Written, reviewed and tested by students, for students! As part of the RSC's latest series of tutorial textbooks, a team of students and staff have co-authored textbooks on Stereochemistry and Contextual Maths in Chemistry.

Warwick students Caroline Akamune and Matthew Taylor and academics Andrew Clark and Russ Kitson teamed up with Leeds student Michael Lloyd and academics Nimesh Mistry and Paul Taylor to create a new stereochemistry textbook. What makes this book different is that it is co-authored with students to be in the 'student voice' making it more accessible to the undergraduate reader. It is also written so it can be used in conjunction with a molecular modelling kit, in-line with research that shows rotating and manipulating objects (e.g. molecular models) with your hands helps with grasping spatial cognition concepts in your head!

The RSC Chemistry Student Guides series editing team includes Warwick's own Julie Macpherson.

Oxidative Addition of a Mechanically Entrapped C(sp)-C(sp) Bond to a Rhodium(I) Pincer Complex

By use of a macrocyclic phosphinite pincer ligand and bulky substrate substituents, researchers in the Chaplin group have demonstrated how the mechanical bond can be leveraged to promote the oxidative addition of an interlocked 1,3‐diyne to a rhodium(I) center. The resulting rhodium(III) bis(alkynyl) product can be trapped out by reaction with carbon monoxide or intercepted through irreversible reaction with dihydrogen, resulting in selective hydrogenolysis of the C−C σ‐bond.

HOT article in Angew. Chem. Int. Ed.