Journal of Materials Chemistry Blog

Steam powers artificial muscle

04 Feb 2016

Written by Cathy Sorbara

Scientists in China have flexed their muscles with a new steam-driven actuator made from a carbon nanotube and silicone rubber composite. Potential applications of this design include artificial hearts, sensors and soft robots.

Actuators convert energy in various forms directly to mechanical energy, in this case behaving like muscles in response to a stimulus. The biomedical community anticipates using actuators to replace damaged muscles. However, actuators’ complexity and poor durability have hindered their foray into the clinical world.

Interested? The full story can be read in Chemistry World.

The actuator's silicone membrane expands to six times its original size

The original article can be read below:

A large-deformation phase transition electrothermal actuator based on carbon nanotube–elastomer composites
Zhiwei Zhou, Qingwei Li, Luzhuo Chen, Changhong Liu and Shoushan Fan
J. Mater. Chem. B, 2016, Advance Article
DOI: 10.1039/C5TB02715B

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Re-seeding hairlines with stem cells

05 Jan 2016

By Aliya Anwar.

Written by Suzanne Howson for Chemistry World

Scientists in China and Canada have developed a way to treat hair loss using stem cells. The cells are enclosed within a cytokine-containing layer that circumvents the difficulties in regenerating new hair follicles on bald skin.

Hu's and Xing's teams coated the stem cells with serval polymer layers to both protect them and provide them with hair-inductive properties

Hair loss, or alopecia, is a common problem caused by aging, diseases and medicines. Although not life-threatening, the emotional effects of hair loss can be damaging. Currently, treatments include drugs and hair transplants, however these are expensive and regenerating new hair follicles after treatment remains challenging. Dermal papilla cells, a type of mesenchymal stem cell located in hair follicles, are responsible for hair-follicle morphogenesis and hair cycling. Although potentially useful for treating alopecia, they suffer from loss of function in vitro.

Interested? The full article can be read in Chemistry World.

The original article can be read below and is free to access until 2^ndFebruary 2016.:

Cytokine loaded layer-by-layer ultrathin matrices to deliver single dermal papilla cells for spot-by-spot hair follicle regeneration
Zhi-qi Hu and Malcolm Xing et al.
J. Mater. Chem. B, 2016, Advance Article
DOI: 10.1039/C5TB02265G

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UK-Korea Symposium on Lithium and Sodium Batteries

02 Dec 2015

By Aliya Anwar.

logo

We are excited to announce the upcoming UK-Korea Symposium on Lithium and Sodium Batteries which will take place in London from the 18^th – 19^thJanuary 2016.

The symposium will be a joint meeting organised by the Royal Society of Chemistry and Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology (UNIST) and will be focussed upon covering all aspects of lithium-ion, sodium-ion and metal-air batteries (for e.g. Li, Na and Zn).

There will be talks showcasing some of the best research from Korea and the UK with opportunities to highlight recent developments and identify emerging and future areas of growth. There will also be a poster session with prizes and certificates awarded for the best poster presentations.

Further details about the symposium can be found here along with information on registration and abstract submission.

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JMC A in the news!

02 Dec 2015

By Aliya Anwar.

Journal of Materials Chemistry A has been mentioned on The AsianAge website in an article titled: Now, water can turn into fuel.

The article states that ‘new research has found that some metal-organic frameworks, which combine metal atoms and organic molecules, exhibit the ideal electronic structure required to catalyse these reactions’.

The full article can be read here.

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Poster prize winners at KAUST Solar Future 2015 Symposium

27 Nov 2015

By Aliya Anwar.

Journal of Materials Chemistry A and Materials Horizons are proud to have sponsored the KAUST Solar Future 2015 Symposium which took place from the 7^th– 11^thNovember 2015 at the King Abdullah University of Science and Technology, Saudi Arabia.

Many congratulations to the poster prize winners!

The symposium is an event in which international experts from the academic and industrial communities gather to share their vision and results in the field of solar energy. The symposium runs for three-and-a-half days with keynote presentations and many networking opportunities for scientists.

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Poster prize winner at the 37th Annual Meeting of the Japanese Society for Biomaterials

26 Nov 2015

By Aliya Anwar.

Many congratulations to Kihara Shinsuke Kihara (Kobe University), who was awarded a Journal of Materials Chemistry B best poster prize at the 37^thAnnual Meeting of the Japanese Society for Biomaterials which took place from the 9^th– 10^thNovember 2015 in Kyoto, Japan.

Professor Yasuhiko Tabata of Kyoto University and the Japanese Society for Biomaterials Committee Chair was on hand to present the award to Kihara.

(left) Kihara Shinsuke Kihara and Professor Yasuhiko Tabata

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POLYMAT SPOTLIGHT 2016

25 Nov 2015

By Aliya Anwar.

Journal of Materials Chemistry A will be sponsoring the upcoming POLYMAT SPOTLIGHT 2016 conference taking place in San Sebastian, Spain from the 21^st– 24^thJune 2016. The conference will be a series of workshops in cohesion with POLYMAT and the University of the Basque Country with an objective of increasing the visibility of emerging and technologically relevant macromolecular materials. The workshop will be chaired by Aurelio Mateo-Alonso (University of the Basque Country, Spain).

Speakers will include Journal of Materials Chemistry A, B & C Editor-in-Chief Nazario Martin (Complutense University of Madrid, Spain) and Materials Horizons Editorial Board member, Markus Antonietti (Max Planck Institute of Colloids and Interfaces, Germany) amongst others.

The deadline for abstract submission is 15^thJanuary 2016 with authors being notified about presentation type by the 15^thFebruary 2016.

Further information about the conference including a full list of speakers and keynotes lectures can be found by clicking on the logo below.

