Materials Horizons Blog

AsiaNANO poster prize winners

25 Oct 2016

Congratulations to the poster prize winners at the Asian Conferene on Nanoscience & Nanotechnology which took place from the 10^th– 13^thOctober in Sapporo, Japan. The conference was attended by 330 participants from over 10 different countries. There were 79 oral (31 invited) and 182 poster presentations. Materials Horizons and Nanoscale Horizons provided sponsorship in the form of poster prizes which were handed to the following winners:

Chee Leng Lay (University of Singapore) for her poster titled: Transformative Two-Dimensional Array Configurations by Geometrical Shape-shifting Protein Microstructures, Ryo Iida (Hokkaido University): Thermoresponsive assembly of gold nanospheres and nanorods, Satoshi Nakamura (Hokkaido University): Immobilization of AuNRs by assistance of a DNA brush and Zhepeng Zhang (Peking University): Direct Chemical Vapor Deposition Growth of MoS2/h-BN van der Waals Heterostructures on Au Foils.

The conference included recent hot topics on chemical and physical aspects of nanostructures as well as their fabrication and characterization technologies with its main focus on revolutionary approaches and results developed newly in nanochemistry and nanomaterials for the last two years. Further information can be found on the website.

Poster prize winners with Professor Masahiko Hara of Tokyo Institute of Technology/RIKEN (far left).

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A laser “writing” method for easily adjustable and complex 3D structures – a new HOT article

24 Oct 2016

By Susannah May.

Photographs of different 3D shapes generated from the same stretched Nafion/PDA films treated with a NIR laser with different facular region shapes.

A new and highly adaptable way to make 3D structures in a wide range of different shapes has been reported in a new HOT article, published in Materials Horizons. The technique allows adjustment of both the shape transition process and the final shape at the same time.

The strategy, which Jian Ji’s group at Zhejiang University describe as a “writing” process, uses polymer nanosheets as blank “paper”. These are guided into making specific shape changes with a near infra-red laser beam “pen”. By controlling which shape changes happen at which time, several sheets can be woven together into a complex interlocking structure. Unlike previous techniques, the order of these changes can be easily altered to change the interlocking pattern.

Ji’s group used pre-stretched composite sheets of Nafion, a shape memory polymer, and polydopamine. When a NIR laser was applied to specific parts of the nanosheet, the polydopamine converted the light energy into heat. This caused internal stress between the heated and non-heated parts, triggering a shape transition of the sheet to relieve the stress. Changing the shape or intensity of the laser beam or where it was applied modulated the shape change, giving rise to a huge number of possible shapes.

Because the nanosheets don’t require special pretreatment before forming each particular shape, a variety of shapes can be made from the same starting material in quick succession. The technique could in future be used to make “personalised” components for the healthcare industry.

Read the full article here:
A ‘‘writing’’ strategy for shape transition with infinitely adjustable shaping sequences and in situ tunable 3D structures
Tingting Chen, Huan Li, Zuhong Li, Qiao Jin and Jian Ji
Mater. Horiz., 2016, DOI: 10.1039/C6MH00295A

Susannah May is a guest web writer for the RSC Journal blogs. She currently works in the Publishing Department of the Royal Society of Chemistry, and has a keen interest in biology and biomedicine, and the frontiers of their intersection with chemistry. She can be found on Twitter using @SusannahCIMay.

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Top 10 Reviewers for Materials Horizons

19 Sep 2016

By Abigail Hallowes.

In celebration of Peer Review Week, with the theme of Recognition for Review – we would like to highlight the top 10 reviewers for Materials Horizons in 2016, as selected by the editor for their significant contribution to the journal.

Professor Markus Antonietti, University of Potsdam
Dr Michael Bozlar, Princeton University
Professor Bruno Chaudret, INSA
Dr Albert Scenning, Eindhoven University
Dr Xavier Moya, University of Cambridge
Dr Renato Bozio, University of Padua
Dr Jinping Li, Taiyuan University of Technology
Dr Alessandro Troisi, University of Warwick
Dr Seung Hwan Ko, Seoul National University
Professor Christine Luscombe, University of Washington

We would like to say a massive thank you to these reviewers as well as the Materials Horizon board and all of the materials science community for their continued support of the journal, as authors, reviewers and readers.

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HOT article: Thermally reversible full color selective reflection in a self-organized helical superstructure enabled by a bent-core oligomesogen exhibiting a twist-bend nematic phase

24 Aug 2016

By Abigail Hallowes.

Written by Susannah May

Fig. 1 Chemical structure of the bent-core oligomesogen 1 exhibiting different phases

A new helical superstructure that reflects light across the whole visible system has been reported in a new HOT article. The structure can be tuned to reflect light from ultraviolet through to near infra-red, in a wide temperature range.

