Lanthanide MOFs: Amazing Structures say ‘Hello!’ to Outstanding Properties

Ángeles Monge and co-workers delve into the world of Y and Sc MOFs in their recently published CrystEngComm Highlight article. You can read their HOT article for FREE until the 20th May 2011 by clicking on the following link:

Lanthanide, Y and Sc MOFs: where amazing crystal structures meet outstanding material properties
Ángeles Monge, Felipe Gándara, Enrique Gutiérrez-Puebla and Natalia Snejko
CrystEngComm, 2011, DOI: 10.1039/C0CE00891E

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HOT Article: Nickel-platinum alloy nanocubes

In this CrystEngComm Hot article, Balachandran Jeyadevan and co-workers from the University of Shiga Prefecture, Japan make cubic-shaped standing Ni–Pt alloy nanoparticles via an alcohol reduction process.

These nanoparticles are particularly interesting because, rather unusually, they stand on their corners, instead of on a face. Jeyadevan believes this due to ‘the magnetic interaction between particles whose easy axis is in the [111] direction’.

Novel standing Ni–Pt alloy nanocubes
Jhon L. Cuya Huaman, Shunya Fukao, Kozo Shinoda and Balachandran Jeyadevan
CrystEngComm, 2011, Advance Article
DOI: 10.1039/C1CE05241A, Communication

FREE TO READ until 13th May

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HOT Article: Perfect single crystals of magnesium diboride

Chinping Chen, Rongming Wang and colleagues have made perfect single crystals of MgBr2, as part of their collaboration between Peking University and Beijing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics.

Magnesium diboride is known for its good superconducting properties, and many forms of MgB2 have been made previously, but large single crystals are still extremely difficult to obtain. In this CrystEngComm Hot article, Chen and Wang use a hybrid physical-chemical vapor deposition technique to obtain perfect crystals.

Read the full article to find out more about magnesium diboride single crystals…

Single-crystal MgB2 hexagonal microprisms via hybrid physical-chemical vapor deposition
Weimeng Chen, Wei Liu, Chinping Chen, Rongming Wang and Qingrong Feng
CrystEngComm, 2011, Advance Article
DOI: 10.1039/C1CE05272A, Communication

FREE TO READ until 13th May

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HOT article: Shuttle-like nanorods

In this HOT article, Chinese scientists describe the controlled synthesis of orderly NaLa(MoO4)2 shuttle-like architectures (nanorods Shuttle-like nanorodscomposed of nanoparticles) composed of nanoparticles under hydrothermal conditions.  Ethylene glycol was used as the solvent which can decrease the reaction rate by forming ligand bonds with lanthanide ions and further control the final morphology of the product.  Eu3+ ion was chosen as a structural information probe to obtain more luminescent and phase structure information.

Read more for FREE until 12th May 2011 at:

Synthesis and luminescent properties of NaLa(MoO4)2:Eu3+ shuttle-like nanorods composed of nanoparticles
Mei Yang, Hongpeng You, Yongchao Jia, Hui Qiao, Ning Guo and Yanhua Song
CrystEngComm, 2011, Advance Article
DOI: 10.1039/C0CE00822B

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HOT article: Guest-selective sensors based on porous coordination polymers

In this HOT article, Kitagawa and co-workers describe two isomorphic frameworks, [Zn(thdc)(dpNDI)]n, based on 2,5-thiophenedicarboxylate (thdc) as the topology-directing ligand,  assembled from zinc ions and N,N‘-di(4-pyridyl)-1,4,5,8-naphthalenediimide (dpNDI) as the electron-accepting ligand.  The unique connecting angle of thdc promotes the formation of either a 3D pillared-layer framework or an interdigitated 2D layer framework, which are originally synthesized with terephthalic acid or isophthalic acid, respectively.  In addition, these isomers show different charge-transfer interactions with electron-donating aromatic molecules because of their intrinsic porous structure determined by their topology.  Such a topological design of PCPs can be used in guest-selective sensor materials.

