Meet Our Authors-November Issue 2011

Welcome to one of our favorite category of our NJC blog. Here we get to showcase a selection of our authors of the November issue of NJC. Scroll down to meet excellent and experienced scientists who have donated their time and talents to make a meaningful contribution to scientific research.

Introducing…

Dr Karine PHILIPPOT, research director (CNRS) at the Department of Coordination Chemistry at the University of Toulouse in Toulouse, France.

Her research interests are in the area of Nanocatalysis, in particular the development of the synthesis of metal containing hybrid nanoparticles and nanomaterials following an organometallic approach; their characterization by a combination of techniques from molecular chemistry and solid state chemistry; Study of their surface chemistry and application in colloidal or heterogeneous catalysis.

In her paper published in NJC, Karine Philippot and her coworkers describe the successful synthesis of small ruthenium nanoparticles using a novel family of ligands as stabiliers. “This work demonstrates that non classical ligands can be used to prepare novel metal nanoparticles in the objective to tune their surface properties.”

On choosing NJC to publish this work, Karine comments: “The decision for submitting this work to NJC was taken because we thought it would be of interest for the large community of NJC readers as it concerns both organometallic chemistry as well as metal nanoparticles chemistry with basic scientific concepts.”

When asking which scientific problem she would like to solve: “To find proper ligands for the preparation of well-controlled metal nanoparticles with appropriate surface properties for target catalytic reactions like enantioselective ones, a field in which a long way still remain to be covered in nanocatalysis” – she replied.

Multi-site coordination N-phosphanylamidine ligands as stabilizers for the synthesis of ruthenium nanoparticles by Raymond Bronger, Thanh Dung Le, Stéphanie Bastin, Jordi García-Antón, Cécilia Citadelle, Bruno Chaudret, Pierre Lecante, Alain Igau and Karine Philippot, New J. Chem., 2011, 35, 2653-2660; DOI: 10.1039/C1NJ20465C.

Dr Minghuey SHIEH,

Professor of Chemistry at the National Taiwan Normal University in Taipei, Taiwan whose research fields are Metal Cluster Chemistry, Organometallics, Material Chemistry and Computational Chemistry. Our current research interests are mainly focused on synthetic, magnetic, photophysical, electrochemical, and theoretical studies of heavier main group element -containing transition metal carbonyl clusters.”

In their NJC article, Minghuey and her colleagues demonstrated the selective reactivity of [SFe3(CO)9]2 toward a series of functionalized organic halides or inorganic mercury salts under the condition of orbital or charge control on the basis of DFT calculations. Besides, the electrochemistry of these functionalized clusters was also investigated to address their relevant electronic properties.

“NJC is a high quality and fast editing international journal that covers a wide range of multidisciplinary chemistry for a more diverse readership” explains why Minghuey consider that their work is particularly suitable for NJC.

“The functionalization of metal clusters is of interest to inorganic chemists and those who are interested in the reactivity of metal clusters. The factors governing the accessibility of the reactive sites of metal clusters for different electrophiles are still not fully understood…” says Minghuey when talking about scientific problem that she is focused on and she addes: “in this study, we combined synthetic, spectroscopic, crystallographic, electrochemical, and computational studies to better understand the questions about the chemoselectivity of the triiron sulfide cluster toward various reagents, which provided new directions of applications.”

Reactions of the μ3-sulfido triiron cluster [SFe3(CO)9]2− with functionalized organic halides and mercury salts: selective reactivity, electrochemistry, and theoretical calculations by Chia-Yeh Miu, Hsin-Hung Chi, Szu-Wei Chen, Jiann-Jang Cherng, Miao-Hsing Hsu, Yu-Xin Huang and Minghuey Shieh; New J. Chem., 2011, 35, 2442-2455; DOI: 10.1039/C1NJ20279K.

Dr Shanmugam MUTHUSUBRAMANIAN is Professor of Organic Chemistry at the Madurai Kamaraj University in India.

“My current research is focus on synthesis of heterocyclic compounds.” His NJC paper in this month’s issue reveals an interesting restricted rotation of phenyl ring, not a common feature at room temperature, in a set of bis(2-aryl-4-arylquinolin-3-yl)sulfanes as evidenced by NMR data.

On the main motivation for submitting his work in NJC, Shanmugam comments: “I wanted the article to be published in an interdisciplinary journal and publishing an article in any RSC journal is quite prestigious.”

