CrystEngComm Blog

This month’s Crystal Clear shows silver crystals forming tree shaped structures.

The image is taken from an article by Chunhua Ding, Jixiang Fang and colleagues from Xi’an Jiaotong University, China, which appeared in Issue 14 of CrystEngComm.

The scientists look at the nanostructural growth of the silver crystals, and how changing the conditions changes the way the crystals form. In this optical micrograph the silver crystals are arranged into a loose fractal tree, but they also made dendrite and dense branched shaped structures.

Read the full article to find out more about the nanostructures of these silver crystals…

In situ studies of different growth modes of silver crystals induced by the concentration field in an aqueous solution
Hongjun You, Chunhua Ding, Xiaoping Song, Bingjun Ding and Jixiang Fang
CrystEngComm, 2011, 13, 4491-4495
DOI: 10.1039/C1CE05289F

See other Crystal Clears by clicking on the category in the panel on the right hand side.

This month’s Crystal Clear is a tungsten oxide nanobrush made using oriented attachment and Ostwald ripening.

The brushes look like torches, and with sports fans doing their best to get London 2012 olympic tickets today, and the excitement of the games coming to the UK next year grows, we thought CrystEngComm should get involved!

We are therefore delighted to present a nanoscale olympic torch!

These crystals were made by Wolfgang Tremel and co-workers from Johannes Gutenberg-Universität, Germany and the National Institute for Materials Science, Japan, and appeared in Issue 13 of CrystEngComm, a themed issue on Dynamic behaviour and reactivity in crystalline solids, guest edited by Graeme Day and Tomislav Friščić from Cambridge University.

Read the full article if you’d like to find out more about these crystals…

Asymmetric tungsten oxide nanobrushes via oriented attachment and Ostwald ripening
Aswani Yella, Ujjal K. Gautam, Enrico Mugnaioli, Martin Panthöfer, Yoshio Bando, Dmitri Golberg, Ute Kolb and Wolfgang Tremel
CrystEngComm, 2011, 13, 4074-4081

This month’s crystal clear shows an indium nitride crystal taken from an article published in Issue 11 of CrystEngComm. We liked it because it looks like a classic engagement ring style diamond, which given our recent royal wedding is particularly striking!

The crystal was grown using gold nanoparticles as a catalyst and via a combination of vapour-liquid-solid and vapour-solid growth mechanisms. Indium nitride has potential for use in the semiconductor industry because of its bandgap of 0.7eV, and on this occasion the authors see these crystals being used in microcavity lasing.

Read the full article to find out more about these high quality indium nitride crystallites…

Vapor–liquid–solid meets vapor–solid growth mechanism for fabricating high quality indium nitride crystallites
Haibin Liu, Sishen Xie and Guosheng Cheng
CrystEngComm, 2011, 13, 3649-3652, DOI: 10.1039/C1CE05137G

This month’s Crystal Clear celebrates the recent lovely spring weather in the UK, where blossom and flowers are blooming.

This image of a nanoscale rose is taken from Hongpeng You and co-workers recent publication in CrystEngComm Issue 8. The rose shaped nanocrystal is a Eu³⁺-doped tungstate precursor made by the authors using disodium ethylenediamine tetraacetate. The precursors were then made into Eu³⁺-doped NaY(WO₄)2 and Y₆WO₁₂, which show strong light emission at tunable wavelengths, giving them potential for use in the electronics industry.

Read the full article to find out more about these nanoflowers…

Facile selective synthesis and luminescence behavior of hierarchical NaY(WO₄)₂:Eu³⁺ and Y₆WO₁₂:Eu³⁺
Yuhua Zheng, Hongpeng You, Kai Liu, Yanhua Song, Guang Jia, Yeju Huang, Mei Yang, Lihui Zhang and Guo Ning
CrystEngComm, 2011, 13, 3001-3007
DOI: 10.1039/C1CE05107E, Paper

Crystal Clear is feeling playful, so we’ve chosen Zhimao Yang’s ball shaped creations as our favourite crystal this month.

This month’s Crystal Clear is taken from Issue 7 of CrystEngComm, and shows highly symmetric multi-faceted polyhedral Cu₂O crystals made by a template-free complex-precursor solution route.

Read the full article to find out more…

Highly symmetric polyhedral Cu2O crystals with controllable-index planes
Shaodong Sun, Chuncai Kong, Shengchun Yang, Liqun Wang, Xiaoping Song, Bingjun Ding and Zhimao Yang
CrystEngComm, 2011, 13, 2217-2221
DOI: 10.1039/C0CE00679C, Communication

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This month’s Crystal Clear shows the work of Ping Yang and co-workers, who captured this image of what looks like a nebula in outer space.

The image actually shows luminescent nanocrystal fibres under 365nm UV light. In this paper, taken from Issue 6 of CrystEngComm, the authors also made hybrid SiO2-coated CdTe NCs which showed bright red emission. They further developed the fibres into highly luminescent 2-D fractal alignment and 3-D crystals. These promising materials have potential for use in biological and light emitting devices.

Read the article for FREE until 3rd April..

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Science as art: self-assembly of hybrid SiO2-coated nanocrystals
Ping Yang, Zhimin Yuan, Jie Yang, Aiyu Zhang, Yongqiang Cao, Qinghui Jiang, Ruixia Shi, Futian Liu and Xin Cheng
CrystEngComm, 2011, 13, 1814-1820
DOI: 10.1039/C0CE00350F, Paper

This month’s Crystal Clear is a strontium sulphate nano-star, made by a two step growth process from SrCrO₄ nanowires in a solution of Na₂SO₄ at room temperature.

Liang Zhen and colleagues at Harbin Institute of Technology, China published this work in Issue 3 of CrystEngComm

Synthesis and formation process of SrSO4 sisal-like hierarchical structures at room temperature
Wen-Shou Wang, Liang Zhen, Cheng-Yan Xu and Wen-Zhu Shao
CrystEngComm, 2011, 13, 620-625
DOI: 10.1039/C0CE00062K, Paper

READ FOR FREE until 21st February

In keeping with the festive season, December’s Crystal Clear is a fantastic tinsel-like CdS nanostructure. The christmassy nanowires were created on Cd-coated copper foils via a solvothermal reaction combined with electroplating.

This eyecatching image is taken from an article in Issue 1 2011, by Xiangmin Meng and co-workers at Hefei University of Technology and the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

Magnificent CdS three-dimensional nanostructure arrays: the synthesis of a novel nanostructure family for nanotechnology
Xinzheng Lan, Yang Jiang, Huangming Su, Shanying Li, Di Wu, Xinmei Liu, Tingting Han, Ling Han, Kaixuan Qin, Honghai Zhong and Xiangmin Meng
CrystEngComm, 2011, 13, 145-152
DOI: 10.1039/C0CE00093K, Paper

READ FOR FREE until 5th January

This month’s Crystal Clear is an eye-catching flower-like crystal. It’s nano size doesn’t stop it from rivalling nature’s chrysanthemums! The flowers are made from hexahedronal petals  of  (Ni₃(PO₄)₂·8H₂O) obtained from a simple template-free hydrothermal route.

The striking image is taken from an article in Issue 12 by Huaming Li and coworkers (Xiangtan University, China):

READ FOR FREE until the 30th of November

Controlled synthesis of nickel phosphate hexahedronal and flower-like architectures via a simple template-free hydrothermal route
Journal Article
Hui Wu, Yong Gao and Huaming Li
CrystEngComm, 2010, 12, 3607-3611

DOI: 10.1039/C002120B , Paper