Journal of Materials Chemistry Blog

Journal of Materials Chemistry will publish a themed issue on Materials for Biosurfaces in 2012. Please contact the editorial office if you would like to contribute an article.

The Guest Editors of the issue will be Professor Christopher K. Ober (Cornell University, USA), Dr. Christian Ohm (Cornell University, USA), Ms. Mary E. Welch (Cornell University, USA).

The issue will focus on the synthetic and physical chemistry of biosurfaces with a primary attention to polymer based surfaces and the role of surfaces in biomedical related applications such as biosensors. Materials of interest include polymer brushes, hydrogels, membranes and self-assembled monolayers. The role of surfaces in cell adhesion and cell-surface interactions is also a topic of this special issue.  

Journal of Materials Chemistry publishes original research that demonstrates novelty and advance, either in the chemistry used to produce materials or in the properties/applications of the materials produced. All manuscripts will be handled by the Journal of Materials Chemistry Editorial office and refereed in accordance to the standard procedures of the journal.

The deadline for the receipt of manuscripts for this themed issue is Monday 20^th February 2012

Manuscripts can be submitted using the RSC’s on-line submissions service. Please clearly state in the comment to editors section during submission that the manuscript is “submitted by invitation for the themed issue on Materials for Biosurfaces”.

We hope that you will be able to contribute to this themed issue and we look forward to hearing from you.

Professor Christopher K. Ober, Cornell University, Guest Editor
Dr. Christian Ohm, Cornell University, Guest Editor
Ms. Mary E. Welch, Cornell University
Dr Liz Davies, Editor, Journal of Materials Chemistry

The ‘Self-organisation of nanoparticles‘ themed issue guest edited by Professor Nicholas A. Kotov (University of Michigan) is now online. Professor Kotov introduces the themed issue with an editorial on ‘Practical aspects of self-organization of nanoparticles: experimental guide and future applications’.

The outside cover image come from the Feature Article Self-assembly and flux closure studies of magnetic nanoparticle rings by Alexander Wei, Takeshi Kasama and Rafal E. Dunin-Borkowski. The inside cover features an image from Reversible assembly of metal nanoparticles induced by penicillamine. Dynamic formation of SERS hot spots by Patricia Taladriz-Blanco and co-workers.

The full issue is published in Journal of Materials Chemistry as issue 42, 2011, but here is a selection of Applications & Feature Articles as a sample of what the issue contains.

• Metallic nanostructures assembled by DNA and related applications in surface-enhancement Raman scattering (SERS) detection
• Self-assembly and flux closure studies of magnetic nanoparticle rings
• Chemically induced self-assembly of spherical and anisotropic inorganic nanocrystals
• Metal nanomaterial-based self-assembly: Development, electrochemical sensing and SERS applications
• Click-chemistry for nanoparticle-modification
• Bionanoparticles and hybrid materials: tailored structural properties, self-assembly, materials and developments in the field
• 2D superlattices and 3D supracrystals of metal nanocrystals: a new scientific adventure
• Gold nanorod ensembles as artificial molecules for applications in sensors
• Self-assembly of latex particles for the creation of nanostructures with tunable plasmonic properties
• Self-assembly of particles: some thoughts and comments
• Chiral nanoparticle assemblies: circular dichroism, plasmonic interactions, and exciton effects
• Magnetic nanoparticles: recent advances in synthesis, self-assembly and applications
• Chemistry, physics, and engineering of electrically percolating arrays of nanoparticles: a mini review

The Materials Chemistry of Nanofabrication themed issue is now online. The guest editor for this issue was Kenneth R. Carter University of Massachusetts, Amherst, USA. Here is Professor Carter’s editorial “Nanofabrication: past, present and future” introducing the topic. 

The outside front cover showcases “DNA nanofabrication by scanning near-field photolithography of oligo(ethylene glycol) terminated SAMs: Controlled scan-rate dependent switching between head group oxidation and tail group degradation” by Shuqing Sun and co-workers. “Fabrication of wafer-scale polystyrene photonic crystal multilayers via the layer-by-layer scooping transfer technique” is the paper featured on the inside front cover.

