Author Archive

Author Profile: Natalie Stingelin

Natalie Stingelin Natalie Stingelin is a Reader at the Department of Materials, Imperial College London, UK, where she conducts research in the broad area of organic functional materials, including organic electronics, multifunctional inorganic/organic hybrids and smart, advanced optical systems based on organic matter. She has more than 70 papers, and in 2011 she received an ERC Young Investigator Award.

1. Which research projects are you working on at the moment?
Many of my activities are in the field of Organic Electronics, especially organic photovoltaics. Our focus thereby is to gain a better understanding of some of the fundamental process, including charge generation, charge separation and charge transport, with the key objective to establish relevant structure/processing/property interrelationships. In addition, I have started a few projects in the Organic Photonics area. For instance, we have developed a new hybrid system of a tunable refractive index and low optical loss in the visible wave-length regime. We are now working with industry to develop this material further to e.g. produce mirrors that reflect infrared irradiation. We target thereby applications towards versatile and widely applicable heat management structures for building, cars etc.

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Author Profile: Ben Zhong Tang

Ben Zhong Tang1. Which research projects are you working on at the moment?
We are currently focusing our research efforts on aggregation-induced emission (AIE), an unusual photophysical process in which light emission of organic luminogens is induced by aggregate formation. We are now working on the synthesis of new AIE molecules, decipherment of AIE mechanisms, and exploration of high-tech applications of the AIE materials.

2. What motivated you to focus on luminescent organic materials?
Luminescent processes of organic luminophores have traditionally been studied as isolated molecules in dilute solutions in academic laboratories but practically used in aqueous media or solid state for real-world applications where the luminophoric molecules tend to form aggregates. The conventional luminescent materials often show poor performances in the solid state due to the notorious aggregation-caused quenching (ACQ) effect. The AIE effect is exactly opposite to the ACQ effect, which provides us a nice platform to study practically useful solid emitters. The discovery of the new AIE phenomenon has motivated us to develop new mechanistic models for luminescent processes in the condense phase and new luminescent materials for real-life applications in the solid state.

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This week’s hot articles – Read for free until 14th September

Multifunctionalization of carbon nanotube fibers with the aid of graphene wrappingMultifunctionalization of carbon nanotube fibers with the aid of graphene wrapping
The excellent mechanical and electrical properties of carbon nanotubes is harnessed in a range of applications from advanced textiles through to supercapacitors, and artificial muscles. However, the mechanical properties of the CNT fiber can be affected by chemical modification of the CNTs, and the fabrication and performance depend strongly on the morphology of the fiber surface. In this hot paper Xiaohua Zhang, Qingwen Li and co-workers report a new method to modify the surface roughness and level of functionalization of CNT fibers, by wrapping them in graphene oxide or reduced graphene. The introduction of a graphene layer also has smoothing and shield effects, resulting in higher tensile strength and improved and stabilized performance. The nanotubes can also be further functionalised with polyaniline or TiO2 nanoparticles.
(J. Mater. Chem., 2012, 22, 16277-16282)

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Author Profile: Delia Milliron

Delia Milliron1.      Which research projects are you working on at the moment?
We are studying the electronic properties that arise when inorganic nanocrystals are used as building blocks to construct mesostructured materials. This includes fabricating inorganic nanocomposite materials and mesoporous architectures. I am particularly interested in electrochemical materials including those for electrochromic devices and batteries, in which many individual properties such as electron and ion transport, optical absorption, and phase behaviour combine to determine the overall functional characteristics.

2.      What motivated you to focus on inorganic nanoscience?
Nanoscience offers a whole new frontier in manipulating properties through the arrangement of matter. Understanding how the size, shape, and arrangement of nanoscale building blocks combine with atomic scale structure and composition to determine material properties is exciting and often unexpected.

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A device for implanting under the skin to power nanobiorobots

Construction of 980 nm laser-driven dye-sensitized photovoltaic cell with excellent performance for powering nanobiodevices implanted under the skinScientists in China have made an energy source for wireless nanobiodevices, such as nanorobots and cardiac pacemakers, that could be implanted under the skin.

The device comprises a photovoltaic cell that converts laser energy into electrical energy. The team optimised its performance by improving a couple of components – the nanophosphor and electrolyte. This resulted in an output power of 45µW under normal circumstances and 22 µW when covered by a 1mm thick layer of chicken skin.

Construction of 980 nm laser-driven dye-sensitized photovoltaic cell with excellent performance for powering nanobiodevices implanted under the skin
Lisha Zhang, Qiwei Tian, Wenju Xu, Xingyu Kuang, Junqing Hu, Meifang Zhu, Jianshe Liu and Zhigang Chen, J. Mater. Chem., 2012, DOI: 10.1039/C2JM33742H (Advance Article)

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Author Profile: Richard Brutchey

Richard Brutchey1. Which research projects are you working on at the moment?
We are developing new methods for synthesizing complex metal oxide and chalcogenide nanocrystals.  Once we’ve developed a route and collected materials, we are currently putting a lot of effort into controlling the surface chemistry of the resulting nanocrystals.  Since small nanocrystals are predominantly surface, this is extremely important and necessary if one wants to extract any utility from these materials into a functional device.  Along those lines, we are focusing on devices for energy conversion and storage.  We are using our metal chalcogenide nanocrystals for low-cost solar cells and our metal oxide nanocrystals for dielectric capacitors.  As a synthetic chemist, I get great satisfaction when a material my group has made and labored over ends up in a device that actually works well!

