Chemical Communications Blog

Scientists in China have developed a novel method to prepare ordered mesoporous silica fibres. The fibres can enrich endogenous peptides in under three minutes with a lab-in-syringe approach. The technique does not need electrical devices such as a centrifugal machine or vortex shaker.

The team says that the lab-in-syringe approach could be applied to separation sciences and it could be used in drug delivery, catalysis, and sensor and optical devices.

Electrospinning-based synthesis of highly ordered mesoporous silica fiber for lab-in-syringe enrichment of plasma peptides
Gangtian Zhu, Xiao-Shui Li, Xiao-Meng Fu, Juan-Yuan Wu, Bi-Feng Yuan and Y.-Q. Feng
DOI: 10.1039/C2CC34761J

Scientists in Germany and Switzerland have used metal-free plastic cathodes to replace expensive transparent conducting oxide-coated electrodes in dye-sensitised solar cells.

The team says that a record metal-free plastic cathode cell performance of 4.22% can be achieved at full sun, which is 27% less than the standard value of platinised transparent conducting oxide-coated electrodes, but at a fraction of the cost.

Towards flexibility: Metal free plastic cathodes for Dye sensitized solar cells
Shahzada Ahmad, Elisa Dell’Orto, Jun-Ho Yum, Florian Kessler, Mohammad Khaja Nazeeruddin and Michael Gratzel
DOI: 10.1039/C2CC35038F