Journal of Materials Chemistry Blog

Burning magnesium metal in dry ice forms nanosheets of graphene say US scientists. 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. The synthetic process is cost effective and can be used to produce few-layer graphene in large quantities.

Amartya Chakrabarti, Jun Lu, Jennifer C. Skrabutenas, Tao Xu, Zhili Xiao, John A. Maguire and Narayan S. Hosmane, J. Mater. Chem., 2011, DOI:10.1039/C1JM11227A (Advance Article)

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Read the full issue here: 

The Highlight article on the front cover is Fabrication of quantum dot-based photonic materials from small to large via interfacial self-assembly by Ziyi Yu, Cai-Feng Wang and Su Chen at Nanjing University of Technology, China. The inside front cover features a paper on Electrospinning fabrication, structural and mechanical characterization of rod-like virus-based composite nanofibers by Xiaodong Li, Qian Wang and co-workers at the University of South Carolina and the Institute of Physics and Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences.

6 articles in the issue were selected as hot articles:

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Congratulations to Brian Yalisi from the University of KwaZulu Natal for winning the Student Poster Prize Platinum at the recent 11th International Conference on Frontiers of Polymers and Advanced Materials. Brian is supervised by Professor Andrew Forbes and his poster was titled “Properties of Pulsed Laser-deposited C-NiO Thin Films”. The poster prize was sponsored by Journal of Materials Chemistry and Sigma-Aldrich.

Brian Yalisi with his winning poster.

Congratulations also to Ilse Wepener from the University of Pretoria who won the Student Poster Prize Gold sponsored by Sigma-Aldrich for her poster “Nano-calcium phosphate generation: uses in bone repair”.

Here are the most-read Journal of Materials Chemistry articles for April 2011:

Mesoporous silica nanoparticle based nano drug delivery systems: synthesis, controlled drug release and delivery, pharmacokinetics and biocompatibility
Qianjun He and Jianlin Shi, J. Mater. Chem., 2011, 21, 5845-5855

Synthesis and self-assembly of complex hollow materials
Hua Chun Zeng, J. Mater. Chem., 2011, 21, 7511-7526

Top down method for synthesis of highly conducting graphene by exfoliation of graphite oxide using focused solar radiation
Varrla Eswaraiah, Sasidharannair Sasikaladevi Jyothirmayee Aravind and Sundara Ramaprabhu, J. Mater. Chem., 2011, 21, 6800-6803

Fabrication of quantum dot-based photonic materials from small to large via interfacial self-assembly       
Ziyi Yu, Cai-Feng Wang and Su Chen, J. Mater. Chem., 2011, Advance Article

Chemical doping of graphene
Hongtao Liu, Yunqi Liu and Daoben Zhu, J. Mater. Chem., 2011, 21, 3335-3345

Mechanically strong and highly conductive graphene aerogel and its use as electrodes for electrochemical power sources
Xuetong Zhang, Zhuyin Sui, Bin Xu, Shufang Yue, Yunjun Luo, Wanchu Zhan and Bin Liu, J. Mater. Chem., 2011, 21, 6494-6497

Graphene uniformly decorated with gold nanodots: in situ synthesis, enhanced dispersibility and applications
Xi Yang, Mingsheng Xu, Weiming Qiu, Xiaoqiang Chen, Meng Deng, Jinglin Zhang, Hideo Iwai, Eiichiro Watanabe and Hongzheng Chen, J. Mater. Chem., 2011, 21, 8096-8103

Bi4Ti3O12 nanosheets/TiO2 submicron fibers heterostructures: in situ fabrication and high visible light photocatalytic activity
Tieping Cao, Yuejun Li, Changhua Wang, Zhenyi Zhang, Mingyi Zhang, Changlu Shao and Yichun Liu, J. Mater. Chem., 2011, 21, 6922-6927

Facile synthesis of hybrid nanostructures from nanoparticles, nanorods and nanowires  
Jiayuan Mao, Xueqin Cao, Junwei Zhen, Huilin Shao, Hongwei Gu, Jianmei Lu and Jackie Y. Ying, J. Mater. Chem., 2011, Advance Article, DOI: 10.1039/C1JM10349K

Assembly of chemically modified graphene: methods and applications
Yuxi Xu and Gaoquan Shi, J. Mater. Chem., 2011, 21, 3311-3323

To keep up-to-date with all the best materials chemistry research articles, sign up for the journal’s e-alerts here.