And which scientific problem he likes to solve: “I enjoy solving the complex structural features of organic molecules by NMR data.“

A green protocol for the synthesis of conformationally rigid sulfur linked bisquinolines by double Friedlander reaction in water by Nidhin Paul, Shanmugam Muthusubramanian and Nattamai Bhuvanesh; New J. Chem., 2011, 35, 2607-2613. DOI: 10.1039/C1NJ20539K.

Dr Norio SHIBATA,

Professor at the Department of Frontier Materials, Nagoya Institute of Technology, Japan. His current research interest is Organofluorine Chemistry and he is author of the article published this month in NJC.

Asymmetric synthesis of chiral trifluoromethylated heliotridane via highly catalytic asymmetric Friedel–Crafts alkylation with β-trifluoromethylated acrylates and pyrroles by Yiyong Huang, Satoru Suzuki, Guokai Liu, Etsuko Tokunaga, Motoo Shiro and Norio Shibata; New J. Chem., 2011, 35, 2614-2621; DOI: 10.1039/C1NJ20550A.

”Fluorinated and trifluoromethylated analogues of biologically attractive molecules have become increasingly more important in medicinal chemistry in recent years. This paper affords one of the nice approaches for the synthesis of trifluoromethylated analogue of Heliotridane via highly catalytic asymmetric Friedel-Crafts alkylation with beta-trifluoromethylated acrylates”, says Norio who chooses the NJC for the publication ”Due to very personally reason. I have visited France more than 6 times, and more than ten students in my laboratory have also visited France totally more than 300 days in recent three years. I have now many friends in France. Since NJC is supported in part by CNRS, I have decided to start submitting our works to NJC.”

“The reason why God did not introduce fluorine(s) into amino acids and DNAs in human being”, would be a scientific problem that Norio would like to solve.

Dr Leone SPICCIA is Professor of Chemistry at the Monash University, Australia.

“We are exploring many fields of research including: Radiolabelled agents for the imaging and treatment of cancer; Diagnostics and therapeutics based on metal complex-bioconjugates; Metallo-enzyme mimetics, metal complexes as artificial nucleases; High affinity agents for the selective binding and sensing of biomolecules; Water oxidation catalysts and water splitting devices – Solar Fuel and Dye sensitized solar cells.“

In their NJC paper, Leone and his colleagues described methodologies for the functionalisation of magnetic nanoparticles with macrocyclic ligands that can be efficiently radiolabelled with 64Cu2+. These radiolabelled materials are shown to be very resistant to metal ion leaching and are therefore promising prototypes for the development of multi-modal cancer imaging agents based on PET and MRI.

“The paper is multidisciplinary in nature covering aspects of materials chemistry, organic synthesis, coordination chemistry, radiochemistry and medical imaging. We were of the opinion that the paper would appeal to the broad audience of NJC”, explaining why choosing the NJC journal.

If Leone could solve any scientific problem, it would be: “Solving the energy crisis through the development of cheap technologies for harvesting solar energy as this could improve the living standards of billions of people on our planet.”

Synthesis, colloidal stability and 64Cu labeling of iron oxide nanoparticles bearing different macrocyclic ligands by José A. Barreto, Madlen Matterna, Bim Graham, Holger Stephan and Leone Spiccia; New J. Chem., 2011, 35, 2705-2712; DOI: 10.1039/C1NJ20558G.

We would like to thank to our authors for making time in their busy schedules to answer these questions for us.

Why not submit your high impact research to us today or alternatively email us your suggestions.

Digg This
Reddit This
Stumble Now!
Share on Facebook
Bookmark this on Delicious
Share on LinkedIn
Bookmark this on Technorati
Post on Twitter
Google Buzz (aka. Google Reader)

November 2011 issue of NJC now published!

We welcome you to NJC’s November issue, out now.

A Focus article by David Gajan and Christophe Copéret (University of Zurich, Switzerland) features on this month’s front cover. In this mini-review article find out on some recent development of very efficient silica supported single-site heterogeneous catalysts. In particular, the influence of local environments on the structure of surface species and the consequences of the nature of active sites in silica supported catalysts, single-site vs. non-single-site have been discussed.

Silica-supported single-site catalysts: to be or not to be? A conjecture on silica surfaces by David Gajan and Christophe Copéret; New J. Chem., 2011, 35, 2403-2408; DOI: 10.1039/C1NJ20506D.

