Journal of Materials Chemistry Blog

I am very pleased to announce that Professor Seth Marder (Georgia Institute of Technology, USA) will be the next Journal of Materials Chemistry Editorial Board Chair from January 2011, on the ‘retirement’ of the current Chair, Professor George Malliaras (Centre Microélectronique de Provence of the Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Mines de Saint Etienne).  During George’s term as Chair of the Editorial Board, we have seen the journal move from strength to strength, with a growth of 125% in size, and 10% incresase in impact factor, to its curent value of 4.80. Thank you, George, for all your help and support.   

Seth Marder

 Seth has been involved with Journal of Materials Chemistry for a number of years, as an author, referee, and more recently as a member of the Advisory Board.  In 2009, he also organised a very successful themed issue on organic non-linear optics.  

Seth is the director of the Center for Organic Photonics and Electronics (COPE) and his research interests include electronic and optical materials.  The materials being developed by Seth have a wide variety of applications from optical storage to dyes for biological imaging. Seth is a Fellow of the Optical Society of America and the American Association for the Advancement of Science.    

We are all looking forward to working with Seth in his new role with the journal.  Welcome on Board, Seth! 

A graphene oxide anticancer drug carrier that combines different targeting mechanisms has been designed by scientists from China.

Many anticancer drugs are toxic or cause harmful side effects because they target healthy cells as well as tumour cells. Yongsheng Chen from Nankai University, China, and colleagues have developed a delivery system using functionalised graphene oxide as the drug carrier. Graphene oxide has a very high surface area, enabling it to transport a large amount of the drug. As cancer cells are typically more acidic than normal cells, the team developed the system to increase drug release as pH decreases. This confines the drug to the tumour site and limits uptake by healthy cells. This could allow doctors to use higher doses and improve the effectiveness of treatments, or reduce side-effects for patients…

Read the full article for free in Highlights in Chemical Science.

ChemComm is delighted to invite nominations for the very first ChemComm Emerging Investigator Lectureship. The lectureship, which will be awarded annually, will recognise an emerging scientist in the early stages of their independent academic career. Deadline for nominations: 28th February 2011. Visit the ChemComm blog for more information.

Journal of Materials Chemistry issue 44 is now online and features inside and outside cover artwork from two ‘Hot Articles’ reported on this blog in October.

Red, Green, Blue, Black, Transparent, all these states can now be achieved with a single electrochromic polymer. This front cover artwork represents a paper from Levant Toppare and colleagues from the Middle East Technical University in Ankara, Turkey: ‘Processable donor–acceptor type electrochromes switching between multicolored and highly transmissive states towards single component RGB-based display devices’. 

The inside front cover features another ‘Hot Article’: ‘Anomalous Eu layer doping in Eu, Si co-doped aluminium nitride based phosphor and its direct observation‘ from Takashi Takeda and co-workers from the National Institute for Materials Science and Tohoku University in Japan.

The latest issue of Journal of Materials Chemistry features cover artwork by Ying Chen and colleagues from Deakin University and the Australian National University.  Their cover shows boron nitride nanotubes grown on both the external and internal surfaces of a tiny steel needle using the new boron (B) ink method.  This demonstrates work from their paper ‘Boron nitride nanotube films grown from boron ink painting’.

Read the full text of this article here:
Lu Hua Li, Ying Chen and Alexey M. Glushenkov
J. Mater. Chem., 2010, 20, 9679-9683
DOI: 10.1039/C0JM01414A, Paper

Cross-linked enzyme aggregates have great potential in marine antifouling paints claim Danish scientists.

Paints with antifouling activity are used in the marine industry to prevent undesirable accumulation of microorganisms, plants and animals on ship surfaces below the waterline. Previously tributyltin self-polishing copolymer (TBT-SPC) paints have been used however they were banned in January 2008 due to environmental regulations.

The main alternatives are copper-based paints but these also cause concern for the environment. Consequently it non-toxic alternatives are desirable which is where enzymes can have a niche explains Stepan Shipovskov at Aarhus University, Denmark.

Environmentally friendly paints for boats use enzymes instead of metals

Enzymes can interact directly with microorganisms on the ships surface but organic solvents, such as xylene, are the main base of paints and can inactivate the enzymes. Shipovskov and co-workers tested cross-linked enzyme aggregates (CLEAs) of proteases in artificial sea water and found that they are tolerant to xylene and have great stability in dried paint. Shipovskov explains that ‘a stabilisation effect occurs due to the covalent linking between enzyme molecules which prevents enzyme inactivation in organic solvents’.

To view the full Highlights in Chemical Science article, please click here: Enzymes – a new ingredient for marine paint?

Link to journal article

Implementation of cross-linked enzyme aggregates of proteases for marine paint applications
Jonas Skovgaard, Charlotte A. Bak, Torben Snabe, Duncan S. Sutherland, Brian S. Laursen, Karsten M. Kragh, Flemming Besenbacher, Charlotte H. Poulsen and Stepan Shipovskov, J. Mater. Chem., 2010, 20, 7626
DOI: 10.1039/c0jm01249a