Journal of Materials Chemistry Blog

Scientists from China have developed a new lithographic printing technique to layer a pattern onto photonic paper. The development could be significant for anti-counterfeit applications, such as hidden writing for anti-theft labels, because the pattern created is effectively invisible until the material is immersed in water.

The standard approach to photonic printing is to print a responsive material onto photonic paper, which will then react to an external stimulus and reveal the pattern. To see the pattern clearly, a high loading of the responsive material is needed, which often renders it visible before it has reacted. Creating the pattern is not a challenge, but keeping it hidden until it reacts to the stimulus is. Interested to know more? Read the full article in Chemistry World here…

The ‘invisible’ patterns on photonic prints are revealed in water and go back to their original state when dry

Read the paper from Journal of Materials Chemistry:

Invisible photonic prints shown by water
R Xuan and J Ge
J. Mater. Chem., 2011
DOI: 10.1039/c1jm14082e

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Researchers in China have made a new strain sensor to monitor the safety of buildings and other structures. Strain sensors are used to monitor structural damage, so can detect problems in the integrity of buildings during earthquakes, or in the structure of vehicles and aircraft.

Guojia Fang and co-workers from Wuhan University made a sensor out of polymer nanofibres – poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene):poly(styrenesulfonate) (PEDOT:PSS) and polyvinyl alcohol (PVA). They used electrospinning to draw out fibres from a mixture of the polymers, then formed a structure of interconnecting strands. Interested to know more? Read the full article in Chemistry World here…

Electrospun PEDOT:PSS–PVA nanofiber based ultrahigh-strain sensors with controllable electrical conductivity
N Liu, G Fang, J Wan, H Zhou, H Long and X Zhao,
J. Mater. Chem., 2011
DOI: 10.1039/c1jm14491j
 
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The latest issue of Journal of Materials Chemistry is now online. You can read the full issue here:




The outside front cover features a Feature Article on Electrical transport characteristics through molecular layers by Gunuk Wang, Tae-Wook Kim and Takhee Lee






Issue 45 contains the following Feature articles:

• Functional block-like structures from electroactive tetra(aniline) oligomers 
• Biofunctionalization of nanoparticles for cytosensing and cell surface carbohydrate assay

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Congratulations to Azzedine Bousseksou and co-workers for winning the 2011 Le Prix La Recherche award (Chemistry Section) for their research on ‘bistable fluorescent nanoparticles’.

The full winning team was: A.  Bousseksou, L.  Salmon, G.  Molnár, L. Rechignat, W.nicolazzi, T. Mahfoud, C. Quintero, A. Akou, S. Bedoui, I.  Goralsky, H. Shepherd, M. Lopes, MT Carayon, K.  Abdulkader, G.felix, A. Routarou, F. Dang.

An important part of the team’s research on bistable fluorescent nanoparticles was published in Journal of Materials Chemistry in 2010. You can read the paper here:

A novel approach for fluorescent thermometry and thermal imaging purposes using spin crossover nanoparticles: Lionel Salmon, Gábor Molnár, Djelali Zitouni, Carlos Quintero, Christian Bergaud, Jean-Claude Micheau and Azzedine Bousseksou, J. Mater. Chem., 2010, 20, 5499-5503.

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The latest issue of Journal of Materials Chemistry is now online. You can read the full issue here:

The outside front cover features an article on Sequential logic and random access memory (RAM): a molecular approach by Graham de Ruiter and Milko E. van der Boom
 
 
 





Multishelled Co3O4-Fe3O4 hollow spheres with even magnetic phase distribution: Synthesis, magnetic properties and their application in water treatment is the article highlighted on the inside front cover by Xi Wang, Yeteng Zhong, Tianyou Zhai, Yanfeng Guo, Shimou Chen, Ying Ma, Jiannian Yao, Yoshio Bando and Dmitri Golberg



Issue 44 contains the following Highlight and Feature articles:

• Sequential logic and random access memory (RAM): a molecular approach
• Thiophene-based conjugated oligomers for organic solar cells
• Eco-friendly visible-wavelength photodetectors based on bandgap engineerable nanomaterials

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Yi Xie at the University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, and colleagues made the robot by combining an actuator,  a device that converts energy into motion, with an electronic device, which responds to infrared light to curl and uncurl to pick up and drop objects. Interested to know more? Read the full article in Chemistry World here…

Large-area graphene realizing ultrasensitive photothermal actuator with high transparency: new prototype robotic motions under infrared-light stimuli
Changzheng Wu, Jun Feng, Lele Peng, Yong Ni, Haiyi Liang, Linhui He and Yi Xie
J. Mater. Chem., 2011
DOI: 10.1039/c1jm13311j

Congratulations to Dr Paul Roach for winning a Journal of Materials Chemistry poster prize at Recent Appointees in Materials Science.

Folashade Kuforiji (left) and Paul Roach (right)

The title of Dr Roach’s winning poster was: Directing Biological Response through Material Properties

Dr Paul Roach is a Lecturer in Biomedical & Cell Engineering at Institute for Science and Technology in Medicine, Keele University, UK. Recent Appointees in Materials Science was held 14^th – 16^th September in Bristol, UK.

The latest issue of Journal of Materials Chemistry is now online. You can read the full issue here:

The outside front cover features an article on Conjugated rod–coil and rod–rod block copolymers for photovoltaic applications by Ming He, Feng Qiu and Zhiqun Lin
 
 
 



Batteries based on fluoride shuttle is the article highlighted on the inside front cover by M. Anji Reddy and M. Fichtner

Issue 43 contains the following Highlight and Feature articles:

• How to exploit the full potential of the dip-coating process to better control film formation
• Toward high-performance nanostructured thermoelectric materials: the progress of bottom-up solution chemistry approaches 

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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

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.’

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