The inside front cover showcases the work of A. Ibanez et al. (a collaboration from teams in France) presenting a new class of highly fluorescent molecular nanocrystals for biosensing applications, such as DNA sensoring. These nanocrystals are strongly anchored to the sol–gel coatings and the label-free DNA-target detection is achieved through hybridization by the return towards a fluorescence state of the nanocrystals. These results on fluorescent nanocomposite coatings open up promising possibilities for making label-free generic sensors.

Fluorescent molecular nanocrystals anchored in sol–gel thin films: a label-free signalization function for biosensing applications by Emilie Dubuisson, Sabine Szunerits, Maria Bacia, Robert Pansu and Alain Ibanez; New J. Chem., 2011, 35, 2416-242, DOI: 10.1039/C1NJ20353C, Full paper.

  • In this issue, also check out two Letter articles, this month on new organic and organometallic isocyanurate derivatives, molecules with nonlinear optical properties (NLO) that present a remarkable efficiency–transparency trade-off properties.

Donor-substituted triaryl-1,3,5-triazinanes-2,4,6-triones: octupolar NLO-phores with a remarkable transparency–nonlinearity trade-off by Gilles Argouarch, Romain Veillard, Thierry Roisnel, Anissa Amar, Abdou Boucekkine, Anu Singh, Isabelle Ledoux and Frédéric Paul New J. Chem., 2011, 35, 2409-2411 DOI 10.1039/C1NJ20442D

  • And the second Letter article focus on a search for new antiplasmodial drugs, based on new ferrocenyl derivatives of benzodiazepines.

One-pot microwave-assisted synthesis and antimalarial activity of ferrocenyl benzodiazepines by Gabin Mwande-Maguene, Jouda Jakhlal, Jean-Bernard Lekana-Douki, Elisabeth Mouray, Till Bousquet, Sylvain Pellegrini, Philippe Grellier, Fousseyni Samba Toure Ndouo, Jacques Lebibi and Lydie Pelinski New J. Chem., 2011, 35, 2412-2415 DOI: 10.1039/C1NJ20551J

You can access and read the whole issue available online at: NJC 2011, Issue 11. We hope you enjoy this issue and leave us a comment to let us know what you think!

To be alerted to each new issue of the NJC journal, sign-up for FREE Table of Contents email alert.

Digg This
Reddit This
Stumble Now!
Share on Facebook
Bookmark this on Delicious
Share on LinkedIn
Bookmark this on Technorati
Post on Twitter
Google Buzz (aka. Google Reader)

Symposium in honour of Prof. Didier Astruc

Twenty-seven renowned chemists from around the world, including Nobel Laureat Yves Chauvin, will speak in Bordeaux.

Many of the authors who contributed to the October 2011 NJC issue in honour of Didier Astruc will gather in Bordeaux next month to recognise Didier’s outstanding contributions to chemistry.

The International Symposium on Coordination Chemistry and Molecular Materials, will be hosted by the University of Bordeaux 1 on December 1st and 2nd.

In addition to the scientific lectures covering a wide range of topics, Henri Kagan and Jean-Pierre Sauvage will present “Grand Public” lectures and a “Grand Public” discussion will be held with Yves Chauvin (2005 Nobel Laureate).

Yves Chauvin will also present Didier Astruc with a copy of the NJC issue in his honour, in the presence of the guest editors (Jean-René Hamon, Jean-Yves Saillard, Jaime Ruiz Aranzaes) and NJC editor Denise Parent.

All details and the full program are on the conference website.

Attendance is free, but you need to register by Friday, November 18th!

We hope to see you there!

Digg This
Reddit This
Stumble Now!
Share on Facebook
Bookmark this on Delicious
Share on LinkedIn
Bookmark this on Technorati
Post on Twitter
Google Buzz (aka. Google Reader)

NJC Editor-in-Chief honoured by CNRS

Prof. Mir Wais Hosseini has been awarded the CNRS’s silver medal for chemistry in 2011.

Congratulations to NJC co-Editor-in-Chief Wais Hosseini, who is one of the two CNRS Chemistry Institute laureates of the 2011 Silver Medal! This distinction is given to mid-career researchers who are recognised on the national and international level for the originality, quality and importance of their work.