2. What motivated you to focus on the synthesis and properties of nanocrystals?
Organic chemists possess an incredibly powerful toolbox of reaction chemistry that allows them to rationally design molecules with desired functionality.  Unfortunately, the toolbox for rationally designing functional inorganic nanocrystals is severely lacking.  Moreover, many synthetic preps for inorganic nanocrystals are plagued by impurities, work-up issues, low yields, and irreproducibility.  The concept of “materials by design” will never get off the ground with the existing limited design space.  We got into this area thinking we could add some synthetic perspective to the problem.

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Poster Prize winners at ICSM 2012

Journal of Materials Chemistry is delighted to announce the Poster Prize winners at The International Conference on Science and Technology of Synthetic Metals 2012 (ICSM 2012).

Poster prize winners

Left to right the winners: Tomasz Marszalek, Cristina Cebrian Avila, Kohsuke Kawabata, Micah Glaz and Brian Walker.

1st Prize was on by Tomasz Marszalek (Lodz University of Technology, Poland) 

2nd Prize was awarded jointly to Cristina Cebrian Avila (Universität Münster, Germany) and Kohsuke Kawabata (University of Tsukuba, Japan) 

3rd Prize went to Micah Glaz (University of Texas at Austin, USA) and Brian Walker (University of Cambridge, UK) 

ICSM 2012 was held 8th – 13th July 2012 in Atlanta, Georgia, USA

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Two Hot Feature Articles on organic light-emitting diodes & electron transport properties in perylene related materials

The interplay of intermolecular interactions, packing motifs and electron transport properties in perylene diimide related materials: a theoretical perspective  
The interplay of intermolecular interactions, packing motifs and electron transport properties in perylene diimide related materials: a theoretical perspective
Yun Geng,  Hai-Bin Li,  Shui-Xing Wu and Zhong-Min Su,
J. Mater. Chem., 2012, DOI: 10.1039/C2JM33369D, Advance Article   

 

 

Organic semiconductor heterojunctions as charge generation layers and their application in tandem organic light-emitting diodes for high power efficiency  
Organic semiconductor heterojunctions as charge generation layers and their application in tandem organic light-emitting diodes for high power efficiency
Yonghua Chen and Dongge Ma,
J. Mater. Chem., 2012, DOI: 10.1039/C2JM32246C, Advance Article 

   

 

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Here’s our latest hot articles – Free until 31st August

CdSe-sensitized mesoscopic TiO2 solar cells exhibiting >5% efficiency: redundancy of CdS buffer layer CdSe-sensitized mesoscopic TiO2 solar cells exhibiting >5% efficiency: redundancy of CdS buffer layer
Good progress has been made in improving the power conversion efficiency of semiconductor-sensitized solar cells over the last few years; however, it is unclear exactly what role the buffer layer plays in CdS/CdSe sensitized cells. In this hot paper a team from National University of Singapore and Nanyang Technological University fabricated CdSe-sensitized TiO2 electrodes with nearly identical optical density to the best-performing CdS/CdSe electrodes. A careful comparison between CdSe and CdS/CdSe sensitized cells reveals that the CdSe-sensitized solar cells offer a better performance when light absorption is identical to that of CdS/CdSe cells, making the CdS buffer layer redundant. (J. Mater. Chem., 2012, 22, 16235-16242)

Electrochemically stimulated release of lysozyme from an alginate matrix cross-linked with iron cationsElectrochemically stimulated release of lysozyme from an alginate matrix cross-linked with iron cations
Electrochemically controlled drug release from stimuli-responsive materials offers a convenient method to control dosage for personalised medicine; however this requires the development of biologically safe, intelligent materials, to act as delivery systems. In this hot paper Evgeny Katz and co-workers at Clarkson University, USA, report an alginate matrix cross-linked with Fe3+ cations that releases lysozyme when an electrochemical signal is applied. The released lysozyme retains it biological activity and could be replaced in the system with protein-based drugs. The team say the switchable behaviour of the alginate hydrogel is based on the different interaction of Fe3+ and Fe2+ cations with alginate. (J. Mater. Chem., 2012, DOI: 10.1039/C2JM32008H, Advance Article)

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Author Profile: Paolo Samori

Paolo Samori1. Which research projects are you working on at the moment?
We are trying to integrate multiple functions in a single organic-based electronic device. In other words, we are attempting to fabricate devices like field-effect transistors that can respond simultaneously to multiple yet independent stimuli. This can be achieved by developing multi-component nanostructured materials.

2. What motivated you to focus on nanoscale architectures?
During my undergraduate studies the world of the single molecules was left mostly to theoretical predictions or even to imagination. During my thesis work, about 18 years ago, I started “playing” with the Scanning Probe Microscopies. These very powerful Microscopies allowed me to really “see” the molecules, to enter their world, and to look also at their “sociology “, i.e. at the way they interact among each other on the nanoscale generating highly ordered structures at the supramolecular level.

Naturally, after several years devoted to understand and control the generation of these ordered nanostructures I became interested into learning more and more also about their properties and how one can tailor them to develop nanoscale supramolecular functional materials.

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