Author Archive

Poster prize winner at the Active and Adaptive Materials Conference

Dr. Rein V. Ulijn (left) with Materials Horizons poster prize winner Noemie-Manuelle centre

Materials Horizons congratulates Noemie-Manuelle Dorval Courchesne for her poster prize award at the Active and Adaptive Materials Conference which took place at the City University of New York, New York from the 22nd – 23rd October 2015.

The conference focused on a number of different research fields in nano-molecular chemistry and featured with International speakers: Dr. Lee Cronin of the University of Glasgow, Dr. David G. Lynn of Emory University, Dr. Jan van Esch from Delft University of Technology and Dr. Samuel I. Stupp amongst others. A poster session was held on the ground floor with one of the prizes being awarded from Materials Horizons.

Further information about the conference can be found here.

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Pressure brings liquid marbles to a sticky end

Scientists in Japan have developed an adhesive that starts out as powder but transforms into glue for hard-to-reach places when pressed. This represents a promising application for liquid marble technology.

Liquid marbles are millimetre-sized liquid droplets that when coated in a hydrophobic powder, lose their wetness. Pressure-sensitive adhesives (PSAs) are viscoelastic polymers that instantly stick to solid surfaces through van der Waals forces. They are used in tapes, labels, post-it notes, spray droplets and adhesives, but PSAs’ sticky nature can make them difficult to handle. Combining these two technologies, Syuji Fujii and his team at the Osaka Institute of Technology in Japan and co-workers at the Max-Planck Institute for Polymer Research in Germany have developed liquid marbles made up of soft poly(n-butyl acrylate) latex polymer particles that form a tacky polymer core coated with a hard hydrophobic calcium carbonate nanoparticle shell. Initially, the marbles show no adhesive properties but by applying shear stress – light contact pressure between finger and thumb for 1–30 seconds – the powder’s nanoparticle layers rupture, allowing the soft inner polymer to ooze out, endowing the material with adhesive properties.

Interested? The full story can be read in Chemistry World.

The original article can be read below:

Pressure-sensitive adhesive powder
S Fujii et al, Mater. Horiz., 2016, Advance Article
DOI: 10.1039/C5MH00203F

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Prize winners at 6th EuChemS conference on Nitrogen Ligands

Materials Horizons would like to congratulate the prize winners from the 6th EuChemS conference on Nitrogen Ligands which took place in Beaune, France from the 13th-17th September. A number of Royal Society of Chemistry journal prizes – including Materials Horizons – were awarded to the following attendees for their work:

  • MedChemComm: Sophie Laine (CNRS, France)
  • Chemical Science: Neeladri Das (Patna University, India)
  • Dalton Transactions: Nicole Kindermann (Goettingen, Germany), Florian Schendzielorz (Goettingen, Germany) & Charles Lochenie (Bayreuth, Germany)
  • Inorganic Chemistry Frontiers: Amandine Conte-Daban (LCC Toulouse, France) & Yasin Kuzu (Dortmund, Germany)
  • Materials Horizons: Maxim A. Faraonov (Chernogolovka, Russia)

Previous conferences have been held in Alghero (1992), Como (1996), Camerino (2004), Garmisch-Partenkirchen (2008) and Granada (2011) with the intention of attracting scientists with an interest in the field of metal-nitrogen ligand chemistry from Europe, abroad and in particular, young scientists.

Further information about the conference can be found on the website.

Poster prize winners

Prize winners at 6th EuChemS conference

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Shrinking hydrogel reinforces fabric for soft yet strong material

A hydrogel–fabric composite that can support a load almost three times greater than the fabric alone has been made by scientists in Japan and the US.

For many applications, an ongoing challenge is to develop materials with seemingly contradictory properties. For example, the biomedical field wants materials that are tough, yet soft, wet, flexible and biocompatible – quite a tall order. Many researchers have spotted the potential of hydrogels, which are known for being soft and biocompatible, but limited by their lack of strength.

Interested? The full story can be read in Chemistry World.

The original article can be read below:

Extremely tough composites from fabric reinforced polyampholyte hydrogels
Alfred J. Crosby and Jian Ping Gong et al.
Mater. Horiz., 2015, Advance Article
DOI: 10.1039/C5MH00127G

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Bruno Chaudret is our new Scientific Editor

Bruno Chaudret

Materials Horizons would like to welcome Bruno Chaudret as our newest Scientific Editor.

Bruno has a wealth of experience having co-authored over 400 publications and being the recipient of several prizes including the Gay-Lussac – Humboldt Prize and the Wilkinson Prize of the RSC. He graduated from École Nationale Supérieure de Chimie de Paris in 1975 and then went on to receive his Ph.D. from Imperial College London in 1977 with Sir Geoffrey Wilkinson. He was awarded the degree of a “Docteur ès Sciences” at the University of Toulouse in 1979.

He is now “Director of Research CNRS”, Director of the “Laboratoire de Physique et Chimie des Nano-Objets” in Toulouse and a member of the French Academy of Science since 2005.

His interests have been in the chemistry of hydride and dihydrogen organometallic complexes, and in the early 90s, he developed an organometallic method for the synthesis of metal or metal oxide nanoparticles.

We very much look forward to working with him!

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Poster prize winners at FPi-12

Big congratulations to the poster prize winners at the 12th International Symposium on Functional π-Electron Systems (Fπ-12) which took place in Washington, USA from the 19th – 24th July.