Wais is a pioneer in the use of supramolecular chemistry concepts to elaborate molecular materials whose properties are gouverned by the nature of the building blocks and their mode of self-assembly. His work has shown that particularly interesting topologies, such as tubular and helical architectures, two-dimensional braids, and crystals of crystals, can be obtained using finely designed building blocks or tectons. In addition to his contribution to molecular tectonics, he has worked on the selective capture of alkali metal cations and molecular turnstiles.

Here is a selection of Wais’s recent papers in NJC and other RSC journals:

Amidinium based ionic liquids by Pierre Dechambenoit, Sylvie Ferlay, Nathalie Kyritsakas and Mir Wais Hosseini, New J. Chem., 2010, 34, 1184-1199. DOI: 10.1039/B9NJ00625G

Molecular tectonics: ribbon type coordination networks based on porphyrins bearing two pyridine or two pyridine N-oxide units by Emmanuel Deiters, Véronique Bulach and Mir Wais Hosseini, New J. Chem., 2008, 32, 99-104. DOI: 10.1039/B708352A

Molecular tectonics: generation of 1-D interdigitated and 2-D interwoven helical silver coordination networks by oligoethylene glycol based tectons bearing two benzonitrile moieties by Julien Bourlier, Mir Wais Hosseini, Jean-Marc Planeix and Nathalie Kyritsakas, New J. Chem., 2007, 31, 25-32. DOI: 10.1039/B611415F

Molecular tectonics: design of enantiomerically pure helical tubular crystals with controlled channel size and orientation by Mei-Jin Lin, Abdelaziz Jouaiti, Philippe Grosshans, Nathalie Kyritsakas and Mir Wais Hosseini, Chem. Commun., 2011, 47, 7635-7637. DOI: 10.1039/C1CC12110C

Molecular tectonics: control of interpenetration in cuboid 3-D coordination networks by Mei-Jin Lin, Abdelaziz Jouaiti, Nathalie Kyritsakas and Mir Wais Hosseini, CrystEngComm, 2011, 13, 776-778. DOI: 10.1039/C0CE00777C

An oscillating molecular turnstile by Thomas Lang, Ernest Graf, Nathalie Kyritsakas and Mir Wais Hosseini, Dalton Trans., 2011, 40, 5244-5248. DOI: 10.1039/C1DT10184F

And for a more general look at the field:
Self-assembly and generation of complexity by Mir Wais Hosseini, Chem. Commun., 2005, 5825-5829. DOI: 10.1039/B513586A

More details about the work in Wais’s lab can be found on their website.

Digg This
Reddit This
Stumble Now!
Share on Facebook
Bookmark this on Delicious
Share on LinkedIn
Bookmark this on Technorati
Post on Twitter
Google Buzz (aka. Google Reader)

NJC poster prize winners at chemistry for life sciences conference

Two Ph.D. students walked away with the NJC poster prizes at the 4th European Conference on Chemistry for Life Sciences in Budapest.

Graduate students from Romania and Greece won the poster prizes sponsored by NJC at the recent European Conference on Chemistry for Life Sciences, the 4th in the series, held in Budapest.


Árpád Csog (Univ. Babes Bolyai, Kolozsvár, Romania) was selected for his poster entitled “Heavy Metal Phytoaccumulation by Aquatic Plants (Cabomba Aquatica, Vallisneria Spiralis, Echinodorus Cordifolius)“. Common aquarium plants like fanwort, tape grass and marble queen were shown to remove copper, zinc and cadmium from water. As these plants are easily cultivated and controlled, they show potential for the phytoremediation of contaminated waters. In this project, carried out in the group of Professor Kornelia Majdik, the defense response of the plants to the toxic effect of the heavy metals will also be studied.

(Left: Winner Árpád Csog with conference organiser Prof. Tamás Kiss.)

Dionysios Vourtsis (Univ. Patras, Greece) was selected for his poster entitled “A Solution NMR Study of Native and Mutated Forms of the Anthrax Lethal Factor Catalytic Site Polypeptide“. The group of Dr. Georgias A. Spyroulias is interested in elucidating the structural basis of ALF–substrate interactions. The biophysical characterization and backbone  assignments of the enzyme’s core  protease domain revealed a stable, well-folded structure even in the absence of Zn(II). The NMR structure of the metal-free catalytic core polypeptide exhibits  great similarities with the crystal structures of the corresponding  polypeptide. An NMR study of the metallated polypeptide is the next objective of this project.

