Journal of Materials Chemistry Blog

The paper featured on the outside front cover is Self-assembly and charge transport properties of a benzobisthiazole end-capped with dihexyl thienothiophene units (Greg J. McEntee, Filipe Vilela, Peter J. Skabara, Thomas D. Anthopoulos, John G. Labram, Steve Tierney, Ross W. Harrington and William Clegg, J. Mater. Chem., 2011, 21, 2091-2097). The paper reports thin-film studies and OFEt characteristics for a rigid, planar conjugated molecule, BDHTT-BBT. The authors say that this material exhibits liquid crystal properties in its thin-film state.

Unique hexagonal non-close-packed arrays of alumina obtained by plasma etching/deposition with catalytic performance is the paper highlighted on the inside front cover. (Shuyan Gao, Naoto Koshizaki, Yue Li and Liang Li, J. Mater. Chem., 2011, 21, 2087-2090.) This paper reports a hexagonal-non-close-packed alumina array with hierarchical micro-/nano-structures fabricated by plasma etching/deposition that acts as a catalyt in ethyl acetoacetate isomerization.

The back cover showcases the work of David Muñoz-Rojas, Judith Oró-Solé, Omar Ayyad and Pedro Gómez-Romero (Shaping hybrid nanostructures with polymer matrices: the formation mechanism of silver–polypyrrole core/shell nanostructures; J. Mater. Chem., 2011, 21, 2078-2086). In the paper the team show that a polypyrrole matrix forming around suspended Ag2O particles in a pyrrole solution under hydrothermal conditions is key for the formation of tortuous Ag@PPy nanostructures.

You can read the whole issue here:

The one-pot synthesis of core/shell/shell CdTe/CdSe/ZnSe quantum dots in aqueous media for in vivo deep tissue imaging. Shohei Taniguchi, Mark Green, Sarwat B. Rizvi and Alexander Seifalian, J. Mater. Chem., 2011, DOI: 10.1039/C0JM03527K, Paper (Advance Article)

Water soluble, near infrared emitting CdTe/CdSe/ZnSe quantum dots have been synthesized in a simple one-pot procedure. The team of scientists based at King’s College London and University College London in the UK, say the emission wavelength could be tuned from 530 nm (original CdTe core) to 670 nm. To demonstrate the effectiveness the quantum dots were used in subcutaneous deep tissue monitoring.

Controllable synthesis of anisotropic elongated particles using microvalve actuated microfluidic approach. Qingquan Zhang, Shaojiang Zeng, Bingcheng Lin and Jianhua Qin, J. Mater. Chem., 2011, DOI: 10.1039/C0JM04033A (Advance Article)

The team from the Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics, China, showcase a method to synthesize anisotropic elongated particles via the combination of a droplet based microsphere synthesis and colloidal assembly in a microchannel. The team claim’s that the method is flexible and easy to operate and could find applications in rheological modifiers and drug delivery carrier design.