Liquid crystals are intriguing materials which have properties of both liquids and crystals. They have found uses in many day-to-day applications, such as flat-screen televisions, but much about them, and the many phases they can exhibit, remain unknown.

Quan Li’s group, at State Kent University, had previously designed a new achiral liquid crystal trimer with a twist-bend nematic phase. In this experiment they doped it into a chiral liquid crystal (CLC) to see what effect it would have. As expected, adding the trimer increased the CLC’s chirality, forming a helical structure. More surprisingly, it also increased the temperature range of the liquid crystal phase, proportionally with the concentration of trimer added. What’s more, the resulting superstructure reflected light across the whole visible spectrum. The specific wavelength reflected could be reversibly tuned by adjusting the temperature, meaning the structure could reflect different colours of light at different temperatures.

The group think that strong molecular interactions between the CLC molecule and rod-like units of the trimer cause the effect. In future the superstructure could be used to make colour-display thermometers, and demonstrates the potential of doped liquid crystal systems in obtaining new fascinating properties.

Read the full article here:
Thermally reversible full color selective reflection in a self-organized helical superstructure enabled by a bent-core oligomesogen exhibiting a twist-bend nematic phase
Yuan Wang, Zhi-gang Zheng, Hari Krishna Bisoyi, Karla G. Gutierrez-Cuevas, Ling Wang, Rafael S. Zola and Quan Li
Mater. Horiz., 2016, DOI: 10.1039/C6MH00101G

Susannah May is a guest web writer for the RSC Journal blogs. She currently works in the Publishing Department of the Royal Society of Chemistry, and has a keen interest in biology and biomedicine, and the frontiers of their intersection with chemistry. She can be found on Twitter using @SusannahCIMay.

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Nominations to Materials Horizons Community Board now open!

22 Jul 2016

By Abigail Hallowes.

Nominations open until 15th August

Last year, we announced the first ever early career researcher advisory board for Materials Horizons. This Board is unique in that it is made up of early career researchers, such as PhD students and postdocs, who are fundamental in the future development of the materials field.

Since then, the members of the Community Board have provided invaluable feedback and advice to the Editorial Office.

Based on its success so far, we are now looking to expand the Community Board.

Are you interested in helping shape a journal publishing cutting-edge research of exceptional significance? Do you have ideas on how high impact journals can engage and support early career researchers? If so, please get in touch!

Simply ask your Principal Investigator to submit your nomination with the information outlined in the documents below to materialshorizons-rsc@rsc.org.

If you have any questions at all, please contact materialshorizons-rsc@rsc.org. We look forward to hearing from you!

Materials Horizons Community Board – Call for Nominations

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LANE 2016, 9th International Conference on Photonic Technologies

21 Jul 2016

By Aliya Anwar.

Materials Horizons will be supporting LANE 2016, 9^th International Conference on Photonic Technologies, in Fürth, Germany, during 19^th-22^nd September 2016. We will be providing two Best Presentation Prizes comprising a certificate and years online subscription to Materials Horizons.

LANE 2016 offers a platform for international exchange of ideas, opinions, perspectives, results and solutions concerning photonic technologies.

Especially recent developments in the field of

Laser Material Processing

Beam sources & components
Laser beam welding, brazing & soldering
Laser beam cutting & drilling
Surface treatment & forming
Laser assisted processes

including

Experimental results
Simulation & modeling
Sensing & control

are of interest. In order to open up the capability of light, it is essential to look ahead. Against this background LANE 2016 wants to enhance the

Emerging Technologies

Additive manufacturing
Precision processing with ultrashort laser pulses
Fast laser beam manipulation

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8th Global Chinese Chemical Engineers Symposium 2016

27 Jun 2016

By Aliya Anwar.

Materials Horizons is thrilled to announce its support of the 8th Global Chinese Chemical Engineers Symposium 2016 in the form of two poster prizes including a certificate and a free online subscription to Materials Horizons (worth £2000). You will also be able to find our flyers in your delegate bags.

The conference will run from 20^th -22^nd July 2016 in the National University of Singapore (NUS).

Major topics in GCCES2016, include (but not limited to):

Biomolecular and Biomedical Science	Chemical Engineering Processes and Systems
Catalysis and Reaction Engineering	Chemical Engineering Education
Chemical Engineering Science	Environmental Benign Processes and Sustainability
Functional Materials	Membrane Technology
Molecular Computations in Chemical Engineering	Polymer Science and Engineering

conference logo

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Materials Horizons’ first Impact Factor released

14 Jun 2016

By Aliya Anwar.