(Right: Winner Dionysios Vourtsis.)

Congratulations to the deserving winners, and many thanks to the conference organisers and the volunteer jury members for their hard work!

Digg This
Reddit This
Stumble Now!
Share on Facebook
Bookmark this on Delicious
Share on LinkedIn
Bookmark this on Technorati
Post on Twitter
Google Buzz (aka. Google Reader)

Top ten most accessed articles in September

This month sees the following articles in New Journal of Chemistry that are in the top ten most accessed:-

Combinatorial synthesis of metal–organic frameworks libraries by click-chemistry 
Marie Savonnet, Emanuel Kockrick, Aurélie Camarata, Delphine Bazer-Bachi, Nicolas Bats, Vincent Lecocq, Catherine Pinel and David Farrusseng 
New J. Chem., 2011, 35, 1892-1897 DOI: 10.1039/C1NJ20350A  

Preparation of graphene–TiO2 composites with enhanced photocatalytic activity 
Kangfu Zhou, Yihua Zhu, Xiaoling Yang, Xin Jiang and Chunzhong Li 
New J. Chem., 2011, 35, 353-359 DOI: 10.1039/C0NJ00623H  

MOFs, MILs and more: concepts, properties and applications for porous coordination networks (PCNs)
Christoph Janiak and Jana K. Vieth 
New J. Chem., 2010, 34, 2366-2388 DOI: 10.1039/C0NJ00275E  

Donor-substituted triaryl-1,3,5-triazinanes-2,4,6-triones: octupolar NLO-phores with a remarkable transparency–nonlinearity trade-off 
Gilles Argouarch, Romain Veillard, Thierry Roisnel, Anissa Amar, Abdou Boucekkine, Anu Singh, Isabelle Ledoux and Frédéric Paul 
New J. Chem., 2011, Advance Article DOI: 10.1039/C1NJ20442D  

Gold nanoparticle-cored poly(propyleneimine) dendrimers as a new platform for multifunctional drug delivery systems 
Marie-Christine Daniel, Margaret E. Grow, Hongmu Pan, Maria Bednarek, William E. Ghann, Kara Zabetakis and Joseph Cornish 
New J. Chem., 2011, 35, 2366-2374 DOI: 10.1039/C1NJ20206E  

Fluorescent carbon nanoparticles: electrochemical synthesis and their pH sensitive photoluminescence properties
Haitao Li, Hai Ming, Yang Liu, Hang Yu, Xiaodie He, Hui Huang, Keming Pan, Zhenhui Kang and Shuit-Tong Lee 
New J. Chem., 2011, Advance Article DOI: 10.1039/C1NJ20575G  

Application of ferrocene and its derivatives in cancer research 
Cátia Ornelas 
New J. Chem., 2011, 35, 1973-1985 DOI: 10.1039/C1NJ20172G  

Dendrimer therapeutics: covalent and ionic attachments 
Saïd El Kazzouli, Serge Mignani, Mosto Bousmina and Jean-Pierre Majoral 
New J. Chem., 2012, Advance Article DOI: 10.1039/C1NJ20459A  

Magnetically separable iron oxide nanostructures-TiO2 nanofibers hierarchical heterostructures: controlled fabrication and photocatalytic activity 
Hengguo Wang, Xiaoliang Fei, Ling Wang, Yapeng Li, Shufei Xu, Mingda Sun, Lei Sun, Chaoqun Zhang, Yaoxian Li, Qingbiao Yang and Yen Wei 
New J. Chem., 2011, 35, 1795-1802 DOI: 10.1039/C1NJ20051H  

Non-charged, water soluble dendronized polymers 
Baozhong Zhang and A. Dieter Schlüter 
New J. Chem., 2012, Advance Article DOI: 10.1039/C1NJ20517J  

Why not take a look at the articles today and blog your thoughts and comments below.

Fancy submitting an article to New Journal of Chemistry? Then why not submit to us today or alternatively email us your suggestions.

Digg This
Reddit This
Stumble Now!
Share on Facebook
Bookmark this on Delicious
Share on LinkedIn
Bookmark this on Technorati
Post on Twitter
Google Buzz (aka. Google Reader)

A simple one-step method for preparing graphene oxide microspheres

In this NJC paper, Aharon Gedanken and co-workers (Institute of Nanotechnology and Advanced Materials, Israel) have prepared stabilized liquid-filled microspheres of graphene oxide, by applying ultra-sonic power to a biphasic system.