Read more for FREE until 12th May 2011 here:

Control of the charge-transfer interaction between a flexible porous coordination host and aromatic guests by framework isomerism
Yohei Takashima, Shuhei Furukawa and Susumu Kitagawa
CrystEngComm, 2011, Advance Article
DOI: 10.1039/C1CE05201B

See also the tutorial review on coordination polymers by Kitagawa:

Dynamic porous properties of coordination polymers inspired by hydrogen bonds
Susumu Kitagawa and Kazuhiro Uemura
Chem. Soc. Rev., 2005, 34, 109-119
DOI:10.1039/B313997M

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HOT Article: Metal nitride and titanate nanofibers

This CrystEngComm Hot article demonstrates the fabrication of metal nitride nanofibres by electrospinning and thermolysis in different atmospheres.

Xingbin Yan and colleagues from the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Lanzhou make zinc titanate compounds, which are known for their wide application in roles as varied as paint pigments, gas sensors and catalysis.

In this paper they are making Zn2TiO4, which is an inverse spinel, and TiN nanofibers, but their method can be extended to other metal nitrides.

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

Fabrication of Zn2TiO4 and TiN nanofibers by pyrolysis of electrospun precursor fibers
Dongfei Sun, Xingbin Yan, Jiangtao Chen, Shengxue Yu, Litian Hu and Qunji Xue
CrystEngComm, 2011, Advance Article
DOI: 10.1039/C1CE05033H, Paper

FREE TO READ until 14th May

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This week’s CrystEngSelects

Here is this week’s selection of advanced articles of interest to crystal engineers from across the RSC journals.

Articles are chosen from:
ChemComm,
CrystEngComm,
Dalton Transactions,
Journal of Materials Chemistry,
New Journal of Chemistry,
Nanoscale,
Organic & Biomolecular Chemistry.
 
Adriana Gaona Gomez, Glynis de Silveira, Huu Doan and Chil-Hung Cheng, Chem. Commun., 2011, Advance Article
DOI: 10.1039/C1CC10894H, Communication
 
Yonghong Ni, Kai Mi, Chao Cheng, Jun Xia, Xiang Ma and Jianming Hong, Chem. Commun., 2011, Advance Article
DOI: 10.1039/C1CC11640A, Communication
 
Cyril Dreyfus, Manuel Larrouy, Florine Cavelier, Jean Martinez, David Pignol and Pascal Arnoux, Chem. Commun., 2011, Advance Article
DOI: 10.1039/C1CC10565E, Communication
 
Fei Wang, Yan-Xi Tan, Hui Yang, Hai-Xia Zhang, Yao Kang and Jian Zhang, Chem. Commun., 2011, Advance Article
DOI: 10.1039/C1CC10829H, Communication
 
Lei Hou, Wen-Juan Shi, Yao-Yu Wang, Ying Guo, Chen Jin and Qi-Zhen Shi, Chem. Commun., 2011, Advance Article
DOI: 10.1039/C1CC10990A, Communication
 
Melanie Bottrill and Mark Green, Chem. Commun., 2011, Advance Article
DOI: 10.1039/C1CC10692A, Feature Article
 
Carlos Bartual-Murgui, Norma A. Ortega-Villar, Helena J. Shepherd, M. Carmen Muñoz, Lionel Salmon, Gábor Molnár, Azzedine Bousseksou and José Antonio Real, J. Mater. Chem., 2011, Advance Article
DOI: 10.1039/C0JM04387G, Paper
 
Arup Samanta and Debajyoti Das, J. Mater. Chem., 2011, Advance Article
DOI: 10.1039/C1JM10443H, Paper
 
Murat E. Kurtoglu, Travis Longenbach and Yury Gogotsi, J. Mater. Chem., 2011, Advance Article
DOI: 10.1039/C1JM10752F, Paper
 
M. D. Riktor, Y. Filinchuk, P. Vajeeston, E. G. Bardají, M. Fichtner, H. Fjellvåg, M. H. Sørby and B. C. Hauback, J. Mater. Chem., 2011, Advance Article
DOI: 10.1039/C1JM00074H, Paper
 
