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Journal of Materials Chemistry article featured in Chemistry World: Fluoride shuttle batteries lift off

17 Oct 2011

Scientists in Germany say that a rechargeable battery that works on the basis of fluoride transfer between electrodes could have a better storage capacity than current batteries.

The battery, developed by Maximilian Fichtner and Munnangi Anji Reddy from the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, is based on a ‘fluoride shuttle’ – the reversible transfer of fluoride anions from one electrode to the other, depending on whether the battery is being charged or discharged. Interested to know more? Read the full article in Chemistry World here…

The lightweight batteries perform as well as heavier batteries, which is important for mobile applications

Batteries based on fluoride shuttle
M. Anji Reddy and M. Fichtner
J. Mater. Chem., 2011
DOI: 10.1039/c1jm13535j

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Chameleon clothes to detect falling oxygen levels

13 Oct 2011

A cloth that changes colour when oxygen levels drop has been developed by scientists in China. The cloth could be used to make clothes that monitor oxygen levels for miners, high altitude adventurers and space explorers.

Xi Chen and colleagues at Xiamen University combined the chameleon cloth with a digital camera to capture real-time images, giving a quick readout of oxygen levels. Locating an oxygen deficiency to prevent danger is very important, says Chen. ‘When I saw on television that coal miners were trapped in mines and died because of a lack of oxygen, I felt sad and tried to figure out a simple method to detect oxygen.’

Image showing colours of cloth at different oxygen levels

The dyes in the chameleon cloth are excited under UV light and emit in the visible region, which is captured on a digital camera.
The picture shows the colours at different oxygen concentrations

The team made the detector by coating oxygen-sensitive polystyrene microparticles onto cotton thread and embroidering the thread into a piece of cloth. First, the microparticles were loaded with a blue hydrophobic stilbene reference dye and an oxygen-sensitive red dye. ‘The biggest challenge was selecting suitable dyes,’ says Chen. The dyes had to be hydrophobic, photostable, non-toxic (or have low toxicity) and not leak after encapsulation, he adds. Interested to know more? Read the full article in Chemistry World here…

Chameleon clothes for quantitative oxygen imaging
Xu-dong Wang, Ting-yao Zhou, Xin-hong Song, Yaqi Jiang, Chaoyong James Yang and Xi Chen
J. Mater. Chem., 2011, Advance Article
DOI: 10.1039/C1JM14162G

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Using eggshells to remove toxic water pollutants

07 Oct 2011

Scientists in China have developed an absorbent material made from waste eggshell membrane that can remove Cr(VI) from contaminated water.

Chromium is usually found in water systems in two main states: Cr(III) and Cr(VI). But, while Cr(III) is needed for metabolism, Cr(VI) is highly toxic and carcinogenic to living organisms, and unfortunately, this form is highly mobile.

This ability to move quickly in a system means that developing an efficient and cost effective method to remove Cr(VI) from contaminated water is important. Current methods for removal include reduction, ion exchange and absorption. Of these, absorption is popular because it is simple and effective.

Eggshells

Not only did the eggshell membrane remove Cr(VI) from contaminated water, it also reduced some of it to the less toxic Cr(III)

Biosorption is a type of absorption that uses a material that is not man-made, usually some kind of waste material. Yuming Huang and Bin Liu from Southwest University, Chongqing, have designed a new biosorbent using eggshells. ‘As the by-product of food processing and manufacturing plants, eggshells represent a significant waste because they are traditionally useless after the production of eggs and egg derivatives,’ says Huang. ‘Using this waste to produce useful biomaterial for removal of Cr(VI) from water may be a good choice and opens up a pathway to using biowaste to treat toxic metals from water.’ Interested to know more? Read the full article in Chemistry World here…

Polyethyleneimine modified eggshell membrane as a novel biosorbent for adsorption and detoxification of Cr(VI) from water
Bin Liu and Yuming Huang
J. Mater. Chem., 2011
DOI: 10.1039/c1jm12329g

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Top Ten most-read Journal of Materials Chemistry articles in August

05 Oct 2011

This month sees the following articles in that are in the top ten most accessed in August:

Highly efficient red electrophosphorescent device incorporating a bipolar triphenylamine/bisphenylsulfonyl-substituted fluorene hybrid as the host
Fang-Ming Hsu, Chen-Han Chien, Ya-Jou Hsieh, Chen-Hao Wu, Ching-Fong Shu, Shun-Wei Liu and Chin-Ti Chen
J. Mater. Chem., 2009, 19, 8002-8008
DOI: 10.1039/b910292b

Mesoporous titania photocatalysts: preparation, characterization and reaction mechanisms
Adel A. Ismail and Detlef W. Bahnemann
J. Mater. Chem., 2011, 21, 11686-11707
DOI: 10.1039/c1jm10407a

A review of advanced and practical lithium battery materials
Rotem Marom, S. Francis Amalraj, Nicole Leifer, David Jacob and Doron Aurbach
J. Mater. Chem., 2011, 21, 9938-9954
DOI: 10.1039/c0jm04225k

Carbazole and thienyl benzo[1,2,5]thiadiazole based polymers with improved open circuit voltages and processability for application in solar cells
Hunan Yi, Solyman Al-Faifi, Ahmed Iraqi, Darren C. Watters, James Kingsley and David G. Lidzey
J. Mater. Chem., 2011, 21, 13649-13656
DOI:10.1039/c1jm12089a