By using two dyes, the authors were able to show that the microsphere’s core has mostly a hydrophobic environment due to organic solvents though a  polar environment was also measured at the microsphere’s core, which increased close to the microsphere edge that was attributed to the presence of graphene oxide sheets and water molecules.

Graphene oxide microspheres prepared by a simple, one-step ultrasonication method Matias Sametband, Ulyana Shimanovich and Aharon Gedanken New J. Chem., 2011, Advance Article DOI: 10.1039/C1NJ20738E

Interested in reading further? Why not download the full article now, FREE to access for a period of 4 weeks!

Digg This
Reddit This
Stumble Now!
Share on Facebook
Bookmark this on Delicious
Share on LinkedIn
Bookmark this on Technorati
Post on Twitter
Google Buzz (aka. Google Reader)

How green are Ionic Liquids?

Because of their distinctive properties, in particular their negligible vapor pressure, ionic liquids have attracted increasing attention in many fields, including organic chemistry, electrochemistry, catalysis, physical chemistry. However, the toxicity including ecotoxicity of these so-called a “green solvent” has recently received broad attention.

In this NJC paper C. S. Pereira and co-workers (collaborative research work between the Universities in the UK and Portugal) have investigated the toxicity of quaternary phosphonium ionic liquids towards fungal conidia Aspergillus nidulans.

This interesting work reveals the mechanism of toxicity of the tetraalkylphosphonium chlorides, demonstrating that systematic elongation of the alkyl substituents result in generally higher toxicity. In this study, fluorescence microscopy is proposed as a direct method for assessing the impact of ionic liquids on the plasma membrane integrity.

Unravelling the mechanism of toxicity of alkyltributylphosphonium chlorides in Aspergillus nidulans conidia; Marija Petkovic, Diego O. Hartmann, Gabriela Adamová, Kenneth R. Seddon, Luís Paulo N. Rebelo and Cristina Silva Pereira; New J. Chem., 2011, Advance Article; DOI: 10.1039/C1NJ20470J, Paper

Interested to know more? Why not read by accessing the full article now! This “Hot article” will be Free to access for a period of 4 weeks.

Digg This
Reddit This
Stumble Now!
Share on Facebook
Bookmark this on Delicious
Share on LinkedIn
Bookmark this on Technorati
Post on Twitter
Google Buzz (aka. Google Reader)

On the nucleation of Graphene

In this NJC “Hot article” scientists in Japan have reported that homogeneous single-layer graphene can be obtained by simply annealing the carbon contaminated Cu films deposited on c-plane Al2O3 at 900 and 1000 ˚C without additional carbon supply.

The nucleation mechanism of graphene on the Cu surface has been prepared via Chemical Vapor Deposition (CVD). Furthermore, the authors show that graphitization of amorphous carbon during CVD is effected not only by carbon supersaturation, but it is also affected by CVD temperature and crystallographic plane of the underlying metal. Their results provide direct experimental evidence to elucidate the influencing factors of graphitization of amorphous carbon into graphene.

Exploring the nucleation and mechanism of graphene growth provide important contribution to the graphene research with respect to their further application.

Interested? Why not read the full article now!
On the nucleation of graphene by chemical vapor deposition Baoshan Hu, Hiroki Ago, Carlo M. Orofeo, Yui Ogawa and Masaharu Tsuji; New J. Chem., 2011, Advance Article; DOI: 10.1039/C1NJ20695H, Paper

Highly rated by the reviewers and the editorial office alike, this ‘Hot Article’ will be FREE to access for a period of 4 weeks.

Digg This
Reddit This
Stumble Now!
Share on Facebook
Bookmark this on Delicious
Share on LinkedIn
Bookmark this on Technorati
Post on Twitter
Google Buzz (aka. Google Reader)

CNFs Electrodes: easier, larger, faster !

In this NJC paper, Sophie Tingry and co-workers (Institut Européen des Membranes at Montpellier, France) prepared a carbon nanofibers (CNFs) electrode through electrospinning of a polyacrylonitrile solution and subsequent thermal carbonization treatment.

The CNFs-based electrode was successfully used as support for enzyme (laccase) immobilization and applied to bioelectrocatalytic O2 reduction. