Journal of Materials Chemistry Blog

Nanostructured tungsten oxide is of great interest due to its broad range of applications such as gas sensors, photocatalysts, electrochromic devices, field-emission devices, and solar-energy devices. In this paper, De Zhang and co-workers in China and Australia report for the first time the synthesis of hierarchical Cu-doped tungsten oxide with distinguished photonic crystal (PC) structures by using Morpho butterfly wings as a hard template. 

The gas sensing properties of the photonic replicas were tested for a range of gases and it was found that the Cu-doped tungsten oxide replicas showed much higher sensitivity to trimethylamine (TMA) than pure tungsten oxide and the replicas with PC structures possess even more enhanced sensitivity to TMA. 

Interested in knowing more?  Read the full article here.

Shenmin Zhu, Xinye Liu, Zhixin Chen, Chunjiao Liu, Chuanliang Feng, Jiajun Gu, Qinglei Liu and Di Zhang*
J. Mater. Chem., 2010, Advance Article DOI:10.1039/C0JM02113J, Paper

Intergranular films (IGFs) are amorphous nanometer-scale thin films that are observed at many grain boundaries in polycrystalline ceramics. IGFs make up only a small volume percent of the bulk ceramic, but their unique local chemistry can strongly influence the macroscopic properties of the material. 

Results of the simulations performed in this study by Stephen H. Garofalini and Yun Jiang show segregation of La ions (arrows) from intergranular film to the prismatic Si3N4 surface; equivalent to HAADF-STEM results.  The simulations and also show the effect of composition on varying segregation and growth.

Interested to know more?  Read the full article:

Yun Jiang and Stephen H. Garofalini, J. Mater. Chem., 2010, DOI: 10.1039/C0JM01555E

Nanoparticles, in sizes under 200 nm, exclusively accumulate into malignant lesions with decreased exposure to other vital organs. This typical property, known as passive targeting, has been utilized for cancer drug targeting.  Porphyrins produce a singlet oxygen under UV exposure to induce tumour cell death. 

In this study, hematoporphyrin attached albumin nanoparticles (HP-ANP) were fabricated and their therapeutic application for lung cancer was evaluated. HP-ANP were further functionalized with gamma-emitting nuclides (99mTc) to demonstrate in vivo imaging and pharmacokinetic properties through scintigraphic imaging. Here, Chang-Koo Shim and colleagues in South Korea have illustrated the possible application of HP-ANP for cancer targeted imaging and therapy.

Interested to know more?  Read the full article here

Su-Geun Yang, Ji-Eun Chang, Byungchul Shin, Sanghyun Park, Kun Na and Chang-Koo Shim, J. Mater. Chem., 2010, DOI:10.1039/C0JM01544J

Microbial contamination is a tremendous problem in our society nowadays. ZnO is extensively used as a universal inorganic antibacterial reagent in the food industry, however, few reports related to antibacterial function of ZnS have been published up to date. 

Erkang Wang and colleagues in China have developed a facile one-pot method to prepare complex three-dimensional ZnS nanospheres with good water-dispersibility and uniform size.  The obtained ZnS nanospheres exhibited high performance in prohibiting the growth of the foodborne pathogen Escherichia coli and negligible mammalian cell toxicity.

Interested to know more?  Read the full article.

Gaiping Li, Junfeng Zhai, Dan Li, Xiaona Fang, Hong Jiang, Qingzhe Dong and Erkang Wang*
J. Mater. Chem., 2010, Advance Article, DOI:10.1039/C0JM01776K Paper

The ability to organize functional materials into different types of hierarchical architectures is of paramount importance to nanomaterials research.  A solution-based method to synthesize cobalt nanofibers into pine-tree-leaf hierarchical superstructures has been described by researchers in Singapore.

Hua Chun Zeng and Cheng Chao Li showed that metallic papers made from these lightweight nanofibers are magnetically responsive and display an extraordinary ultrahydrophobicity (water contact angle 172.3°).

Because of their unique structural features and other physicochemical properties, the cobalt nanofibers may find new applications in the near future.

Cheng Chao Li and Hua Chun Zeng*
J. Mater. Chem., 2010, Advance Article
DOI:10.1039/C0JM01621G Paper 

Interested in knowing more?  Read the full article here.

The synthesis, characterization and thermotropic properties of novel asymmetrically substituted discotic molecules, perylene diester benzimidazoles (PDBIs), are presented in this paper by Mukundan Thelakkat and co-workers in Germany.

These discotic molecules self-organize into columnar superstructures and their absorption is extended to longer wavelengths in the visible regime up to 680 nm. 

These properties make n-type semiconducting PDBIs promising candidates for applications in organic electronics in areas such as light emitting diodes, field effect transistors or photovoltaic devices.

Interested to know more?  Read the article online here.

André Wicklein, Mathis-Andreas Muth and Mukundan Thelakkat
J. Mater. Chem., 2010, Advance Article DOI:10.1039/C0JM01626H, Paper

The development of fast and efficient methods to separate proteins of interest from a biological source remains a challenging task in the proteomic era. With the use of magnetic nanoparticles, the separation of proteins can be significantly simplified by applying an external magnetic field.

Nanfeng Zheng and co-workers have prepared superparamagnetic core-shell Fe₃O₄@SiO₂@poly(styrene-alt-maleic acid)/Ni-NTA particles having abundant Ni-NTA binding sites for the efficient separation of His-tagged proteins. The shell composition of poly(styrene-alt-maleic anhydride) allows the incorporation of more Ni-NTA affinity sites onto the surface of the magnetic spheres making them particularly promising for the magnetic separation of low-concentration His-tagged proteins.

Interested to know more? Read the full article here:

Superparamagnetic core-shell polymer particles for efficient purification of his-tagged proteins
Weijun Fang, Xiaolan Chen and Nanfeng Zheng
J. Mater. Chem., 2010, Advance Article
DOI:10.1039/C0JM02081H. Paper