Journal of Materials Chemistry Blog

(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:

The latest issue of Journal of Materials Chemistry is now online. Featured on the outside front cover is Microwave-assisted solution synthesis of doped LiFePO4 with high specific charge and outstanding cycling performance by Idalia Bilecka, Andreas Hintennach, Marta D. Rossell, Dan Xie, Petr Novák and Markus Niederberger. (J. Mater. Chem., 2011, 21, 5881-5890)

The back cover highlights the work of Jiangying Qu, Zongbin Zhao, Xuzhen Wang and Jieshan Qiu and their paper Tailoring of three-dimensional carbon nanotube architectures by coupling capillarity-induced assembly with multiple CVD growth. (J. Mater. Chem., 2011, 21, 5967-5971)

The issue also contains a Hot Article Gold nanocluster-based light-controlled fluorescence molecular switch by Bo Liao, Jian Chen, Haowen Huang, Xiaofang Li and Benqiao He. (J. Mater. Chem., 2011, 21, 5867-5869)

The whole issue is available here. I hope you enjoy reading it.

A white paper outlining 5 key areas where materials chemists, through collaboration with other scientists, industry and policy makers, can help address global challenges has just been published.

Read the report and more details here: www.rsc.org/sustainablematerials

Scientists in China have made zinc oxide replicas of single scales from butterfly wings to understand and exploit their optical properties for sensor and solar cell applications. 

The Morpho menelaus butterfly with a magnified image of a wing scale (left) and zinc oxide scale replicas with a magnified image (right)

Butterfly wings are made up of chitin scales and their iridescent blue and green colours are generated by light and air travelling through the chitin. The way the scales are arranged dictates which colour is seen. Studying the wings’ properties to replicate the process could lead to the design of new photonic crystal structures for optical devices. 

Until now, researchers have focused on making devices based on whole butterfly wings, but Jiajun Gu and Di Zhang from Shanghai Jiao Tong University and their team, believe that this misses important mechanisms and phenomena. This is because whole wings are covered by redundant parts, such as wing membranes, which could alter the optical properties of the wings’ scales. 

To view the full Chemistry World article, please click here: A single scale tells more than a whole wing

Link to journal article

ZnO single butterfly wing scales: synthesis and spatial optical anisotropy
Yu Chen, Xining Zang, Jiajun Gu, Shenmin Zhu, Huilan Su, Di Zhang, Xiaobin Hu, Qinglei Liu, Wang Zhang and Dingxin Liu, J. Mater. Chem., 2011
DOI: 10.1039/c1jm10678c