Visible-light-driven functionalization of various organic systems has proved to be extremely successful and reached an impressive level of sophistication as well as efficiency in the last two decades. At the...

Trifunctionalization is a versatile procedure to enable complex and diverse chemical compounds architect by constructing three functional groups concurrently in one step from simple and readily available feedstock reagents. The...

Synthesis of autonomously moving nano or micromotors is an immediate challenge in current nanoscience and nanotechnology. In this work we report a system based on soft-oxometalates (SOMs) which is very easy to synthesize and moves autonomously in response to chemical stimuli like that of a reducing agent-dithionite. The redox active Mo VI sites of SOMs are used for oxidizing dithionite to generate SO2 to propel the micromotors. We explain this motion qualitatively and also show how surface interaction, adsorption isotherm of the evolved gas influence power conversion efficiency of these micromotors.

The family of multiheme proteins constitutes one of the fascinating molecular machineries designed by Nature to execute a large variety of functions. A high level of conservation among the structural arrangement of heme units is evident among various multiheme cytochromes. The relative arrangement of the heme centers and the intermacrocyclic interactions therein have been found to exhibit a major role in functional properties of such a widely distributed family. The existence of more than one heme center provides an effective and efficient tool to modulate various structures and properties that are needed for its function. This Frontier overviews a brief account of our on-going efforts to examine some of the design principles in which the inter-heme distance and their relative orientations are appropriately chosen to elucidate, at the molecular level, the effects of heme-heme interactions and electronic communication in the synthetic dihemes.