Journal of Materials Chemistry Blog

7th International Symposium on Stimuli-Responsive Materials, October 24-26th, 2011 in Hattiesburg, MS, USA. Leading scientists from a variety of disciplines will discuss recent advances in adaptive materials at the interfaces of chemistry, physics, biology, and engineering. This symposium will build on a successful six year history of assembling experts in the area of stimuli-responsive/smart materials to discuss issues related to fundamental science and real-world applicability.

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A reusable wordpad that uses water as ink has been developed by scientists at the University of Science and Technology of China.

The photonic wordpad strongly diffracts blue light due to colloids that form ordered chain-like structures in the solidified polymer matrix. Writing on the wordpad with water swells the polymer matrix and increases the interparticle spacing, which causes a red-shift in the diffracted light. The photonic wordpad can be reused by drying it, and the team claim it is environmentally friendly.

Read the article for free until the 5^th September: Haibo Hu, Qian-Wang Chen, Hui Wanga, Ran Li and Wei Zhong, J. Mater. Chem., 2011, DOI:10.1039/C1JM11697E (Advance Article)

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Scientists in Taiwan have used bulk metals to grow silicon nanowires.

Preparation of the metal catalysts used to synthesise Si nanowires normally involves multi-step procedures and suffers from many processing limitations. Now a team led by Hsing-Yu Tuan at National Tsing Hua University, Taiwan, have demonstrated that commercially available bulk metals can act as reuseable catalysts to seed Si nanowire synthesis in supercritical benzene. Eight different metals were explored as potential catalysts. Hsing-Yu Tuan and the team claim that this alternative metal-seeded synthetic protocol could be used to prepare versatile Si nanowires/metal architectures for advanced applications.

Interested to know more? Read the full article for free until 5th September: F-W Yuan, H-J Yang  and H-Y Tuan, J. Mater. Chem., 2011, DOI: 10.1039/c1jm11956g

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Congratulations to Hamed Shahsavan, University of Waterloo, Canada, for winning a Journal of Materials Chemistry poster prize at the 2^nd International Conference on Nanotechnology: Fundamentals and Applications.

Hamed Shahsavan’s winning poster was titled “Biomimetic Micro/Nano-structured Surfaces: A Potential Tool for the Tuning of Adhesion and Friction”. The conference was held at University of Ottawa, Canada.

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

The outside front cover features a Hot Communication on Ceramic nanowrinkles via a facile replication process by Sungjune Park and Alexander Böker.

Enhanced polymeric lithography resists via sequential infiltration synthesis is the communication highlighted on the inside front cover by Seth Darling and co-workers at Argonne National Laboratory.

Here is a full list Hot Articles in issue 32:

• Ceramic nanowrinkles via a facile replication process
• Coalescence of Ag2S and Au nanocrystals at room temperature
• Large-scale mechanical peeling of boron nitride nanosheets by low-energy ball milling
• A simple, low waste and versatile procedure to make polymer electrochromic devices
• In situ growth nanocomposites composed of rodlike ZnO nanocrystals arranged by nanoparticles in a self-assembling diblock copolymer for heterojunction optoelectronics
• Multifunctional porous aramids (aerogels) by efficient reaction of carboxylic acids and isocyanates
• A novel layered zirconium molybdate as a precursor to a ceramic zirconomolybdate host for lanthanide bearing radioactive waste
• Polymorphism, structural characterisation and electrical properties of Na2Nb4O11

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A communication in Journal of Materials Chemistry was featured in a news story on the BBC website. The article describes the conversion of carbon dioxide to few-layer graphene by burning magnesium metal in dry ice to form nanosheets of graphene. The researchers from Northern Illinois University, USA, and Southern Methodist University, USA, say that the exact mechanism for the formation of graphene is still under investigation but the team thinks that the rapid reaction kinetically favours graphene over graphite.

Read the original article here: Amartya Chakrabarti, Jun Lu, Jennifer C. Skrabutenas, Tao Xu, Zhili Xiao, John A. Maguire and Narayan S. Hosmane, J. Mater. Chem., 2011, 9491-9493

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Congratulations to Professor Linda Nazar (University of Waterloo, Canada) for being named as one of the recipients of the 2011 Distinguished Woman in Chemistry or Chemical Engineering award. The award is organised as part of the ACS Challenge Grant-International Year of Chemistry Celebration.

Professor Linda Nazar is a member of the Journal of Materials Chemistry Editorial Board and acted as a guest editor for the recent Advanced materials for lithium batteries themed issue. Here’s a selection of papers by Professor Nazar.

Professor Clare Grey (University of Cambridge, UK) has been elected as a fellow of the Royal Society in recognition of her pioneering research in using solid state NMR to study structure and function in inorganic materials. More details on the Royal Society website…

Professor Grey is also member of the Journal of Materials Chemistry advisory board. Here’s a reminder of some of the research Professor Grey has published in RSC journals:

On the outside cover is a paper on Electrochemistry-controlled metal ion release from silicone elastomer nanocomposites through combination of different metal nanoparticles by Anne Hahn, Sebastian Günther, Philipp Wagener and Stephan Barcikowski. In the paper the team report on the retardation and enhancement of metal ion release for time- and rate-controlled design of bioactive nanocomposites.

The Inside front cover highlights the work of Yonit Boguslavsky, Tania Fadida, Yossi Talyosef and Jean-Paul Lellouche and their paper on Controlling the wettability properties of polyester fibers using grafted functional nanomaterials. The paper describes a simple method for controlling the wettability properties of poly(ethyleneterephthalate) fibers. PET fibers were modified using silica nanoparticles to obtain a hydrophilic surface and multi-walled carbon nanotubes to create a hydrophobic surface.

You can read the whole issue here:

Hot Articles in issue 28:

• Color tuning of Novel 2,1,3-Naphthothiadiazole and 2,1,3-Benzoselenadiazole based D-A-D′ Type dopants to realize highly efficient saturated red emission in non-polar solvents
• Electrochemistry-controlled metal ion release from silicone elastomer nanocomposites through combination of different metal nanoparticles
• γ-Cyclodextrin–folate complex-functionalized quantum dots for tumor-targeting and site-specific labeling
• Controlling the wettability properties of polyester fibers using grafted functional nanomaterials

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