Journal of Materials Chemistry Blog

An international team of researchers have used gelatin as their starting material to make doped-carbon electrocatalysts. They might not wobble but they could one day replace platinum in fuel cells.

The gelatin foam doesn’t look like jelly (a). The scanning electron microscope image of the foam (b) shows lots of tiny bubbles

Zoe Schnepp from the University of Birmingham in the UK and colleagues at the National Institute for Materials Science in Japan wanted to show that you don’t have to compromise on properties by being green.

Read the full article at Chemistry World.

Doped-carbon electrocatalysts with trimodal porosity from a homogeneous polypeptide gel
Zoe Schnepp, et al.
J. Mater. Chem. A, 2013, 1, 13576-13581
DOI: 10.1039/C3TA12996A

We invite you to join us for Faraday Discussion 174,  which will cover:

•    Organic photovoltaics and energy
•    Organic lasers
•    Organic bioelectronics
•    Sensors and molecular electronics

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Speakers include:

•    Magnus Berggren, Linköping University
•    Christoph Brabec, University of Erlangen
•    Donal Bradley, Imperial College London
•    Rene Janssen, TU Eindhoven
•    Uli Lemmer, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology
•    Karl Leo, TU Dresden
•    Gemma Soloman, University of Copenhagen
•    Luisa Torsi, University of Bari
•    Latha Venkataraman, Columbia University
•    Fred Wudl, University of California, Santa Barbara

Spanish scientists have developed a way to quantitatively measure the amount of iron in a solution using a colour changing material and photos taken on a smartphone.

Iron is present in almost every aspect of our lives but an excess, known as iron overload, can cause significant long term effects ranging from liver damage to arthritis as a result of iron deposition in organs or joints. As such, the amount of iron in a variety of environments needs to be carefully monitored.

Read the full article in Chemisty World here.

Read the original articles below:

Solid sensory polymer substrates for the quantification of iron in blood, wine and water by a scalable RGB technique
Saúl Vallejos, et al, J. Mater. Chem. A, Advance Article, DOI: 10.1039/C3TA12703F

Sub-ppm quantification of Hg(II) in aqueous media using both the naked eye and digital information from pictures of a colorimetric sensory polymer membrane taken with the digital camera of a conventional mobile phone
José M. García, et al, Anal. Methods, 2013, 5, 54-58, DOI: 10.1039/C2AY26307F