Molecular design books

Written by a noted Nobel Prize winner, researcher, and teacher, this book seeks to explain the workings of chemistry to the general public, with an emphasis on the beauty of molecular design. 

The architecture of copolymers can be controlled by the synthesis procedure, and it is possible to prepare diblock, triblock, multiblock, starblock and graft copolymers. These are illustrated in Fig. 1.1. Examples of other exotic architectures that have recently been synthesized are shown in Fig. 2.33. The possibilities for molecular design seem to be almost limitless, only being limited by the chemist s imagination. This book is concerned with block copolymers, and graft copolymers... 

In Table 11, we provide a compilation of books in the rapidly expanding field of computer-aided molecular design and also books on QSAR. Finally, Table 12 lists books on the narrow, well-defined topic of graph theory in chemistry. 

Table 11 Books Related to Molecular Design and Quantitative Structure-Activity...

As always, we try to be heedful of the needs of our readers and authors. Every effort is made to produce volumes that will have sustained usefulness in learning, teaching, and research. We appreciate the fact that the community of computational chemists has found that these volumes fulfill a need. In the most recent data on impact factors from the Institute of Scientific Information (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania), Reviews in Computational Chemistry is ranked fourth among serials (journals and books) in the field of computational chemistry. (In first place is the Journal of Molecular Graphics and Modelling, followed by the Journal of Computational Chemistry and Theoretical Chemistry Accounts. In fifth and sixth places are the Journal of Computer-Aided Molecular Design and the Journal of Chemical Information and Computer Science, respectively.)... 

Dr. Paul A. J. Janssen, former Director of Janssen Pharmaceutica N. V., Beerse Belgium, and founder of the Center for Molecular Design, Vosselaar, Belgium, unexpectedly died on November 11, 2003. As he was one of the most prominent medicinal chemists and discoverer of many breakthrough medicines, the Volume and Series Editors would like to dedicate this book to the memory of this great man. 

By judicious selection of data covering the main areas of synthetic explorations, this book serves to illustrate both the evolution of well-known approaches as well as recently emerged trends most likely to determine the future development of organic synthesis. Special attention is given to the consideration of principles of molecular design in promising and challenging areas of current research. 

To cover the specialized area of chemical structures in detail, authors could provide only cursory coverage of mathematical expressions and tabular material. Many of the scientific word processing packages that I mentioned and some software the book discusses in detail (especially ChemText from Molecular Design Limited) will handle scientific and graphics material other than chemical structures. This book does not cover well-known graphics systems that handle chemical structures or chemical reactions these systems are already well-documented (6, 7). 

In this book we also addressed such an important issue of theoretical chemistry as the reactivity of species of multistep chemical reactions. A procedure was offered to identify the molecular structure of efficient reaction stimulators (the catalyst, initiator, promoter) and inhibitors. For this pmpose the rate constants of individual steps involving the initial forms and their intermediate products were expressed through reaction indices, characterizing the initial molecule of a stimulator or inhibitor. Considering the reactivity indices as parameters for controlling the chemical reaction system we succeeded in the identification of molecular design for the most efficient stimulator or inhibitor of a complex reaction. 

The book is structured into four areas, describing the principles of molecular design and synthesis of oligo- and polythiophenes (Chapters 1-6), insight into their properties from the perspectives of quantum chemical calculations (Chapters 7 and 8), the fundamental aspects of the special electronic, photonic and self-assembly properties of oligo- and polythiophenes (Chapters 9-13) and, finally, the applications of thiophene-based materials in electronic and optoelectronic devices (Chapters 14-22). 

In computer-assisted molecular design (CAMD), computational chemistry is directed toward the discovery of new compounds with specific, desired properties. There have been whole books published on CAMD (see, e.g., refs. 1-4). Nevertheless, many research chemists remain unaware of what has been accomplished to date with CAMD. At scientific meetings, one hears too frequently the misstatement that no commercial compound has yet been designed with the aid of computers. Our goal here is to review briefly some documented successes of CAMD. By highlighting these examples, we hope to stimulate a wider appreciation of the technologies of computational chemistry. 

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