n e w s of t h e w e e k easier to process and lead to a substantial reduction in production costs." Coronado and coworkers José R Galân-Mascaros, Carlos J. Gomez-Garda, and Vladimir Laukhin created their material by using bis(ethylenedithio)tetrathiafulvalene cations (a component of organic metals and superconductors) to template the formation of a negatively charged polymeric layer of a bimetallic oxalate complex, the ferromagnetic component The hybrid material becomes a magnet only below 5.5 K, so cooling with liquid helium would be necessary to use it as a bifunctional material. It is primarily of fundamental interest, Coronado tells C&EN, because the ferromagnetic and conducting sublattices evidently don't interact with each other, except when an external magneticfieldis applied perpendicular to the layers. This "quasi-independent" behavior, Coronado's team notes, "is in sharp contrast with what is found in the classical ferromagnetic metals like iron or gadolinium, where the two electronic sublattices are strongly interacting and cannot be decoupled." This unique feature, which is made possible by the molecular nature of the material, "may yet yield unforeseen physical behavior," Palacio and Miller write. One could imagine, for example, a hybrid material that combines ferromagnetism with superconductivity—properties that, "like oil and water, usually do not mix." Ron Dagani
Big Japanese Chemical Merger Now Official Sumitomo Chemical and Mitsui Chemicals are now providing details on their proposed merger announced earlier this month. The two companies say they will fully merge on a 50-50 basis, but that it will take about three years to implement the consolidation. October 2003 is the target launch date for the new but yet-unnamed company. Over the past few years, both Mitsui and Sumitomo have found themselves handicapped by their relatively small size. While competitors such as Shell or ExxonMobil breezily announced billiondollar investment projects, the Japanese firms have been forced to adopt a more cautious approach. That will now change. The Mitsui-Sumitomo combination will result in a huge firm. With nearly 30,000 employees and combined chemical sales of nearly $16 billion, it would 6
NOVEMBER 27,2000 C&EN
have placedfifthin C&EN's 2000 Global Top 50 chemical producers ranking if it had existed last year. Both firms have much to gain. Mitsui's 7.4% operating profit margin in basic chemicals and petrochemicals compares favorably with Sumitomo's 2.3%, according to Nomura Securities. Mitsui has developed several processes for the production of basic chemicals and petrochemicals, and Sumitomo has successfully expanded internationally. Both companies want to expand internationally, particularly in Singapore. Mitsui, which is already the world's second largest producer of phenol, is building a 200,000-metric-ton-per-year phenol plant there and will soon operate two bisphenol A production lines with a combined annual capacity of 140,000 metric tons. Sumitomo has already invested more than $1 billion in Singapore in olefins, polyolefins, acrylic acid, and acrylates. The Singapore government is encouraging the chemical industry to build two more ethylene crackers in the city-state. Mitsui and Sumitomo say they can now be considered serious contenders, and are already jointly studying the possibility of a new ethylene cracker in Singapore with an annual capacity of 1 million met-
ric tons. The two firms foresee even more aggressive international expansion, particularly in the rest of Southeast Asia. In addition, en route to the full merger, the two firms will consolidate their polyolefin businesses by next October. Other decisions will be tougher to make. For instance, both companies have an excessively broad product range in need of consolidation, and actions must be taken to improve the competitiveness of their petrochemical facilities in Japan ahead of 2004 when import tariffs are supposed to drop to a maximum of 6.5%, making imported products less expensive. While generally favorable to the merger, Nomura Securities chemicals analyst Shuichi Nishimura wonders whether focusing on petrochemicals is a wise move. In the past few years, the two companies achieved much higher profits from specialty andfinechemicals than from petrochemicals. Had the twofirmsbeen combined for thefiscalyear ended March 31, 2000, petrochemicals would have accounted for 56% of total sales, with a profit margin of 4.1%. Fine chemicals would have accounted for 7.8% of sales, with a profit margin of 21%. Jean-François Tremblay
In T h e Mail: Crystal Growth &
Design
The first print issue of the American Chemical Society's newest journal goes into the mail this week. CRYSTAL Crystal Growth & Design is the second ACS journal GROWTH resulting from a collaboration with the Scholarly PubDESIGN lishing & Academic Resources Coalition of the Association of Research Libraries to develop competitively priced publications. The peer-reviewed journal will initially be published every two months and then shift to a monthly schedule. The first issue, dated January/February 2 0 0 1 , includes articles by Michigan State University's Kris A. Berglund; University College London's Sarah L. (Sally) Price; Monash University's Colin L. Raston; and the University of Manchester Institute of Science & Technology's Roger J. Davey. The inaugural issue also features a poem contributed by Nobel Laureate and Cornell University chemistry professor Roald Hoffmann. The online version of Crystal Growth & Design (htφ://pubs.acs.ol^journals/ί^defuyindex.html) can be accessed free through June 2 0 0 1 . As with other ACS journals, articles are posted on the publication's website as soon as they've completed the review and editing process. In addi tion, Crystal Growth & Design is the first ACS journal in which selected online articles feature embedded electronic files such as animations or threedimensional chemical structures. These objects can be viewed and manipulated on the Internet using commonly available plug-ins or helper applications. Associate Editors Allan S. Myerson, dean of the Armour College of Engineer ing & Science at Illinois Institute of Technology, Chicago, and Kenneth R. Seddon, chair of inorganic chemistry at The Queen's University of Belfast, Northern Ireland, have joined Editor Robin D. Rogers, professor of chemistry at the Uni versity of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, on the masthead. Sophie Wilkinson
