Chemical Communications Blog

Cellulose nanocrystals can be transformed into pH sensing nanoparticles by dual fluorescent labelling employing a one-pot procedure, explain scientists in the UK and Denmark.

In particular, Wim Thielemans, Jonathan Aylott and co-workers from the University of Nottingham alongside colleagues from the University of Southern Denmark, have shown that the thiol–ene click reaction can be used to modify the cellulose nanocrystals surface, leading to many future applications in sensing or tissue engineering.

Fancy finding out more? Download the article today and blog some comments on the science below. The communication has been published in ChemComm where it will be free to access until the 9th December.

Japanese scientists claim to be breaking new ground by making optimal use of limited noble metal resources with one of the most abundant, renewable bioresources – cellulose.

They made gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) were made using crystalline cellulose single nanofibres (CSNFs), tailored from native cellulose. The AuNPs@CSNFs composite showed excellent catalytic efficiency, with a turnover efficiency of 840 times more than conventional polymer-supported AuNPs.

Takuya Kitaoka from Kyushu University and colleagues from the University of Tokyo, have published their findings in ChemComm, which is free to access until the 3rd December. So why not download the article today and blog some feedback below?

A new investigation into the self-assembly of a key anti-wrinkle cream component could lead to better skincare and regenerative medicine, according to the scientists who conducted the study.

Ian Hamley, at the University of Reading, UK, and colleagues looked at the suprastructures formed by a commercially available peptide amphiphile (PA) known as Matrixyl®. They found that it forms giant nanotapes with the peptide epitopes on the surface of the tapes, which they think is important in stimulating collagen production.

Find out more about in the group’s ChemComm communication.

A highly fluorescent and stable red organic light-emitting diode has been synthesised from an anthracene derivative containing a novel seven-fused ring system with two sulfur atoms acting as bridges.

Yunqi Liu and colleagues from the Chinese Academy of Sciences, in Beijing have published their findings in ChemComm, which is free to access until the 3rd of December. So, why not download the article today and discover what is so illuminating about these results.

An intrinsically conducting polymer (ICP)-organised nanopore array can be formed by controlled
electropolymerisation of pyrrole from an ionic-surfactant-solution in a titanium dioxide nanotubular matrix. 

Damian Kowalski and Patrik Schmuki from the University of Erlangen–Nurnberg, in Germany, have shown that the polymerisation is initialised selectively in the space between nanotube walls, forming a mechanically stable polymer network where wall thicknesses can also be controlled. Such robust polymer nanostructures are very promising for application in electrochemical systems.

Would you like to know more on the methodology and reaction conditions used by the team? Then why not download the article today, which is free to access until the 22nd November. Why not blog some comments on this article below too?

Low-spin nitrato iron complexes were formed by sequential reactions of oxygen and ammonia with thin layers of an iron porphyrin complex at low temperatures (80–100 K). Tigran Kurtikyan from the National Academy of Sciences in Armenia and Peter Ford from the University of California in the US, believe that the kinetic barrier for such isomerisations must be quite low, regardless of the reaction mechanism used.

Fancy studying the IR and visible spectra obtained to support these conclusions? Why not download the article today, which is free to access until the 22nd of November and blog some comments below.

Remarkably different selectivity can be obtained in the reaction of silicon enolates with α,β-unsaturated aldehydes by swapping the classically used Lewis acid catalysts for in situ-generated silicon Lewis acids, say Japanese scientists.

Read more about the conditions used by Takeo Taguchi and colleagues (Tokyo University of Pharmacy and Life Sciences) in their communication, free to access online until 22nd November.

US scientists have shown that texaphyrins can strongly bind lead and bismuth showing promise for future radiotherapeutic treatments of cancerous tumours.

ChemComm Associate Editor, Jonathan L. Sessler and colleagues from the University of Texas at Austin, have investigated the cytotoxicity of the stable texaphyrin complexes with ovarian cancer cells. Previous studies show that texaphyrin ligands accumulate in rapidly growing tissues, including cancerous lesions. So, to have now incorporated lead or bismuth – isotopes of which are commonly used in radiotherapy – into the texaphyrin structure makes a deadly combination for targeting and attacking cancerous cells.

Want to read more? Why not download the article today which is free to access until the 19th November.

Have you recently overcome a complex challenge? Why not submit your next set of exciting research results to ChemComm today.

A new anode material, consisting of carbon nanotubes (CNTs) filled with iron oxide nanoparticles, has been used in a lithium-ion battery, by scientists in China. The material showed highly desirable cycling performance and rate capability, which Chang Liu and co-workers at Chinese Academy of Sciences, in Shenyang attribute to the small size of the iron oxide nanoparticles, and also the confinement effect and good electrical conductivity of CNTs.

Fancy reading more? Then why not download the article today, which is free to access until the 22nd November.

Is your research creating a buzz in the scientific community? Then why not submit your next high impact set of results to ChemComm today!

Interactions that control the molecular ordering of fullerene are rare. This is a problem for scientists designing fullerene-based photovoltaic devices and field effect transistors, as the fullerenes must be ordered in the solid state to achieve high carrier mobility.

Now Eiichi Nakamura, at the University of Tokyo, Japan, and colleagues think they may have discovered an effective way to organise fullerene. They found that a perfluoro aromatic ring interacts face-to-face with fullerene resulting in close fullerene-fullerene contact. By attaching C₆H₅ groups to C₆₀, they showed they could form an ordered crystalline arrangement of fullerenes in the solid state.

Nakamura tested the performance of the fullerenes in a thin film photovoltaic device and achieved a power conversion efficiency of 1.5 %. The group now plan to do detailed physical studies on the device performance.

Read more in Nakamura’s ChemComm communication, free to access until 22nd November.