Richard J. Puddephatt

Bio: Richard J. Puddephatt is an academic researcher from University of Western Ontario. The author has an hindex of 2, co-authored 3 publications receiving 726 citations.

Malcolm Harold Chisholm. 15 October 1945 — 20 November 2015

Abstract: Malcolm Chisholm was one of the most creative and distinguished inorganic chemists of his generation. He was particularly renowned for his chemistry of compounds containing multiple metal–metal bonds and for showing how they could give insights into catalysis or be used in functional materials. Very early in his independent career he reported the remarkable compounds M 2 X 6 , with M=molybdenum or tungsten and X=alkoxide or dialkylamide, which containmetal–metal triple bonds, and his group showed how they could activate organic compounds in unusual ways, often with changes in the metal–metal bond order. He was a master of synthetic chemistry, but he also made notable discoveries in theory, spectroscopy and catalysis. Personally, he was outgoing, friendly and fun-loving. He was faithful and supportive of his family, students, colleagues and his many friends around the globe, and took great pleasure in their successes.

Features of gold having micrometer to centimeter dimensions can be formed through a combination of stamping with an elastomeric stamp and an alkanethiol ‘‘ink’’ followed by chemical etching

Abstract: This letter describes a technique that can be used to produce well‐defined features of gold. The technique involves patterning of a self‐assembled monolayer (SAM) on a gold substrate using an elastomer stamp (fabricated either from a phenol‐formaldehyde polymer or polydimethylsiloxane), followed by selective etching in an aqueous, basic solution of cyanide ion and dissolved dioxygen (1M KOH, 0.1 M KCN). Electrically conductive structures of gold with dimensions as small as 1 μm have been produced using this procedure. Once a rubber stamp is fabricated, patterning and etching of gold substrates is straightforward. This method is convenient, does not require routine access to clean rooms and photolithographic equipment, and can be used to produce multiple copies of a pattern.

The gold–sulfur interface at the nanoscale

Abstract: Thiolate-protected gold surfaces and interfaces, relevant for self-assembled monolayers of organic molecules on gold, for passivated gold nanoclusters and for molecule-gold junctions, are archetypal systems in various fields of current nanoscience research, materials science, inorganic chemistry and surface science. Understanding this interface at the nanometre scale is essential for a wide range of potential applications for site-specific bioconjugate labelling and sensing, drug delivery and medical therapy, functionalization of gold surfaces for sensing, molecular recognition and molecular electronics, and gold nanoparticle catalysis. During the past five years, considerable experimental and theoretical advances have furthered our understanding of the molecular structure of the gold-sulfur interface in these systems. This Review discusses the recent progress from the viewpoint of theory and computations, with connections to relevant experiments.

Relativistic effects in gold chemistry. I. Diatomic gold compounds

Abstract: Nonrelativistic and relativistic Hartree–Fock (HF) and configuration interaction (CI) calculations have been performed in order to analyze the relativistic and correlation effects in various diatomic gold compounds. It is found that relativistic effects reverse the trend in most molecular properties down the group (11). The consequences for gold chemistry are described. Relativistic bond stabilizations or destabilizations are dependent on the electronegativity of the ligand, showing the largest bond destabilization for AuF (86 kJ/mol at the CI level) and the largest stabilization for AuLi (−174 kJ/mol). Relativistic bond contractions lie between 1.09 (AuH+) and 0.16 A (AuF). Relativistic effects of various other properties are discussed. A number of as yet unmeasured spectroscopic properties, such as bondlengths (re), dissociation energies (De), force constants (ke), and dipole moments (μe), are predicted.