chemistry and environmental science at NJIT, will be the cover article and artwork published in the Feb. 21, 2009 print edition of Dalton Transactions, An International Journal of Inorganic Chemistry. Dalton Transactions(http://www.rsc.org/publishing/journals/DT/article.asp?Journal=DT54&VolumeYear=20090&Volume=0&JournalCode=DT&MasterJournalCode=DT&SubYear=2009&type=Issue&Issue=7&x=11&y=10) is a publication of the Royal Society of Chemistry.

The illustration summarizes work initiated in Gorun's laboratory, supported by the U.S. Army, to understand the architecture and reveal the reactivity of a class of molecules inspired by nature, but made more resistant by replacing weak C-H bonds by much stronger C-F bonds. This work illustrates the principle of bio-inspired chemistry, a term Gorun has coined.

In two back-to-back communications, the NJIT researchers and their collaborators uncover the way some of the new molecules twist and arrange themselves in crystals. Related, larger molecules generate, very efficiently, a highly-reactive species of oxygen, while resisting its attack, thus constituting a "Teflon-coated" industrial reactor as a single molecule. The catalytic activity, incorporation of oxygen into an industrially relevant organic substrate, requires only light and air, a desirable feature for sustainable "green chemistry."

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