CrystEngComm Blog

In this CrystEngComm Hot Article, Pal et al., describe a modified hydrothermal (MHT) reaction for the nucleation, growth and reversible dehydration of a well defined uranium oxide hydroxide hydrate species.

Shaping nano-/microcrystals using a ‘bottom-up’ method needs considerable attention.   This is important as the morphology, dimensionality and size of the material can have a effect on its physical and chemical properties.

Read for free until 22nd March 2011 and find out more about these different crystal morphologies here.

Interested in amazing crystal images?  Why not check out our Crystal Clear section.

Morphology controlled uranium oxide hydroxide hydrate for catalysis, luminescence and SERS studies
Mukul Pradhan, Sougata Sarkar, Arun Kumar Sinha, Mrinmoyee Basu and Tarasankar Pal*
CrystEngComm, 2011, DOI: 10.1039/C0CE00666A, Paper

In this new CrystEngComm Hot Article, a team of Italian scientists led by M. Lucia Curri have demonstrated that monomodal or bimodal PbS nanocrystals can be produced in a single experiment.  The group were able to shed light on the mechanism of self organization in these assemblies with an aim to predict the the formation of the solid crystal phases.

It was found that the effect of several parameters, including solvent composition, nanocrystal concentration, size ratio of the two populations, strongly influenced the formation of the superlattice and the final geometry.

The ability in engineering nanocrystal building blocks is essential for designing novel architectured materials.

Find out more about this work here. FREE to read until 10th March 2011!

Self-organization of mono- and bi-modal PbS nanocrystal populations in superlattices
Michela Corricelli, Davide Altamura, Liberato De Caro, Antonella Guagliardi, Andrea Falqui, Alessandro Genovese, Angela Agostiano, Cinzia Giannini, Marinella Striccoli and M. Lucia Curri
CrystEngComm, 2011, Advance Article, DOI: 10.1039/C0CE00874E

Read this CrystEngComm HOT article by Gower et al. for FREE until 7th February 2011

A multinational team of scientists have demonstrated that biogenic collagen scaffolds obtained from turkey tendon, which consist of densely packed and oriented collagen fibrils, can also be mineralized by a polymer-induced liquid-precursor (PILP) process.

Synthetic collagen scaffolds have previously been used to demonstrate that intrafibrillar mineralization can be achieved with the PILP process which enables the unique nanostructured architecture of bone to be reproduced in vitro.

Turkey tendon is an excellent model of secondary bone formation because it mineralizes in response to increased stresses from the weight of the growing bird. The collagen is directly mineralized, leading to a collagen–mineral phase that resembles secondary bone.

Oriented hydroxyapatite in turkey tendon mineralized via the polymer-induced liquid-precursor (PILP) process

Sang Soo Jee, Rajendra Kumar Kasinath, Elaine DiMasi, Yi-Yeoun Kimae and Laurie Gower

CrystEngComm, 2011, Advance Article DOI: 10.1039/C0CE00605J, Paper