CrystEngComm Blog

Single-crystal study on brownmillerite type frameworks

22 Jun 2012

This article is HOT as recommended by the referees. And we’ve made it free to access for 4 weeks.

Werner Paulus and colleagues report on studies into low temperature oxygen mobility in terms of anisotropic oxygen in brownmillerite type frameworks. By using a floating zone method they were able to optimise the paramaters so as to obtain large and homogenous crystals of CaFeO_2.5 that were essential for detailed structural and lattic dynamic studies. Understanding oxygen mobility in non-stoichiometric perovskites will aid the development of electrolytes in solid-oxide fuel cells which currently work at high temperatures but low temperature conditions would be preferable.

Typical CaFeO2.5 crytals obtained in this study were 120 mm long and had a shiny, silver-blck surface with metallic luster.

Typical CaFeO2.5 crystals obtained in this study were 120 mm long and had a shiny, silver-black surface with metallic luster.

Download the paper to find out more…

Growth and characterization of large high quality brownmillerite CaFeO_2.5 single crystals
Monica Ceretti, Andrea Piovano, Alain Cousson, Tanguy Berthier, Martin Meven, Giovanni Agostini, Jurg Schefer, Olivier Hernandez, Carlo Lamberti and Werner Paulus
CrystEngComm, 2012
DOI: 10.1039/C2CE25413A

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Crystal Engineering GRC 2012

22 Jun 2012

By Fiona McKenzie, Executive Editor.

No lions and tigers, but certainly bears!

Last week I attended the Gordon Research Conference in Crystal Engineering. This was my first GRC and I loved it! The meeting was held at Waterville Valley Resort in New Hampshire, USA which can be best described as something the Disney resorts would use to model their wildnerness lodge areas. The looming hills, rivers, New England-style cabins and prowling bears (unfortunately I didn’t spot any!) were the perfect backdrop to a meeting filled with excellent science and a great chance for colleagues from across the globe to catch up.

This year the conference was chaired by Robin Rogers (University of Alabama and Crystal Growth & Design Editor in Chief), with Vice Chairs Christer Aakeröy (Kansas State University and CrystEngComm Associate Editor) and Mike Zawarotko (University of South Florida and Crystal Growth & Design Associate Editor).

Following the two and a half hour coach journey from Boston, we were rushed into dinner which was quickly followed by the first of the evening lectures, marking the beginning of the meeting. The first session was nanocrystal-based with talks given by Helmut Coelfen and Christoph Janiak on using ultracentrifugation to analyse nanoparticles and ionic liquids to stabilise nanoparticles, respectively.

After kick-starting Day 2 with the obigliatory American waffles and maple syrup, I joined the morning session to hear Jennifer Swift deliver her presentation, providing insight into in vivo uric acid precipitation. Next up was Kraig Wheeler who described his recent work investigating quasiracemates, followed by Miguel Garcia-Garibay’s talk on performing photochemical reactions with nanocrystals. The evening session was of much more relective nature with Joel Bernstein looking back over the seminal work from the past decades. Gautam Desiraju talked on polymorphism, highlighting some of his recent nanoidentation work published in Chemical Science (see here for more).

Tuesday morning was dedicated to porous materials – Lee Cronin and Arunachalamr Ramanan delivered presentations on polyoxometallates and Shengqian Ma gave an overview on his latest work on metalloporphyrin frameworks – whilst the evening session was focused on conducting materials with talks by Marc Fourmigué and Hiroshi Yamamoto.

Poster sessions were held throughout the week and were a true reflection of the quality and the diversity of the talks. The CrystEngComm poster prize was awarded to Sajesh Thomas from Professor Guru Row’s research group at the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore. His poster was entitled “Chalcogen Bonding in Crystal Engineering: Its Directing role in Isostructurality and Polymorphism.” Well done Sajesh!

I reluctantly left the conference on the Wednesday morning after excellent talks from Nair Rodriguez-Hornedo and Susan Bourne (who began her talk using penguins to describe different crystal symmetries!), but I have been assured that the science continued to “sparkle”…

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There’s still just time to register for Crystallisation – A Biological Perspective: Faraday Discussion 159

14 Jun 2012

By Matthew Cude, Development Editor.

There’s still just time to register for Crystallisation – A Biological Perspective: Faraday Discussion 159 – by the deadline date of 22 June.

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If you are working in the areas of biomineralisation, biomimetic crystallisation, nucleation or crystal growth, then you will benefit from joining this discussion with top experts in the field.

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Taking part in a Faraday Discussion means that your own work will get better known, as all research papers and comments are recorded for publication after the event.

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Registration is quick and simple via our online booking system, so act today.

Come and explore the controversial new evidence of pre-nucleation clusters and discuss this apparent divergence from classical nucleation theory.

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June Crystal Clear: Euro 2012 Crystal

14 Jun 2012

By Matthew Cude, Development Editor.

