Journal of Materials Chemistry Blog

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.

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

A Journal of Materials Chemistry communication by Simon Laflamme, Guggi Kofod and co-workers has been featured in Scientific American (Instant Health Checks for Buildings and Bridges).

In their paper (Strongly enhanced sensitivity in elastic capacitive strain sensors) the team demonstrate the capacitance response of capacitive elastic strain sensors can be enhanced more than 50 times by grafting of conducting polymer to the elastomer backbone. These sensors could be used to detect strain and structural fatigue in buildings, bridges and other large structures.

Interested to know more about mechanoresponsive materials? Why not read June’s themed issue.

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Congratulations to Giulia Grancini (IFN-CNR: Politecnico di Milano, Italy) and Matthijs Cox (Eindhoven University of Tecnology, The Netherlands) for winning the Journal of Materials Chemistry poster prizes at the 11th European Conference on Molecular Electronics (ECME 2011).

Matthijs Cox’s, winning poster was called “Tuning Spin Interactions in Organic Semiconductors”.

Giulia Grancini’s poster was  entitled “4D-Imaging of Interfacial Charge Transfer State in Crystalline P3HT:PCBM Blend”.

ECME 2011 was held in 7^th – 10^th September in Barcelona, Spain.

A photo-switchable polyelectrolyte brush that can prepare dual-component protein patterns by electrostatic attraction has been developed by scientists at Cornell University, USA. Varying the UV exposure of the cationic brush can lead to either a fully charge-reversed brush or patterned cationic/anionic binary brush. The team say this is the first time that a polyelectrolyte brush’s charge has been easily switched from cationic to anionic by UV radiation.

Youyong Xu, Yosuke Hoshi and Christopher K. Ober, J. Mater. Chem., 2011, 21, 13789-13792

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Self-cleaning fabrics now even cleaner: US scientists have made a self-cleaning fabric that lasts longer, shows better antibacterial action and is more comfortable to wear than current materials.

Fabrics treated with certain compounds such as N-halamines can produce oxidative species, which kill pathogens and degrade toxic chemicals. However, the compounds either degrade rapidly under sunlight or are only used to coat the fabric’s surface so are easily washed off…

Interested to know more? You can read the rest of the Chemistry World news story here or the original research article here.

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3rd October 2011
The Chemistry Centre, London, UK
www.rsc.org/costearth

This free workshop has been devised to explore technological advancements which could see the UK reduce reliance on imported scarce naturally sourced metals and help it become a leader in substitution.

Deadlines – Speed presentation abstract: 9 September 2011 & Final registration deadline: 18 September 2011

Jana Schäferhans at the University of Bayreuth has won the Journal of Materials Chemistry poster prize at 9th International Symposium on the Characterisation of Porous Solids (COPS 9) held in Dresden, Germany. The title of Jana Schäferhans‘ winning poster was ‘Ultrasound-driven design of multi metal nanosponges‘.

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Congratulations to all the Journal of Materials Chemistry poster prize winners at the GRC Polymers conference, Mount Holyoke College, South Hadley, Massachusetts, USA.

The winners in the front row left to right are Jason Spruell (University of California, Santa Barbara), Jessalyn Cortese (ESPCI Paristech), Elizabeth Kelley (University of Delaware) and Adam Moughton (University of Minnesota). In the back row are the conference organisers Edward Coughlin and Stuart Rowan and Journal of Materials Chemistry Associate Editor Vincent Rotello.