Halogen Bonding in Crystal Engineering Editor’s collection

Pierangelo Metrangolo, Chair of the Editorial Board of CrystEngComm, has recently edited a collection of hot articles highlighting the contribution of the halogen bond to the field of crystal engineering.

Introduce yourself to this collection by reading its presentation:

"The halogen bond is the attractive interaction between an electrophilic region associated with a halogen atom in a molecular entity and a nucleophilic region in another, or the same, molecular entity. Since its rediscovery in the early 2000s, the field of halogen bonding has boomed, becoming one of the most used chemical interactions in crystal engineering. This Editor’s collection highlights recent contributions to CrystEngComm that are broadly focused on halogen bonding in crystal engineering. The selection of articles showcases how the field has developed from the design of crystal structures to the development of functional materials. The wide range of halogen bond applications covers phosphorescent materials, pharmaceutical co-crystals and peptides, organic electronics, coordination frameworks, where the halogen bonds either drive the formation of the network, or stabilize it as a secondary interaction, or is used to bind hosted guests. Halogen bonding has become a mature field of research but its rediscovery has sparked interest towards other lesser known interactions, which are anticipated to become more prominent in the future, such as chalcogen, pnictogen, and tetrel bonds. 

All of these articles are free to access until June 30th 2021 and we hope you enjoy reading them"

The collection can be found at the followink link: Halogen Bonding in Crystal Engineering

Seeking PhD candidates for Marie Skłodowska-Curie European Industrial Doctorate (EID) programme

Applications are welcome for an Early Stage Researcher (ESR) position associated with PhD-level research activities as part of the Marie Skłodowska-Curie European Industrial Doctorate (EID) programme related to the Consortium “REMEDI” (Trapping and Removal of X-ray Contrast Medium agents from water resource and stream Sediments New Concepts in Trapping, Recycling and Management). The latter leverages on a partnership between Politecnico di Milano (Italy), the University of Warwick (United Kingdom) and TAUW GMBH (Germany). The project will focus on the design and preparation of sorbent materials for the removal of iodinated contrast agents from water. We offer 1 full-time Marie Skłodowska-Curie scholarship, very competitive salary and relocation package, for a period of 36 months (40 hours per week), starting from November 2, 2021. Application deadline is May 20, 2021. For further info, please contact This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. and visit https://euraxess.ec.europa.eu/jobs/629536

Seeking post-doctoral candidates for Marie Sklodowska-Curie Action Individual Fellowships

We are seeking highly motivated post-doctoral candidates to apply for Marie Sklodowska-Curie Actions Individual Fellowships (MSCA-IF) and work within the SupraBioNano Lab group at Politecnico di Milano (Italy).

Our research interests are focused on self-assembly processes for the design of functional supramolecular materials, fluorine chemistry and crystal engineering. In particular, we are very much focused on the exploitation of non-covalent interactions in engineering perovskite solar cell materials. 

Selected candidates will be invited to attend an in depth training course on the proposal writing through online webstreaming (28-29 June 2021), to have a virtual meeting with their supervisors and to make use of full support in the application writing process by POLIMI advisors.

Candidate fellows and supervisors will be guided throughout the whole application process with deadline on 15 September 2021. Only those who get funding through the European Commission’s MSCA PF program will be admitted to Politecnico di Milano.

If you are interested in applying please send your CV to Gabriella Cavallo: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Endocrine disrupting pollutants properties affecting their bio-activity, remediation, and detection

Valentina Dichiarante, Gabriella Cavallo and Pierangelo Metrangolo have recently published a review on "Endocrine disrupting pollutants properties affecting their bio-activity, remediation, and detection". The full paper can be found at the following link: Endocrine disrupting pollutants properties affecting their bio-activity, remediation, and detection.

Abstract. Endocrine disrupting chemicals (EDCs) are natural or synthetic substances able to mimic, interfere with or block endogenous hormones, thus disrupting the normal function of the endocrine system. Most of them are largely applied in agriculture and industry. As a result, humans are chronically exposed to mixtures of EDCs. Their adverse effect on human health may appear long after exposure, making it difficult to assess their full impact. Thus, understanding the molecular basis of recognition of suspected EDCs by their biological targets, is fundamental to get insight into their mechanism of action. This review will focus on the role of intermolecular interactions, specifically halogen and chalcogen bonds, in EDC recognition processes, offering an overview of the latest advances in the study of disruption mechanisms.

How to cite the article:
V. Dichiarante, G. Cavallo, P. Metrangolo
Current Opinion in Green and Sustainable Chemistry 2021, Volume 30, 2021, 100485
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cogsc.2021.100485