CrystEngComm Blog

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

Robert W. Lancaster and colleagues from University College London, have investigated the phenomenon of ‘disappearing polymorphs’, using a 50 year old progesterone sample obtained from the University of Innsbruck archive.

Disappearing polymorphs are an unusual occurance, where a form that was previously considered to be stable and easy to make, suddenly becomes very difficult to obtain. The reasons for this are poorly understood, and here Lancaster looks into the case of the hormone progesterone, where the modern version suffers from a ‘disappearing polymorph’, which can be found in the 50 year old archived sample.

Read the full article for FREE to find out more.

Fifty-year old samples of progesterone demonstrate the complex role of synthetic impurities in stabilizing a metastable polymorph
Robert W. Lancaster, Lisa D. Harris and David Pearson
CrystEngComm, 2011, Advance Article
DOI: 10.1039/C0CE00858C, Communication

In this CrystEngComm Hot article, Sunil Verma and co-workers have produced a large single crystal of lithium pnitrophenolate trihydrate, which can be used as a non-linear optical material.

Non-linear optical materials can be used in lasers, and organic NLO materials are particularly desirable because they have higher non-linearity and better laser damage resistance when compared to inorganic materials.

This article is significant because the authors have managed to grow a large size crystal, which is normally difficult due to the weakness of the van der Waals and hydrogen bonds holding the molecules together.

Read the full article to find out more about the slow cooling solution growth method used…

Solubility, crystal growth, morphology, crystalline perfection and optical homogeneity of lithium p-nitrophenolate trihydrate, a semiorganic NLO crystal
S. Dinakaran, Sunil Verma and S. Jerome Das
CrystEngComm, 2011, Advance Article
DOI: 10.1039/C0CE00663G, Paper

READ FOR FREE until 3rd March 2011

Free to access until Tuesday 15th February 2011!

In this CrystEngComm Hot Article, Stephen Mann and co-workers demonstrate the use of electrospun mats of amorphous calcium phosphate (ACP)/poly(vinylpyrrolidone) (PVP) nano- and microfibres to promote in vitro remineralization of dental enamel and dentine tubule occlusion.

The method is performed under clinically relevant conditions and holds the potential for a new approach to the regeneration of enamel and the alleviation of dentine hypersensitivity.

Read more:
Electrospun mats of PVP/ACP nanofibres for remineralization of enamel tooth surfaces
Jane Fletcher, Dominic Walsh, Christabel Emma Fowler and Stephen Mann,
CrystEngComm, 2011, Advance Article
DOI: 10.1039/C0CE00806K, Paper

This latest work from Marcus A. Neumann’s group uses dispersion-corrected density functional theory to look at the energy minimisation of 2,6-bis(2,4-dichlorobenzylidene)cyclohexanone. In this CrystEngComm Hot article they discover that this method predicts the low-temperature phase transition seen in experiment.

As the authors state ‘we believe that DFT-D energy minimisation provides a valuable tool since the calculations have now been shown to be sufficiently reliable to guide experimental studies towards targets most likely to exhibit interesting temperature dependent variation’

READ the full article for free until 18th February

Experimental verification of a subtle low-temperature phase transition suggested by DFT-D energy minimisation
Andrew D. Bond, Katarzyna A. Solanko, Jacco van de Streek and Marcus A. Neumann
CrystEngComm, 2011, Advance Article
DOI: 10.1039/C0CE00676A, Communication

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

In this CrystEngComm Hot article, Minori Taguchi and colleagues make CeO₂ nanoparticles with hydrophilic polymers attached to the surface. Hybrid nanoparticles like these are especially useful as they allow the physical properties of the metal oxide to be combined with the desirable tunablity of the organic molecules.

Ceria nanoparticles are used in many applications from three-way catalysts to oxygen ion conductors, and also in cosmetics, for their UV shielding.

Read the full article to see how these researchers used an efficient supercritical hydrothermal method to make these interesting particles…

READ FOR FREE until 5th February

Supercritical hydrothermal synthesis of hydrophilic polymer-modified water-dispersible CeO2 nanoparticles
Minori Taguchi, Seiichi Takami, Tadafumi Adschiri, Takayuki Nakane, Koichi Sato and Takashi Naka
CrystEngComm, 2011, Advance Article
DOI: 10.1039/C0CE00467G, Paper