The full issue contains 4 hot articles.

• Fabrication of functional colloidal photonic crystals based on well-designed latex particles
• Fabrication of wafer-scale polystyrene photonic crystal multilayers via the layer-by-layer scooping transfer technique
• DNA nanofabrication by scanning near-field photolithography of oligo(ethylene glycol) terminated SAMs: Controlled scan-rate dependent switching between head group oxidation and tail group degradation
• Formation of hierarchical silica nanochannels through nanoimprint lithography

To keep up-to-date with all the latest research, sign up for the journal’s e-alerts or RSS feeds or follow Journal of Materials Chemistry on Twitter.

The Advanced Materials for Lithium Batteries themed issue is now online. The guest editors for this issue are Professor M. Saiful Islam (Bath, UK) and Professor Linda Nazar (Waterloo, Canada). Here is their editorial introducing the topic.  

The outside front cover illustrates a Feature Article on One dimensional Si/Sn – based nanowires and nanotubes for lithium-ion energy storage materials by Nam-Soon Choi, Yan Yao, Yi Cui and Jaephil Cho. This review was selected as a Hot Article. On the inside front cover was Direct and modified ionothermal synthesis of LiMnPO4 with tunable morphology for rechargeable Li-ion batteries by Prabeer Barpanda, Karim Djellab, Nadir Recham, Michel Armand and Jean-Marie Tarascon. This paper was also a Hot Article.  

The full issue contains 7 hot articles. Here’s the full list:

• One dimensional Si/Sn – based nanowires and nanotubes for lithium-ion energy storage materials
• What can we learn about battery materials from their magnetic properties?
• SnO2 hollow structures and TiO2 nanosheets for lithium-ion batteries
• Effect of ball-milling and lithium insertion on the lithium mobility and structure of Li3Fe2(PO4)3
• Benefits of N for O substitution in polyoxoanionic electrode materials: a first principles investigation of the electrochemical properties of Li2FeSiO4−yNy (y = 0, 0.5, 1)
• Direct and modified ionothermal synthesis of LiMnPO4 with tunable morphology for rechargeable Li-ion batteries
• The influence on Fermi energy of Li-site change in LizTi1−yNiyS2 on crossing z = 1

To keep up-to-date with all the latest research, sign up for the journal’s e-alerts or RSS feeds or follow Journal of Materials Chemistry on Twitter.

Journal of Materials Chemistry is planning to produce a themed issue on Integrating Functionality into Metal-Organic Frameworks in 2012. Please e-mail the editorial office, materials-rsc@rsc.org, if you are interested in contributing an article.

The Guest Editors of the issue will be Professor Stefan Kaskel (Dresden, Germany) and Professor Roland Fischer (Bochum, Germany).

Porous Metal-Organic Frameworks (MOFs) have set records in recent years regarding specific surface area and pore volume. The field of MOFs has exploded moving from applications in adsorption towards more and more rational integration of specific functions revealing novel applications in drug delivery and sensing, including attractive mechanical and magnetic properties. Specific functionalization allows for the integration of chiral groups for enantioselective catalysis and separation. The search for very large pores and higher specific surface area remains a key challenge in the rapidly expanding field of MOFs, especially in catalysis and high pressure gas storage. High porosity enables anchoring of molecular catalysts, impregnation with catalyst precursors, or adsorption of larger drug molecules in MOFs for fine chemical transformation, nanoparticle formation, sensing, or drug delivery. Self assembly and thin film techniques are essential for device integration of such novel porous materials.

The deadline for the receipt of manuscripts for this themed issue is
November 1.
 

Manuscripts can be submitted using the RSC’s on-line submissions service. Please clearly mark that the manuscript is submitted for the themed issue on Integrating Functionality into Metal-Organic Frameworks (short: MOFs).