Materials Horizons logo

We are thrilled to announce the first ever Impact Factor* has been released as 9.095!

The Editorial Office would like to say a very big thank you to all of our authors and referees involved in making this journal such a success over the past two years. We know that in the coming years, the journal will continue to thrive with your continued support.

Here are some of the articles that have contributed to this incredible achievement:

Mind the gap!
Jean-Luc Bredas
Mater. Horiz., 2014, 1, 17-19

Recent progress on graphene-based hybrid electrocatalysts
BaoYu Xia, Ya Yan, Xin Wang and Xiong Wen (David) Lou
Mater. Horiz., 2014, 1, 379-399

Protein corona formation around nanoparticles – from the past to the future
Pablo del Pino, Beatriz Pelaz, Qian Zhang, Pauline Maffre, G. Ulrich Nienhaus and Wolfgang J. Parak
Mater. Horiz., 2014, 1, 301-313

Catalyst-free room-temperature self-healing elastomers based on aromatic disulfide metathesis
Alaitz Rekondo, Roberto Martin, Alaitz Ruiz de Luzuriaga, Germán Cabañero, Hans J. Grande and Ibon Odriozola
Mater. Horiz., 2014, 1, 237-240

Direct evidence to support the restriction of intramolecular rotation hypothesis for the mechanism of aggregation-induced emission: temperature resolved terahertz spectra of tetraphenylethene
Edward P. J. Parrott, Nicholas Y. Tan, Rongrong Hu, J. Axel Zeitler, Ben Zhong Tang and Emma Pickwell-MacPherson
Mater. Horiz., 2014, 1, 251-258

L-Valine methyl ester-containing tetraphenylethene: aggregation-induced emission, aggregation-induced circular dichroism, circularly polarized luminescence, and helical self-assembly
Hongkun Li, Juan Cheng, Yihua Zhao, Jacky W. Y. Lam, Kam Sing Wong, Hongkai Wu, Bing Shi Li and Ben Zhong Tang
Mater. Horiz., 2014, 1, 518-521

* 2015 Journal Citation Reports® (Thomson Reuters)

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META’16, the 7th International Conference on Metamaterials, Photonic Crystals and Plasmonics

23 May 2016

By Aliya Anwar.

Meta 2016 logo

Materials Horizons is delighted to announce its support of META’16, the 7th International Conference on Metamaterials, Photonic Crystals and Plasmonics in the form of a poster prize including a certificate, copy of the first ever issue of Nanoscale Horizons and also a free online subscription to one of Materials Horizons, Nanoscale, Journals of Materials Chemistry A, B or C (worth in excess of £1500). You will also be able to find our flyers in your delegate bags.

Since its foundation in 2008, META has grown into the major conference in the field of Nanophotonics, Metamaterials and Photonic Crystals, with events spanning four continents: Marrakesh (2008), Cairo (2010), Paris (2012), Dubai (2013), Singapore (2014) and New York (2015).

Be a part of META’16 and take the opportunity to present your recent results, and meet and network with experts. The program will facilitate discussions on various current hot topics such as metasurfaces, topological effects in optics, two-dimensional materials, light-matter interaction in nanocavities, plasmonic circuits, thermal engineering, quantum photonic systems, etc. Featuring several plenary, keynote and invited speakers, the program will provide insights into the latest trends and strategies actionable to deal with the practical challenges faced by the community.

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Poster prize winner!

26 Apr 2016

By Aliya Anwar.

Congratulations to Lingyan Julia Zhu (University of California, Riverside, USA), who was awarded a Materials Horizons poster prize at the University of California Symposium for the Chemical Sciences which took place from the 21^st– 23^rdMarch 2016 at the UCLA Lake Arrowhead conference centre.

The symposium is the first of its kind and brought graduate students and postdoctoral researchers from across the University of California together, to network and start up new collaborations. Further information about the symposium can be found here.

Courtesy of Beverly Chou (from left) Lingyan Julia Zhu with Jennifer Griffiths (RSC)

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Materials Horizons Blog

AsiaNANO poster prize winners

A laser “writing” method for easily adjustable and complex 3D structures – a new HOT article

Top 10 Reviewers for Materials Horizons

HOT article: Thermally reversible full color selective reflection in a self-organized helical superstructure enabled by a bent-core oligomesogen exhibiting a twist-bend nematic phase

Nominations to Materials Horizons Community Board now open!

LANE 2016, 9th International Conference on Photonic Technologies

8th Global Chinese Chemical Engineers Symposium 2016

Materials Horizons’ first Impact Factor released

META’16, the 7th International Conference on Metamaterials, Photonic Crystals and Plasmonics

Poster prize winner!

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