Light-trapping nano-structures in organic photovoltaic cells
Doo-Hyun Ko, John R. Tumbleston, Abay Gadisa, Mukti Aryal, Yingchi Liu, Rene Lopez and Edward T. Samulski
J. Mater. Chem., 2011, Advance Article
DOI:10.1039/c1jm12300a

Recent progress of high performance organic thin film field-effect transistors
Qing Meng, Huanli Dong, Wenping Hu and Daoben Zhu
J. Mater. Chem., 2011, 21, 11708-11721
DOI: 10.1039/c1jm10243e

TiO2 nanotubes: Structure optimization for solar cells
Junfeng Yan and Feng Zhou
J. Mater. Chem., 2011, 21, 9406-9418
DOI: 10.1039/c1jm10274e

Magnetic nanoparticles: recent advances in synthesis, self-assembly and applications
Srikanth Singamaneni, Valery N. Bliznyuk, Christian Binek and Evgeny Y. Tsymbal
J. Mater. Chem., 2011, Advance Article
DOI: 10.1039/c1jm11845e

A general strategy to prepare graphene-metal/metal oxide nanohybrids
Junyi Ji, Guanghui Zhang, Hongyu Chen, Yang Li, Guoliang Zhang, Fengbao Zhang and Xiaobin Fan
J. Mater. Chem., 2011, 21, 14498-14501
DOI:10.1039/c1jm12970h

Nanoparticles for hydrogen generation
Christopher E. Bunker and Marcus J. Smith
J. Mater. Chem., 2011, 21, 12173-12180
DOI: 10.1039/c1jm10856e

Why not take a look at the articles today and blog your thoughts and comments below.

Fancy submitting an article to Journal of Materials Chemistry ? Then why not submit to us today!

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Top Ten most-read Journal of Materials Chemistry articles in July

09 Sep 2011

This month sees the following articles in that are in the top ten most accessed in July:

A review of advanced and practical lithium battery materials
Rotem Marom, S. Francis Amalraj, Nicole Leifer, David Jacob and Doron Aurbach
J. Mater. Chem., 2011, 21, 9938-9954
DOI:10.1039/c0jm04225k

Editorial – Themed issue: Chemical transformations of nanoparticles
Dmitri V. Talapin and Yadong Yin
J. Mater. Chem., 2011, 21, 11454-11456
DOI:10.1039/c1jm90095a

Formation and morphology control of nanoparticles via solution routes in an autoclave
Yongchun Zhu, Tao Mei, Yan Wang and Yitai Qian
J. Mater. Chem., 2011, 21, 11457-11463
DOI:10.1039/c1jm11079a

Emerging functional nanomaterials for therapeutics
Xuejia Xue, Feng Wang and Xiaogang Liu
J. Mater. Chem., 2011, 21, 13107-13127
DOI:10.1039/c1jm11401h

Nanostructured cathode materials: a key for better performance in Li-ion batteries
Ragupathy Pitchai, Velmurugan Thavasi, Subodh G. Mhaisalkar and Seeram Ramakrishna
J. Mater. Chem., 2011, 21, 11040-11051
DOI:10.1039/c1jm10857c

Conversion of carbon dioxide to few-layer graphene
Amartya Chakrabarti, Jun Lu, Jennifer C. Skrabutenas, Tao Xu, Zhili Xiao, John A. Maguire and Narayan S. Hosmane
J. Mater. Chem., 2011, 21, 9491-9493
DOI:10.1039/c1jm11227a

Controllable synthesis of mesoporous F–TiO2 spheres for effective photocatalysis
Jia Hong Pan, Zhongyu Cai, Yong Yu and X. S. Zhao
J. Mater. Chem., 2011, 21, 11430-11438
DOI:10.1039/c1jm11326g

Editorial – Advanced materials for lithium batteries
M. Saiful Islam and Linda F. Nazar
J. Mater. Chem., 2011, 21, 9810-9810
DOI:10.1039/c1jm90082j

Dandelion-like Fe3O4@CuTNPc hierarchical nanostructures as a magnetically separable visible-light photocatalyst
Zengcai Guo, Changlu Shao, Mingyi Zhang, Jingbo Mu, Zhenyi Zhang, Peng Zhang, Bin Chen and Yichun Liu
J. Mater. Chem., 2011, 21, 12083-12088
DOI:10.1039/c1jm11098e

Carboxylic group functionalized ordered mesoporous silicas
Lu Han, Osamu Terasaki and Shunai Che
J. Mater. Chem., 2011, 21, 11033-11039
DOI:10.1039/c1jm10561b

Why not take a look at the articles today and blog your thoughts and comments below.

Fancy submitting an article to Journal of Materials Chemistry ? Then why not submit to us today!

Comments Off on Top Ten most-read Journal of Materials Chemistry articles in July

Journal of Materials Chemistry Blog

Author Archive

Journal of Materials Chemistry article featured in Chemistry World: Fluoride shuttle batteries lift off

Chameleon clothes to detect falling oxygen levels

Using eggshells to remove toxic water pollutants

Top Ten most-read Journal of Materials Chemistry articles in August

Top Ten most-read Journal of Materials Chemistry articles in July

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