Journal of Materials Chemistry Blog

Polymeric nanowires have been made into a “paper” form, in a new method that doesn’t require harsh treatments such as etching, patterning and cleaning, unlike current methods. The “papers” are made by filtering a gel through a Buchner funnel, then peeling the “paper” off from the filter paper.

The paper contains Na⁺, but if replaced by other cations and subjected to ultraviolet light, the paper changes colour, which is easily distinguishable by the eye, and between different cations – therefore it’s an easy way of sensing different ions (calcium, mercury, lead, manganese etc). Read the article for free until 15th August.

Feng Bai, Zaicheng Sun, Ping Lu and Hongyou Fan, J. Mater. Chem., 2012, 22, 14839-14842

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Facile synthesis of well-dispersed graphene by γ-ray induced reduction of graphene oxide 
Graphene has been produced by a range of techniques including micro-mechanical exfoliation of graphite, chemical vapour deposition, epitaxial growth and the chemical reduction of graphene oxide. Chemical reduction of graphene oxide has received considerable attention as it offers a route to produce graphene on a large scale starting from cheaper natural graphite; however the reducing agents required are often poisonous or explosive. Now Chinese scientists have developed a simple approach to prepare well-dispersed graphene sheets by γ-ray induced reduction of a graphene oxide in DMF at room temperature. 
Youwei Zhang,  Hui-Ling Ma,  Qilu Zhang,  Jing Peng,  Jiuqiang Li,  Maolin Zhai and Zhong-Zhen Yu, J. Mater. Chem., 2012, 22, 13064-13069

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US researchers have made a transparent membrane that is highly electron and proton conductive.

Transparent materials with both ionic and electrical conductivity and mixed conducting properties are used in devices which require a membrane with both electrical and protonic conductivity but minimal light absorption– such as some water splitting solar cells. Blending conjugated polymers is one approach to achieve electrical and ionic conductivity; however, polymer membranes formed from blending two polymers often suffer from poor mechanical properties and polymer phase separation.

In this hot paper Paula T. Hammond and co-workers at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, USA, demonstrate that they can tune the ionic conductivity, the electrical, optical, and mechanical properties of PEDOT:sPPO by changing the composition ratio and by DMSO treatment. The polymer thin films become more transparent, smoother, softer, and exhibit higher proton conductivity as the sPPO ratio in PEDOT:sPPO is increased. After DMSO treatment, the polymer electrical conductivity dramatically increased without jeopardizing the protonic conductivity.

Highly transparent mixed electron and proton conducting polymer membranes: Junying Liu, Nicole R. Davis, David S. Liu and Paula T. Hammond, J. Mater. Chem., 2012, DOI: 10.1039/C2JM32296J (Advance Article)

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Electrothermally driven structural colour based on liquid crystal elastomers
Photonic crystal structures offer tremendous potential for use in a range of applications such as optical transistors and waveguides, data storage media, and chemical sensors. Liquid crystals are good candidates to form tunable photonic crystals because they can show optical anisotropy and their refractive index can be changed by an external electric field or temperature change; however, in most cases, liquid crystals are not used as inverse opaline materials directly, but instead, infiltrated into the voids of the inverse opaline films– which limits their suitability for some applications. In this hot paper a new type of electrothermally driven photonic crystal based on liquid crystal elastomers is reported, and its optical properties driven by voltage are described. The authors say this is the first example where a pure liquid crystal elastomer is introduced into photonic crystals as an inverse opaline structure material. (J. Mater. Chem., 2012, 22, 11943-11949)

Origin of long-range orientational pore ordering in anodic films on aluminium
Porous anodic aluminium oxide has long been used for colouring and to prevent corrosion. It’s now also finding uses in hi-tech nanostructured devices such as gas sensors, nanocapacitors and microcantilevers. In this hot paper Kirill S. Napolskii and co-workers at Lomonosov Moscow State University show that the long range in-plane orientational pore ordering originates from the anisotropy of oxidation rates of the substrate during the anodization process. This finding offers a new approach for tailoring and controlling the in-plane orientational pore ordering by crystallographic manipulation with the Al substrate. (J. Mater. Chem., 2012, 22, 11922-11926)

A chiral co-crystalline form of poly(2,6-dimethyl-1,4-phenylene)oxide (PPO)
The crystalline structure of an industrially relevant specialty polymer, poly(2,6-dimethyl-1,4-phenylene)oxide (PPO) is resolved for the first time in this hot paper. The structure is a co-crystalline structure of the polymer with a chiral guest molecule (α-pinene), exhibiting a 2/1 monomer-unit–guest molar ratio. The authors say the most striking feature of this co-crystalline structure is its chirality. (J. Mater. Chem., 2012, 22, 11672-11680)

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