Please would you inform the editorial office by e-mail at materials-rsc@rsc.org as soon as possible if you plan to submit to the issue and whether your contribution will be original research or a review-type article. We would like to have a list of authors who intend to contribute as soon as possible.

Journal of Materials Chemistry will publish a themed issue on Organic Optoelectronic Materials in 2012. Please contact the editorial office if you would like to contribute an article.

The Guest Editors of the issue will be Professors Wenping Hu (ICCAS, China), Klaus Müllen (MPI-P Mainz, Germany) and Zhenan Bao (Stanford University). The themed issue is dedicated for the celebration of Prof. Daoben Zhu’s 70th birthday.

Organic Optoelectronic Materials with special functionalities stem from the increasing ability to manipulate and tune the optoelectronic properties of organic and polymeric materials. This was achieved through the systematic variation of their molecular components, to allow for molecular-level control of the solid-state structure via arrangement of the functional molecular components into a defined solid architecture.

With the development in materials, a number of applications have shown great promise for practical applications. Organic light-emitting diodes made the development of a superior flat-panel display technology possible. This display technology has been used in diverse applications ranging from cellular phones to large-area high-definition television screens. Organic solar cells now can reach quantum efficiency over 9%, which makes them attractive for delivering cheap solar power. Organic field-effect transistors have resulted in a revolution in developing fast and inexpensive integrated circuits based on organic semiconductor elements. When combined with the advantage of solution processability, organic semiconductors allow for the use of a variety of printing techniques, such as inkjet printing and stamping, to fabricate large area devices at low cost. The mechanical properties of organic semiconductors also allow for flexible electronics. However, the most distinguishing feature of organic semiconductors is their chemical versatility, which permits the incorporation of functionalities through molecular design. Organic integrated circuits have already been realized, which has accelerated the development of “plastic electronics” and “printed electronics”.

The aim of the themed issue focuses on organic and polymer materials with high electroluminescent efficiency for organic light-emitting diodes, with high quantum efficiency for organic solar cells, with high mobility for organic field-effect transistors, and so on. Certainly, it is a highly interdisciplinary science, the research and development of organic optoelectronic materials continually derives ideas, methods, and technologies from other research fields. Knowledge, results and techniques derived from chemistry, physics, materials science, semiconductors, electronics, nanotechnology and biology have been adopted in the design and development of organic optoelectronic materials. For example, the understanding of how the properties of materials impact their microstructure, and in turn how they affect device performance; modification and control of the interface between organic layers and organic/metal electrode; the understanding the processes that contribute to the operation of organic devices; and the integration of organic elements with existing silicon technology to realize high performance electronic devices and circuits, have all been crucial in the development of organic electronics and their corresponding applications.

Journal of Materials Chemistry wishes to publish original research that demonstrates novelty and advance, either in the chemistry used to produce materials or in the properties/applications of the materials produced. All manuscripts will be handled by the Journal of Materials Chemistry Editorial office and refereed in accordance to the standard procedures of the journal.

The deadline for the receipt of manuscripts for this themed issue is 3^rd October 2011.

Manuscripts can be submitted using the RSC’s on-line submissions service. Please clearly mark that the manuscript is submitted for the themed issue on Organic Optoelectronic Materials. We very much hope that you will be able to contribute to this themed issue and look forward to hearing from you at your earliest convenience.

Professor Wenping Hu, Guest Editor
Professor Klaus Müllen, Guest Editor
Professor Zhenan Bao, Guest Editor
Dr Liz Davies, Editor, Journal of Materials Chemistry

The Mechanoresponsive Materials themed issue is now online. Here is Christoph Weder’s Editorial. The front cover illustration features a paper on Alkyl chain length effects on solid-state difluoroboron β-diketonate mechanochromic luminescence by Cassandra Fraser and co-workers. The inside front cover highlights a Feature Article on The physical chemistry of mechanoresponsive polymers by Timothy Kucharski and Roman Boulatov.  