Mahlon S. Wilson, Andrew Delariva and Fernando H. Garzon, J. Mater. Chem., 2011, Advance Article
DOI: 10.1039/C1JM10529A, Paper
 
 
Michael Benstead, Geraldine A. Rosser, Andrew Beeby, Georg H. Mehl and Ross W. Boyle, New J. Chem., 2011, Advance Article
DOI: 10.1039/C0NJ00990C, Paper
 
Xianming Li, Yong Peng, Zhengbao Wang and Yushan Yan, CrystEngComm, 2011, Advance Article
DOI: 10.1039/C1CE05094J, Communication
 
Dongqing He, Lingling Wang, Haiyan Li, Tianyi Yan, Dejun Wang and Tengfeng Xie, CrystEngComm, 2011, Advance Article
DOI: 10.1039/C0CE00918K, Paper
 
Zhen-Lan Fang, Rong-Min Yu, Jie Zhang and Can-Zhong Lu, CrystEngComm, 2011, Advance Article
DOI: 10.1039/C0CE00907E, Paper
 
Mei Yang, Hongpeng You, Yongchao Jia, Hui Qiao, Ning Guo and Yanhua Song, CrystEngComm, 2011, Advance Article
DOI: 10.1039/C0CE00822B, Paper
 
E. V. Alexandrov, V. A. Blatov, A. V. Kochetkov and D. M. Proserpio, CrystEngComm, 2011, Advance Article
DOI: 10.1039/C0CE00636J, Highlight
 
Ke-Ling Hou, Feng-Ying Bai, Yong-Heng Xing, Jian-Ling Wang and Zhan Shi, CrystEngComm, 2011, Advance Article
DOI: 10.1039/C0CE00707B, Paper
 
Tianyu Zhao, Jiantao Zai, Miao Xu, Qiong Zou, Yuezeng Su, Kaixue Wang and Xuefeng Qian, CrystEngComm, 2011, Advance Article
DOI: 10.1039/C1CE05113J, Paper
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Hot Article: Hydrogen bonds vs. Halogen bonds

In this CrystEngComm Hot Article, Tullio Pilati and Franco Cozzi describe  the structural variations of crystal structures in which a strong interaction, provided by a network of hydrogen bonds, is modulated by the introduction of halogen atoms.

The team chose systems of a series of crystals and co-crystals formed by 3,4-diX-substituted maleimide, 3,5-diYsubstituted-2,6-diaminopyridine, where X, Y = H, Cl, Br, and some of their 1 : 1 adducts.

Hydrogen bonding continues to play a central role in crystal engineering strategies but other interactions have received increasing attention as supramolecular synthons. Among these, halogen bonding is a stabilizing directional interaction between the halogen atom and an electron donor.

Read the article for free until 12th May 2011 here.

Structures of hydro-, chloro-, and bromo-substituted maleimides and 2,6-diaminopyridines, and of some of their 1:1 heterodimers
Tullio Pilati and Franco Cozzi
CrystEngComm, 2011, Advance Article, DOI: 10.1039/C1CE05166K

You might also find interesting a recent Dalton Transactions blog post called “IUPAC define the hydrogen bond“.

Why not check it out here.

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CrystEngComm issue 9: Host-Guest Chemistry and Fumio Toda

Check out CrystEngComm issue 9 available online now.

The issue is a themed issue entitled “Reactions in Molecular Solids and Host-Guest Systems” with guest editors Jerry L. Atwood and Leonard R. MacGillivray and is dedicated to the late Prof. Fumio Toda.

The outside cover article is a Communication by Kraig Wheeler et al., that describes enantiocontrolled solid-state photodimerisations via a chiral sulfonamidecinnamic acid.

Read the cover article:
Enantiocontrolled solid-state photodimerizations via a chiral sulfonamidecinnamic acid
Kraig A. Wheeler, Joshua D. Wiseman and Rebecca C. Grove
CrystEngComm, 2011, 13, 3134-3137.



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April Crystal Clear: Springtime with nanoroses

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

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