Diamond Concise Annual Review 2019/20

D I A M O N D L I G H T S O U R C E A N N U A L R E V I E W 2 0 1 9 / 2 0 D I A M O N D L I G H T S O U R C E A N N U A L R E V I E W 2 0 1 9 / 2 0 26 27 Soft CondensedMatter Group T he Soft Condensed Matter Group provides the Infrared (IR) and Circular Dichroism (CD) microspectroscopy and both Small and Wide Angle X-ray Scattering (SAXS andWAXS) capabilities of Diamond, across the four beamlines: B21, B22, I22andB23.This uniqueportfolio can analyse a range of samples that include two-dimensional thin-films (photovoltaics), living mammalian cells, three-dimensional matrices (e.g. metal-organic frameworks, gels and waxes) and nanoparticles in non-crystalline states. The Group alsomaintains a dedicated laboratory space for visiting users with vital equipment for sample preparation and analysis. B21, I22 and B23 now offer mail-in services for SAXS and CDmeasurements to our user community. In addition, I22, B22 and B23 offer limited off-line access to IR microscopy and imaging, CD spectroscopy, and SAXS measurements. Studies this year have included the development of new antiviral drugs, the improved identification of important chiral molecules, and the design of a new industrial catalyst. Developing antiviral drugs for norovirus Caliciviruses are small viruses that can infect many species including humans. The most notable is norovirus, the cause of the‘winter vomiting bug’. Until recently studies on norovirus have been limited by the inability to grow the virus in laboratories and so related pathogens such as feline calcivirus (FCV) have been used to study calcivirus biology. Researchers from the Medical Research Council used a combination of cryo-electron microscopy and very high-quality small-angle X-ray scattering (SAXS) performed on beamline B21 to analyse FCV. The research showed that after calciviruses bind to the cell surface, they rearrange their protein shell to extrude a funnel-shaped structure (or portal) which may be responsible for the injection of RNA into the host cell and begin the infection process.The teamwas also able to calculate an atomic model of the portal protein-known as VP2. Although VP2 was known to be critical for the production of infectious virus, its exact function was not previously known. These insights into the early stages of calicivirus infection provide a new target for the development of antiviral drugs. Conley MJ et al . 10.1038/s41586-018-0852-1 Detecting chiral molecules A molecule that cannot be superimposed on its mirror image is called chiral. Chirality can be crucial in chemical processes, as pairs of chiral molecules (known as enantiomers) can have different properties. This is particularly important in pharmaceuticals, where one of the molecules can be a valuable drug while its mirror image is toxic. Therefore, identifying unwanted enantiomers is a vital task, but this task can be slow and expensive using previous state-of-the-art techniques. Luminescent sensors are an attractive alternative due to their low-cost, high efficiency and ease of operation. Integrating luminescence and chirality intometal- organic frameworks (MOFs) allows the development of advanced luminescent sensors. A team of Chinese researchers introduced chirality into a zinc-based MOF via simple cation exchange. The material has dual luminescent centres and a chiral centre in the pores, and they were able to characterise its chiral binding properties using the Diamond B23 beamline for synchrotron radiation circular dichroism. The MOF has excellent sensitivity and effectively selects enantiomers while being cheaper to synthesise than current systems. These methods could potentially be used to detect other chiral molecules. This study paves the way for the design of multifunctional MOF systems as a useful method for rapid sensing of chiral molecules. Han Z et al. doi: 10.1038/s41467-019-13090-9 Designing a new industrial catalyst Metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) are compounds made by linking together organic and inorganic materials with strong bonds. Since their discovery over 20 years ago, scientists have synthesised tens of thousands of unique structures. MOFs have an exceptionally porous structure, and by synthesising structures with differing pore sizes, researchers can tune MOFs to filter, trap, or transport molecules. MOFs have a wealth of potential applications, in areas such as hydrogen storage, catalysis, drug delivery and carbon capture. Work to incorporate mesopores (between 2 and 50 nm in width) and active sites into MOF materials to design new efficient catalysts is highly desirable but challenging. An international team of researchers working on beamline B22 has recently created a new MOF called MFM-100 by incorporating mesopores into its structure using rapid electrosynthesis at room temperature with an ionic liquid as both electrolyte and template. This material incorporates crystal defects with uncoupled Cu(II) centres as measured by confocal fluorescence microscopy and by Fourier transform infrared and electron paramagnetic resonance (FTIR) spectroscopy.The MOF shows exceptional catalytic activity for the aerobic oxidation ofalcoholstoproducealdehydesanddisplaysexcellentstabilityandreusabilityover repeated cycles. The methods developed during this study provide a reproducible and effective way of synthesising mesoporous MOFs as catalysts. Kang X et al. doi: 10.1038/s41467-019-12268-5