This ‘Hot Article’ from our upcoming Modelling of Materials themed issue by Matthew Glaser and co-workers from the University of Colorado at Boulder and the University of California, Davies has recently been published online.
Many soft-matter and biophysical systems are composed of monomers that reversibly assemble into rod-like aggregates. The aggregates can then order into liquid-crystal phases if the density is high enough, and liquid-crystal ordering promotes increased growth of aggregates. In this paper the team from the USA study coupled linear aggregation and liquid crystal ordering with a new coarse-grained sticky cylinder model.
| Interested in knowing more? Read for free until December 9th.Linear aggregation and liquid-crystalline order: comparison of Monte Carlo simulation and analytic theory Tatiana Kuriabova, M. D. Betterton and Matthew A. Glaser J. Mater. Chem., 2010, Advance Article DOI: 10.1039/C0JM02355H, Paper |
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A noble metal catalyzed chemical growth process has been developed by a team from China and is described in this ‘Hot Article’.
Noble metals, such as Pt based bimetallic nanoparticles with a hollow structure exhibit a range of interesting characteristics such as low density, reduced cost, high specific surface, and enhanced permeability without much sacrifice of mechanical/thermal stability in comparison with their solid counterparts. Rongming Wang, Ning Wang, Xia Cao and co-workers successfully synthesised nearly monodispersed bimetallic NiPt hollow spheres with an ultrathin shell (2–3 nm). Size and composition of the NiPt nanospheres was conveniently tuned by introducing suitable amounts of precursory molecules.
| The bimetallic NiPt hollow spheres demonstrated excellent electrocatalytic activity and stability which makes them promising candidates for catalysts and sensing materials.Interested in knowing more? Read for free until December 9th.
Platinum catalyzed growth of NiPt hollow spheres with an ultrathin shell |
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