Materials Horizons Blog

Spider silk strength is in the loop

17 Feb 2017

Article written by Simon Neil

Discovery of hidden thread in silk of deadly spider inspires material-toughening strategy

Scientists have discovered microscopic metastructures in the web of the recluse spider that offer a blueprint for tough new materials.

Source: © Schniepp Lab The recluse spider spins its ribbon-like silk into loops

At first glance, the venomous yet timid Chilean recluse spider (Loxosceles laeta) seems to be highly disorganised in constructing its web. Traversing its lair, it deposits clumpy bales of silk in a messy, tangled cobweb. Look closer. Work led by Hannes Schniepp at the College of William and Mary, in Virginia, US, in collaboration with Fritz Vollrath at the University of Oxford, UK, has shown that the spider carefully choreographs its spinnerets to sew silk in thousands of micrometre-sized loops. When strained, the loops sequentially open to reveal hidden length in the thread, dissipating energy and staving off breakage.

To read the full article visit Chemistry World.

Toughness-enhancing metastructure in the recluse spider’s looped ribbon silk
S. R. Koebley, F. Vollrath and H. C. Schniepp
Journal Article Mater. Horiz., 2017, Advance Article
DOI: 10.1039/C6MH00473C, Communication

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Hydrogel wound sealant simplifies trauma treatment

07 Feb 2017

By Kate Bandoo, Publishing Assistant.

Article written by Simon Neil

Spray-on bandage dissolves on demand

Scientists in the US have developed a hydrogel-based wound sealant that can be easily applied to stem severe bleeding then gently and precisely removed to allow surgery.

On the 3 October 1993, Corporal James Smith, a 21-year-old US army ranger on operations in Mogadishu, bled to death from a gunshot wound to his thigh and pelvis. You might already know the story of that night, recounted in Mark Bowden’s book Black hawk down. The harrowing story of Smith’s death highlights how difficult it can be for a medic to control internal bleeding before it’s too late – especially if they are pinned down at night by enemy fire, hours from surgical help. Even far from the battlefield, haemorrhage is a serious threat to anyone with a severe wound. Each year, it kills more Americans than those who died in the entire Vietnam war.

To read the full article visit Chemistry World.

A hydrogel sealant for the treatment of severe hepatic and aortic trauma with a dissolution feature for post-emergent care
Marlena D. Konieczynska, Juan C. Villa-Camacho, Cynthia Ghobril, Miguel Perez-Viloria, William A. Blessing, Ara Nazarian, Edward K. Rodriguez and Mark W. Grinstaff
Journal Article Mater. Horiz., 2017, Advance Article
DOI: 10.1039/C6MH00378H, Communication

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The new and expanded Materials Horizons Community Board

10 Nov 2016

By Abigail Hallowes.

Our early career researcher Advisory Board

Last year, we launched the first early career researcher Board for Materials Horizons, the Community Board. Since then, these Board members have provided invaluable feedback regarding journal activities, as well as being ambassadors for the journal. Based on this success, we have expanded the Community Board, through requesting nominations from our Board members, as well as the wider academic community.

We are now delighted to announce the new and expanded Materials Horizons Community Board. Many of our original Board members from last year are continuing to serve for a second term, and now the Board consists of an international set of 33 researchers at different stages of their early careers, ranging from PhD candidates to Associate Professors.

Read more about our Board members below. We have also introduced the Nanoscale Horizons Community Board, find out more here.

Sarit Agasti
	Sarit received his Bachelor’s degree in Chemistry from the University of Calcutta, in 2003 and then his Master’s degree from the Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur in 2005. Sarit went on to receive his PhD from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst under the supervision of Professor Vincent M. Rotello. Since his PhD, he has been a Postdoctoral Fellow at both the Massachusetts General hospital-Harvard Medical School and the Wyss Institute at Harvard University working with Professor Ralph Weissleder and Professor Peng Yin, respectively. Sarit has now returned to India and is working as a Faculty fellow at the Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research. His lab is interested in engineering small molecules and programmable molecular materials to address challenges in bioimaging, specifically in super-resolution microscopy.
Athina Anastasaki
	Athina received her Bachelor’s degree in Chemistry from the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens. She then undertook a PhD in Polymer Chemistry at the University of Warwick under the supervision of Professor David Haddleton. She then undertook the position of a Monash-Warwick Alliance Research Fellow in the research groups of Professor David Haddleton and Professor Thomas Davis, focusing on controlled living radical polymerization methods, mechanistic studies, photochemistry and sequence-controlled polymers. Currently, she is an Elings Fellow working alongside Professor Hawker at the University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB).
Maartje Bastings
	Maartje Bastings studied Biomedical Engineering at the Eindhoven University of Technology (TU/e) and graduated Cum Laude in the group of Prof. E. W. (Bert) Meijer, where she continued her Ph.D. program funded by a Toptalent Fellowship from the Dutch Science Foundation (NWO). Her research focused on the understanding of multivalent binding mechanisms for directed targeting and the development of supramolecular biomaterials. She was awarded the University Academic Award in 2013 for best Ph.D. thesis at the TU/e. She moved to the Wyss Institute of Harvard University in Boston as a NWO Rubicon and Human Frontier Science Program postdoctoral fellow in the lab of Prof. William M. Shih. She studies DNA as a programmable biomaterial to design immune responses and assemble into multimodal nanoparticles. In January 2017 she will start as tenure track Assistant Professor in the Materials Science and Engineering Department at EPFL, Switzerland.
Read more »

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AsiaNANO poster prize winners

25 Oct 2016

By Aliya Anwar.

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 Blog

Spider silk strength is in the loop

Hydrogel wound sealant simplifies trauma treatment

The new and expanded Materials Horizons Community Board

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

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