Matthias Stolte (Universitat Wurzburg, Germany) and Amir Mazaheripour (UC Irvine) were awarded first place poster prizes sponsored by Materials Horizons and Journal of Materials Chemistry A, whilst the runner up prizes were sponsored by Materials Horizons, Journal of Materials Chemistry B and Journal of Materials Chemistry C. These were presented to: Sahika Inal (CMP-EMSE, France), Nathan Kirchhofer (UCSB), Ana Fokina (Johannes Gutenberg-Universitat Mainz) and Suhyun Jung (Gwangju Institute of Science and Technology). Titles of their winning posters can be found here.

The symposium regularly attracts world-wide participants who meet to discuss their new achievements in research fields. Another symposium, scheduled for 2017 will take place in Hong Kong and will be titled Fπ-13. Further information about the symposium including the program and speakers from this year can be found by clicking here.

Poster prizes winners at FPi-12

Poster prize winners at FPi-12 standing with Christine Luscombe (far right) who is the Associate Editor for Journal of Materials Chemistry A

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Nano-accordions stretch the boundaries for flexible electronics

Scientists in the US have unveiled a conductive and transparent material that also stretches, thanks to its corrugated design. The material’s nano-accordion arrangement demonstrates how microstructure can significantly affect macroproperties, and could find use in flexible electronics, stretchable displays and wearable technologies.

Flexible products are becoming more desirable as smart technologies improve and develop. Many previously discovered conductive materials are opaque and cannot be stretched due to their planar structures. Finding materials that are conductive, stretchable and transparent is therefore of utmost importance to allow these technologies to advance.

Interested? Read the full story at Chemistry World.

Aluminium-doped zinc oxide is conductive, transparent and bendy when it has a corrugated structure

Aluminium-doped zinc oxide is conductive, transparent and bendy when it has a corrugated structure

 The original article can be read below:

Multifunctional nano-accordion structures for stretchable transparent conductors
Abhijeet Bagal, Erinn C. Dandley, Junjie Zhao, Xu A. Zhang, Christopher J. Oldham, Gregory N. Parsons and Chih-Hao Chang
Mater. Horiz., 2015, Advance Article
DOI: 10.1039/C5MH00070J

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Poster prize winner at the US-Japan Workshop on Advances in Organic/Inorganic Hybrid Materials 2015

Prof. Kensuke Naka (Kyoto Institute of Technology / workshop committee co-chair), Mr. Yasuyuki Irie (Kyoto Institute of Technology) & Hiromitsu Urakami

From left: Professor Kensuke Naka (Kyoto Institute of Technology / workshop committee co-chair), Mr. Yasuyuki Irie (Kyoto Institute of Technology) & Hiromitsu Urakami (Royal Society of Chemistry)

Materials Horizons would like to give a hearty congratulations to PhD student Mr. Yasuyuki Irie for his poster titled: ‘Single component self-standing films based on carbazole terminated polyhedral octasilicate-core dendrimers’ which was awarded a prize at the US-Japan Workshop on Advances in Organic/Inorganic Hybrid Materials 2015 which took place in Himeji, Japan from the 18th – 22nd May 2015.

The purpose of the workshop was to showcase new research and application directions in the area of organic/inorganic hybrids, inorganic polymers, and nanocomposite materials and provide an interdisciplinary forum for the presentation of new and unpublished results in the area as well as providing a special opportunity to exchange ideas and information between leading US and Japanese researchers in the field.

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Materials Horizons poster prize winners

Materials Horizons would like to congratulate the following poster prize winners at the recent MCARE 2015 (Materials Challenges in Alternative & Renewable Energy) conference which took place in Jeju, Korea on the 24th – 27th February.

1st place Poster Prize winner

Bit Na Choi receiving her first place prize certificate

First place poster prize was presented to Bit Na Choi, (Sungkyunkwan University) for her poster titled: ‘Metal-conducting polymer hybrid electrode for an electrochemical pseudo-capacitor’ and Runner up prizes were awarded to Yongwoo Kwon, (KAIST) and HongJoon Yoon, (Sungkyunkwan University) for their posters titled: ‘Shape effect and metal oxide coating of Cu2O particles on stability in water and photocatalytic water splitting’ and ‘Highly effective piezoelectric nanogenrator and self-powered pressure sensor using micro-structured film’.

The conference is hosted by the Korean Institute of Chemical Engineers and aims to bring together global experts from academia, industry and government agencies, allowing for a unique opportunity for discussion and collaboration essential to propelling multi-disciplinary, innovative and sustainable solutions in the field of alternative and renewable energy. Further information about the conference can be found on the website.

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Our new Scientific Editor Martina Stenzel

Martina Stenzel

Materials Horizons is delighted to welcome Martina Stenzel as our new Scientific Editor.

Martina studied chemistry at the University of Bayreuth, Germany, before completing her PhD in 1999 at the Institute of Applied Macromolecular Chemistry, University of Stuttgart, Germany. She currently holds the position of full professor at the University of New South Wales (UNSW), Sydney, Australia where she originally started working as a DAAD Postdoctoral Fellow. Her research interests encompass the synthesis of functional polymers with complex architectures such as glycopolymers and other polymers for biomedical applications, especially polymers with in-build metal complexes for the delivery of metal-based anti-cancer drugs.

She has also published more than 200 peer reviewed papers and 8 book chapters and has attracted more than 9000 citations so far. To find out more about Martina, please do have a read of her interview in our sister publication, Chemical Communications below:

Interview with Martina Stenzel
Chem. Commun., 2014, 50, 8626-8627
DOI: 10.1039/C4CC90201G

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