No Added Chemicals

Chemical physicist and spectroscopist C. K. Jørgensen once said that one of the major goals of inorganic chemistry is to prepare compounds of elements in unusual oxidation states. In 2009, the range of oxidation states produced from chemical reaction was -4 to +8, and in 2010 Himmel's group showed that Ir compound with +9 oxidation state, [IrO 4 ] + , exists by electronic structure calculations. In 2014, Wang's group confirmed the existence of the Ir(IX) by matrix-isolation experiments. From these ideas, can it be stretched further? Let say oxidation state +10?

The secondary structures of proteins, such as α-helices, β-sheets, or β- or γ-turns, mainly determine the overall 3-dimensional structures of protein and these structures are mainly stabilised by interactions such as hydrogen bonding (H-bonding) and dispersion interactions. Besides that, the interaction with its biological environment also contributes to the overall structure which means the intrinsic properties of the protein are hidden. Therefore, to have a better understanding about protein structure, proteins or polypeptides must be in isolated condition where no solvent molecules are present. One of the methods that can be used to study peptides in this isolated is gas-phase spectroscopy. 3D structure of myoglobin with α-helices and random coils are shown

Recently, large conjugated π-systems have been a great interest due to their unique properties such as electrical conductivity, or they are commonly known as molecular wires. Taking a step further, it can be closed into a large cyclic system, i.e. macrocyle, or known as a closed loop. One of the examples of this system is porphyrin oligomers where linear conjugated porphyrin oligomers show strong long-range electronic coupling and rich non-linear optical behaviour. These unique properties provide a motivation for synthesising its macrocycle and probing its properties.