 The issue also includes 6 Hot Articles:

• Tailored design of mechanically sensitive biocatalytic assemblies based on polyelectrolyte multilayers
• High-resolution 27Al MAS NMR spectroscopic studies of the response of spinel aluminates to mechanical action
• Piezochromic luminescence of amide and ester derivatives of tetraphenylpyrene—role of amide hydrogen bonds in sensitive piezochromic response
• Arene effects on difluoroboron β-diketonate mechanochromic luminescence
• Restructuring of exponentially growing polyelectrolyte multilayer films induced by salt concentration variations after film deposition
• Environmental effects on mechanochemical activation of spiropyran in linear PMMA

Read the full issue here:

The submission deadline for the Materials Chemistry in the Emerging Field of Synthetic Biology themed issue is just over a month away. Professor Cameron Alexander (University of Nottingham, UK) and Dr Rachel O’Reilly (Warwick University, UK) will act as the guest editors for this themed issue of Journal of Materials Chemistry. Please contact the Editorial Office if you are interested in contributing to the themed issue.

The deadline for the receipt of manuscripts for this themed issue is 21st May 2011.

Synthetic biology is a rapidly developing area of science with potentially far-reaching consequences.  While much publicity has centred on what constitutes this scientific field and what possible ethical issues might be invoked, before there can be any real practical progress there needs to be a fundamental shift in the synthesis aspects of synthetic biology. Biological processes utilise highly evolved self-assembly mechanisms and a plethora of error-correction strategies in order to generate functional materials, which in combination form the working machinery of the cell. For synthetic counterparts, new chemistries will be needed to generate the precise structures that give rise to function, or to modify existing machineries in order to create wholly new behaviours.

Materials chemistry is central to this endeavour. In particular, the long-standing focus on supramolecular structure and order, function at multiple lengthscales, and emergent properties, in materials chemistry equips scientists in this area with an advantageous ‘mindset’ for synthetic biology. The ‘top-down’ approach involves re-engineering existing tools from biology to generate novel functions (IGEM etc), or even organisms (Venter). Modifications of gene circuits to do different tasks than those evolved in nature require an understanding of the biological materials that perform these functions – this is materials chemistry but applied to biological molecules and assemblies (Seeman, Turberfield). The ‘bottom-up’ approach involves completely new structures and functions that can be completely abiotic in origin, but biomimetic (or possibly ‘biosuperior’) in function. Chemistries for forming artificial cell walls (van Hest, others) and artificial actuators (Ryan, others) show how sophisticated properties can arise from relatively simple building blocks, if designed and put together in ingenious ways. The work by Cronin et al shows the extreme abiotic end of emergent synthetic biology, while that of Szostak and Mansy exemplifies a hybrid approach wherein natural components are incorporated into novel frameworks to perform synthetic biology functions. Computational materials chemistry is another important component, as not only can life-like behaviour be programmed in silico, but increasingly, insights from complex computational algorithms can be used to design synthetic biology processes such as vesicle assembly, budding and replication that can be tested in the ‘wet’ laboratory (Krasnogor).

Overall, this themed issue covers the key materials chemistries that will help to define the exciting field of synthetic biology to come. There are many opportunities in this field, and materials chemistry is at its heart. All manuscripts will be refereed in accordance to the standard procedures of Journal of Materials Chemistry, and in this respect invited articles will be treated in the same way as regular submissions to the journal.

We look forward to hearing from you if you’re interested in contributing to this themed issue.

Don’t forget Journal of Materials Chemistry is publishing a themed issue on Self-Organization of Nanoparticles with with Professor Nicholas A. Kotov (University of Michigan, USA) as Guest Editor.

The deadline for the receipt of manuscripts for this themed issue is 17^th April 2011.

Manuscripts can be submitted using our online submission service. Please indicate on you submission letter that your manuscript is submitted in response to the call for papers for the Self-Organization of Nanoparticles themed issue.