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2nd Functional Oxide Thin Films for Advanced Energy and Information Technology Conference

19 Nov 2015

By Aliya Anwar.

Guest written by Laura Trundle

The 2^ndFunctional Oxide Thin Films for Advanced Energy and Information Technology conference will be taking place from the 5^th– 8^thMarch 2016 in Cancun, Mexico.

The purpose of this meeting is to foster the exchange of ideas between the relevant energy and information themes with the overall aim of sparking extensive discussions of the advances that materials physics and chemistry can make in thin film applications. Key sessions will include; Nanoionics, Batteries and supercapacitors, Fuel cells, Nanoelectronics, Ionic and electronic conductors, Heterostructures and interfaces, Resistive switching and Oxide electrochemistry.

Confirmed keynote speakers include; Albert Tarancón (Catalonia Institute for Energy Research-IREC), Jennifer L.M. Rupp (ETH Zurich), Ho Nyung Lee (Oak Ridge National Laboratory), William Chueh (Stanford University), Monica Burriel (University of Grenoble), Nina Balke (Oak Ridge National Laboratory), Nini Pryds (Technical University of Denmark), Stephen Skinner (Imperial College London), Rotraut Merkle (Max Planck Institute) and Shriram Ramanathan (Harvard University).

To view all of the conference speakers or for further information concerning the conference, please visit: http://www.fusion-conferences.com/conference42.php

The deadline for Oral Submission is the 23^rdNovember 2015.

There is an Earlybird registration deadline of the 18^thDecember 2015 with a Late-breaking Oral Submission deadline of 30^thDecember 2015.

Final registration deadline is the 8^thJanuary 2016.

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The Chemistry of Thermoelectric Materials web collection

19 Nov 2015

By Aliya Anwar.

Front cover

Journal of Materials Chemistry C is pleased to announce the publication of the Chemistry of Thermoelectric Materials themed collection.

Thermoelectrics are gaining increasing interests due to their important potential applications. Many novel thermoelectric materials have been developed by manipulating the doping, electronic structure, phonon structure and scattering, as well as microstructure. Chemistry affects all of these enabling, for example, the tuning and engineering of the electron band structure or phonon scattering.

The collection broadly covers the chemistry aspects of thermoelectric materials and is Guest Edited by G. Jeffrey Snyder (Northwestern University, USA).

Below are a selection of some of the high quality articles, and the full collection can be found here.

Thermoelectric properties of materials with nontrivial electronic topology
Koushik Pal, Shashwat Anand and Umesh V. Waghmare
J. Mater. Chem. C, 2015, 3, 12130-12139
DOI: 10.1039/C5TC02344K

Crystal structure and thermoelectric properties of Sr–Mo substituted CaMnO3: a combined experimental and computational study
D. Srivastava, F. Azough, R. Freer, E. Combe, R. Funahashi, D. M. Kepaptsoglou, Q. M. Ramasse, M. Molinari, S. R. Yeandel, J. D. Baran and S. C. Parker
J. Mater. Chem. C, 2015, Advance Article
DOI: 10.1039/C5TC02318A

Morphological effects on the thermoelectric properties of Ti_0.3Zr_0.35Hf_0.35Ni_1+δSn alloys following phase separation
Oshrat Appel, Tsvika Zilber, Sergey Kalabukhov, Ofer Beeri and Yaniv Gelbstein
J. Mater. Chem. C, 2015, 3, 11653-11659
DOI: 10.1039/C5TC03214H

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Bio-inspired and natural materials web collection

19 Nov 2015

By Aliya Anwar.

Front cover

Journal of Materials Chemistry B is pleased to announce the publication of the Bio-inspired and natural materials themed issue.

Bio-inspired and naturally-derived materials may derive their structure, crosslinking, fabrication or application from biological sources. Of particular interest are materials that are self-assembled, hierarchically structured, biologically active, dynamic, responsive or adaptable. Potential applications are diverse and include the medical, bioprocessing, environmental, energy, consumer or military fields. This themed issue aims to cover the most recent progress in the synthesis, processing and characterization of bio-inspired and natural materials, to highlight the new development in synthesis, engineering, and application of these materials.

The collection was Guest Edited by Jennie B. Leach (UMBC, USA) and Molly S. Shoichet (University of Toronto, Canada)

Below are a selection of some of the high quality articles, and the full collection can be found here.

Strategies for skeletal muscle tissue engineering: seed vs. soil
Brian M. Sicari, Ricardo Londono and Stephen F. Badylak
J. Mater. Chem. B, 2015, 3, 7881-7895
DOI: 10.1039/C5TB01714A

Mimicking biological phenomena in hydrogel-based biomaterials to promote dynamic cellular responses
Nicholas P. Murphy and Kyle J. Lampe
J. Mater. Chem. B, 2015, 3, 7867-7880
DOI: 10.1039/C5TB01045D

Hydrogels that allow and facilitate bone repair, remodeling, and regeneration
Aaron R. Short, Deepthi Koralla, Ameya Deshmukh, Benjamin Wissel, Benjamin Stocker, Mark Calhoun, David Dean and Jessica O. Winter
J. Mater. Chem. B, 2015, 3, 7818-7830
DOI: 10.1039/C5TB01043H

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Journal of Materials Chemistry Blog

Steam powers artificial muscle

Re-seeding hairlines with stem cells

UK-Korea Symposium on Lithium and Sodium Batteries

JMC A in the news!

Poster prize winners at KAUST Solar Future 2015 Symposium

Poster prize winner at the 37th Annual Meeting of the Japanese Society for Biomaterials

POLYMAT SPOTLIGHT 2016

2nd Functional Oxide Thin Films for Advanced Energy and Information Technology Conference

The Chemistry of Thermoelectric Materials web collection

Bio-inspired and natural materials web collection

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