(In case you hadn’t already spotted this…) I thought I’d just point out that the RSC journals now have a Most Read Articles tab – it’s on the right hand side of the main journal page. The list is automatically updated everyday and shows the top 15 articles from the last 30 days.

At the moment the most read article is: An all-inorganic type-II heterojunction array with nearly full solar spectral response based on ZnO/ZnSe core/shell nanowires: Zhiming Wu, Yong Zhang, Jinjian Zheng, Xiangan Lin, Xiaohang Chen, Binwang Huang, Huiqiong Wang, Kai Huang, Shuping Li and Junyong Kang, J. Mater. Chem., 2011, 21, 6020-6026.

Congratulations to Professor John Goodby (Department of Chemistry, University of York) who has been elected a Fellow of the Royal Society for his research into liquid crystals. More details about this on the University of York website…

Professor John Goodbys research featured on the front cover of issue 1, 2005, celebrating 15 years of Journal of Materials Chemistry. Here’s a reminder of some of Professor Goodby’s research published Journal of Materials Chemistry.

Issue 22 of Journal of Materials Chemistry is now online. Read the whole issue here:

Featured on the front cover is the paper Visual optical discrimination and detection of microbial pathogens based on diverse interactions of conjugated polyelectrolytes with cells. The inside front cover highlights the paper Organic–inorganic hybrid polysilsesquioxane nanospheres as UVA/UVB absorber and fragrance carrier

Issue 22 also contains seven articles selected as hot articles based on their referee reports:

• Polymer-stabilized optically isotropic liquid crystals for next-generation display and photonics applications
• Visual optical discrimination and detection of microbial pathogens based on diverse interactions of conjugated polyelectrolytes with cells
• Organic–inorganic hybrid polysilsesquioxane nanospheres as UVA/UVB absorber and fragrance carrier 
• Nanoheterostructures on TiO2 nanobelts achieved by acid hydrothermal method with enhanced photocatalytic and gas sensitive performance
• Vapor-based synthesis of ultrathin hydrogel coatings for thermo-responsive nanovalves
• TAT-conjugated nanodiamond for the enhanced delivery of doxorubicin  
• Synthesis of magnetic hollow nanotubes based on the kirkendall effect for MR contrast agent and colorimetric hydrogen peroxide sensor

Controllably layer-by-layer self-assembled polyelectrolytes/nanoparticle blend hollow capsules and their unique properties: Polymer/nanoparticle composite capsules with controllable incorporation of nanoparticles were fabricated by Layer-by-Layer blend self-assembly. The team from Singapore claim this offers a universal approach to fabricate well-dispersed microcapsules with controllable incorporation of nanoparticles for various applications such as intelligent drug delivery, biosensing, and bioimaging. (J. Mater. Chem., 2011, 21, 5148-5155.)

Read the full article for free until 31st May.

Congratulations to Mark Holden from the University of Manchester, UK, for winning the Journal of Materials Chemistry poster prize at the recent 34th Annual British Zeolite Association Conference. Mark’s winning poster was titled “In-situ Atomic Force Microscopy observation of the crystal growth of Sodalite Zincophosphate”.

A Journal of Materials Chemistry article has been highlighted by the ACS Noteworthy Chemistry website. The article “A one-step strategy for thermal- and pH-responsive graphene oxide interpenetrating polymer hydrogel networks” by Shengtong Sun and Peiyi Wu from Fudan University, China, describes a strategy for making interpenetrating PNIPAM hydrogel networks containing graphene oxide. The cross-linking reaction is highly efficient, resulting in a hydrogel network with better mechanical strength and a two-level structural hierarchy. The hydrogel is also pH-sensitive due to the existence of residual carboxyl groups. (Shengtong Sun and Peiyi Wu, J. Mater. Chem., 2011, 21, 4095-4097.)

Read the original research article here: