Journal of Materials Chemistry Blog

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

This week Dr James Milne (RSC Publishing) presented a certificate of achievement to Professor Hongjie Zhang, at Changchun Institute of Applied Chemistry.

Professor Zhang was recognised for his prolific published research over the last year. RSC has published 17 of Professor Zhang’s papers – making him the most successful author from China during the year and 4 of these papers were published in Journal of Materials Chemistry.

Read Professor Zhang’s excellent work published in Journal of Materials Chemistry.

• White-light emission from a single-emitting-component Ca9Gd(PO4)(7):Eu2+,Mn2+ phosphor with tunable luminescent properties for near-UV light-emitting diodes
• Facile and rapid fabrication of metal-organic framework nanobelts and color-tunable photoluminescence properties
• A transparent and luminescent ionogel based on organosilica and ionic liquid coordinating to Eu3+ ions
• One-pot synthesis of flowerlike Ni7S6 and its application in selective hydrogenation of chloronitrobenzene

RSC Publishing is offering two fantastic opportunities to gain experience in scientific publishing over the summer.

Science Writer Internship
The RSC is looking for a student member to work as a science writer in our editorial office this summer. You will gain experience working for two of our publications: Chemistry World and Education in Chemistry. Full details here:

Summer Placement – Scientific Publishing
This is a great opportunity to gain experience over an 8-12 week period of working with dynamic journals teams and academics to ensure the RSC publishes leading journals for the chemical science community worldwide. Full details here:

Materials chemists in China have developed a compound that they believe should improve the quality of field emission displays (FEDs), bringing applications a step closer. FEDs have, for a number of years, been a promising technology for flat panel displays, but progress has been hampered by the display quality.

Jun Lin at the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Changchun, and colleagues developed a phosphor with promising colour properties for FED applications…  Read the full story in Chemistry World.

Original research article here: Cyan-emitting Ti⁴⁺– and Mn²⁺-coactivated Mg₂SnO₄ as a potential phosphor to enlarge the color gamut for field emission display. Guogang Li, Xiao Zhang, Chong Peng, Mengmeng Shang, Dongling Geng, Ziyong Cheng and Jun Lin, J. Mater. Chem., 2011, DOI: 10.1039/c1jm00057h