PCCP Blog

US scientists have studied spin Hall and Klein tunnelling effects during oxidation of graphene and few-layer graphene. Previous studies had suggested that the reductive properties of graphene change depending on the external magnetic field, with explosive redox reactions between graphene and strong oxidants accelerating following temperature reduction from 22 to 16 °C.

A typical way to oxidise graphene to oxide is to use a mixture of sulfuric acid, NaNO₃ and KMnO₄ (Hummers method). The Na⁺ and K⁺ ions of KMnO₄ /NaNO₃ have until now been assumed not to influence the redox reactions involved. This work shows that changing the cations has a big effect: replacing Na⁺ and K⁺ with Mg²⁺ and Ca²⁺, the team observed faster, more electronically delocalised complete oxidation to CO₂ at temperatures between 16 and 21 °C. With Na⁺ and K⁺, they saw faster, more electronically localised oxidation to CO at temperatures >22 °C. These observations are attributed to the spin Hall effect (SHE) for the Na⁺ and K⁺ ions and Klein tunnelling effect for the Mg²⁺ and Ca²⁺ ions.

The observations will be very helpful in aiding understanding of the correlation between the structure and the properties of layered materials, such as graphene and boron nitride. The observed SHE gives an explanation of recently reported tunnelling of graphene electrons through boron nitride.

Read the full details of this fascinating PCCP article today:

Nuclear spin Hall and Klein tunneling effects during oxidation with electric and magnetic field inductions in graphene
Reginald B. Little, Felicia McClary, Bria Rice, Corine Jackman and James W. Mitchell
DOI: 10.1039/C2CP43276E

In this HOT PCCP Perspective Prof. Richard Van Duyne and coworkers describe the contribution of hot spots to the enhancement of signals observed in surface enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS), including techniques for creating and controlling these hot spots.

Read this fascinating PCCP Perspective in full today:

Creating, characterizing, and controlling chemistry with SERS hot spots
Samuel L. Kleinman, Renee R. Frontiera, Anne-Isabelle Henry, Jon A. Dieringer and Richard P. Van Duyne
DOI: 10.1039/C2CP42598J

Professor Van Duyne is co-Guest Editor of our upcoming themed issue on Plasmonics and Spectroscopy.

Submit an article for this exciting issue by 1st November 2012 .

Physical Chemistry Chemical Physics (PCCP) Advisory Board member Professor Carlos Otero Arean (University of the Balearic Islands), has picked his favourite articles recently published in PCCP.

You can read these articles for free for a limited period by clicking on the links below.

Publishing work of the highest quality in the broad fields of physical chemistry, chemical physics and biophysical chemistry, PCCP is the ideal place to publish your research.

Be among the first to hear about the newest articles being published in PCCP – sign up to receive our free table of contents e-alerts.

On behalf of the Editorial Board we invite you to submit your best work to PCCP.

Read Professor Arean’s Editor’s choice selection today:

Perspectives

Ultrafast UV spectroscopy: from a local to a global view of dynamical processes in macromolecules
Andrea Cannizzo
DOI: 10.1039/C2CP40567A

Adsorption of DNA onto gold nanoparticles and graphene oxide: surface science and applications
Juewen Liu
DOI: 10.1039/C2CP41186E

Original research

Rapid calculation of protein chemical shifts using bond polarization theory and its application to protein structure refinement
Igor Jakovkin, Marco Klipfel, Claudia Muhle-Goll, Anne S. Ulrich, Burkhard Luy and Ulrich Sternberg
DOI: 10.1039/C2CP41726J

Theoretical studies of HIV-1 reverse transcriptase inhibition
Katarzyna Świderek, Sergio Martí and Vicent Moliner
DOI: 10.1039/C2CP40953D

Pore size distribution and capacitance in microporous carbons
Fritz Stoeckli and Teresa A. Centeno
DOI: 10.1039/C2CP41545C

Thin silica films on Ru(0001): monolayer, bilayer and three-dimensional networks of [SiO₄] tetrahedra
Bing Yang, William E. Kaden, Xin Yu, Jorge Anibal Boscoboinik, Yulia Martynova, Leonid Lichtenstein, Markus Heyde, Martin Sterrer, Radosław Włodarczyk, Marek Sierka, Joachim Sauer, Shamil Shaikhutdinov and Hans-Joachim Freund
DOI: 10.1039/C2CP41355H

Cooperative effects at water–crystalline silica interfaces strengthen surface silanol hydrogen bonding. An ab initio molecular dynamics study
Federico Musso, Pierre Mignon, Piero Ugliengo and Mariona Sodupe
DOI: 10.1039/C2CP40756F

Enhanced stabilization of the Tobacco mosaic virus using protic ionic liquids
Nolene Byrne, Brendan Rodoni, Fiona Constable, Swapna Varghese and James H. Davis
DOI: 10.1039/C2CP41625E

You may also be interested in our PCCP web collection of articles on biophysics and biophysical chemistry and our recent themed issue on the theoretical chemical physics of biological systems – please take a look.