A titanium microsphere, used as the starting material to make hollow whisker balls

With Euro 2012 now well under away this month’s crystal clear couldn’t be more apt – a crystal soccer ball. The paper, from Issue 12 of CrystEngComm, reports the generation of highly crystalline hollow whisker balls.

Using the KCl flux cooling method, the team were able to grow highly crystalline K₂Ti₆O₁₃ whiskers from the centres of titanium microspheres. The ultra-long whiskers grew on a TiO₂ layer, leaving the centre of the sphere hollow and creating a bi-layer hollow whisker ball structure.

The team also used Ti powders as a starting material for the flux process and found this produced significantly different structures, for more details of the teams procedure and some remarkable images of their unique balls, download their article below for free.

Growth of ultralong potassium titanate whiskers by the KCl flux method with metallic titanium materials
Sayaka Suzuki, Katsuya Teshima, Mizuho Kiyohara, Hideya Kamikawa, Kunio Yubuta, Toetsu Shishido and Shuji Oishi
CrystEngComm, 2012,14, 4176-4180
DOI: 10.1039/C2CE00010E

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Call for Papers: Covalent organic frameworks and related porous molecular materials

12 Jun 2012

By Matthew Cude, Development Editor.

Submit before 22nd August and your work could be included in this upcoming themed issue!

Submissions are now open for our themed issue focusing on covalent organic frameworks (COFs) and closely-related materials such as porous molecular crystals, with Guest Editor Andy Cooper. Manuscripts concerning all aspects of these materials including synthesis, structure determination, theory, properties and applications are welcome.

To fit with the scope of the journal, the emphasis is on crystalline materials, although studies concerning the synthetic engineering of 3-D structure in amorphous networks, such as covalent organic polymers, might be appropriate for consideration providing that a clear link between molecular structure and extended structure is established.

The deadline for submissions is 22^nd August 2012. Communications, full papers and Highlight are welcome and can be submitted online with a note specifying the manuscript it is intended for the themed issue.

Please note that all submissions are subject to the usual peer-review process and inclusion within the themed issue is subject to the manuscript fitting both the scope of the journal and the themed issue, if you have any questions about the issue or the journal please don’t hesitate contact the Editorial Office.

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Glass ceramics and controlled crystallisation

08 Jun 2012

By Matthew Cude, Development Editor.

This article is HOT as recommended by the referees. And we’ve made it free to access for 4 weeks.

Glass ceramics are remarkable materials and as their name suggests, they exhibit properties of both glasses and ceramics. An interesting and well known example of a glass ceramic is the lithium, silicon and aluminium-oxide material which provides the almost unbreakable tops to our electric hobs as well as protection for deep space mirrors.

An SEM micrograph of the polished cross-section of a sample annealed for 20h

This isn’t the only glass ceramic system nor is the low (or even zero) coefficient of thermal expansion the only interesting property these materials have. Glass ceramics containing crystals of the fresnoite type possess interesting piezoelectric, pyroelectric and surface acoustic properties. This Hot Article from Wolfgang Wisniewski, Marek Patschger and Christian Russel reports the Sr-fresnoite surface crystallisation in a 2SrO·TiO₂·2.75 SiO₂ glass and is a great example of modern functionality driven research.

lFind out more about the teams discoveries by downloading their article below for free

Sr-fresnoite surface crystallisation in a 2SrO•TiO₂•2.75 SiO₂ glass studied by EBSD
Wolfgang Wisniewski, Marek Patschger and Christian Rüssel
CrystEngComm, 2012, Advance Article

Other articles which may also be of interest include:

Composition and texture of barium silicate crystals in fresnoite glass-ceramics by various scanning electron microscopic techniques
Marcus Nagel, Wolfgang Wisniewski, Günter Völksch, Christian Borschel, Carsten Ronning and Christian Rüssel
CrystEngComm, 2011, 13, 3383-3389

Crystallisation of iron containing glass–ceramics and the transformation of hematite to magnetite
Wolfgang Wisniewski, Ruzha Harizanova, Günter Völksch and Christian Rüssel
CrystEngComm, 2011, 13, 4025-4031

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Yellow light for nanowires

01 Jun 2012

By Helen Lunn, Publishing Editor.

This article is HOT as recommended by the referees. And we’ve made it free to access for 4 weeks.

SEM images of the as-synthesized ZnS nanowire bundles

Researchers from China have recently described the controlled synthesis of ZnS nanowire bundles and nanorod arrays though directly etching zinc wafer at mild temperature. Unique yellow photoluminescence emissions of the as-obtained ZnS nanostructures were observed. The as-synthesized ZnS nanorod arrays possess good superhydrophobicity making the nanostructures excellent candidates for optics and biomimetics.

Read more about these interesting nanostructures at:

Self assembly of shape-controlled ZnS nanostructures with novel yellow light photoluminescence and excellent hydrophobic properties
Weina Jia, Boxiang Jia, Xiang Wu and Fengyu Qu
CrystEngComm, 2012, Advance Article
DOI: 10.1039/C2CE25144B