CrystEngComm Blog

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

This latest paper from Mark A. Spackman‘s group, based at the University of Western Australia, explores the void space in crystal structures.

An appreciation of the empty spaces in crystalline materials is vital to our understanding of how these materials behave, and in this paper, these scientists do just that. They use a new computational modelling approach to map the voids in molecular solids. Their method can be applied to molecular crystals, organic, metal–organic and inorganic polymers, so that we can understand and improve their use in various applications from gas storage to catalysis and separation.

Read this CrystEngComm Hot article FOR FREE until January 20th.

Visualisation and characterisation of voids in crystalline materials
Michael J. Turner, Joshua J. McKinnon, Dylan Jayatilaka and Mark A. Spackman
CrystEngComm, 2011, Advance Article
DOI: 10.1039/C0CE00683A, Paper

The scientists in this CrystEngComm Hot article have developed an impressive way to seperate carboxylic acids from fuels.

This is especially important with fuels produced from renewable biomass, where product removal enhances microbial growth and production. But the conventionally used technique to remove products by inducing crystallisation, does not work efficiently for carboxylic acids.

Johan Urbanus and colleagues based in the Netherlands, used electrochemistry to manipulate the pH to obtain neutral carboxylic acids, and used co-crystals to control the solubility to remove them. As the referees of this paper commented, this is an elegant use of electrochemical principles in cocrystallisation and product removal.

READ FOR FREE until 12th January

Electrochemically induced co-crystallization for product removal
Johan Urbanus, C. P. Mark Roelands, Jaroslaw Mazurek, Dirk Verdoes and Joop H. ter Horst
CrystEngComm, 2011, Advance Article
DOI: 10.1039/C0CE00284D, Communication

In this CrystEngComm Hot article, (001)-oriented BaTiO3/LaNiO3 superlattics are made by a radio frequency sputtering method.

Liang Qiao and Xiaofang Bi noticed a dielectric anomaly in their superlattices; they observed that the  dielectric maxima shifted towards higher temperatures with an increase in frequency. Read on to see how they explain their results, and to find out more about the dielectric properties and phase transition characteristics of their BaTiO3/LaNiO3 superlattices.

Dielectric phase transition and relaxor behavior in BaTiO3/LaNiO3 superlattice
Liang Qiao and Xiaofang Bi
CrystEngComm, 2011, Advance Article
DOI: 10.1039/C0CE00665C, Paper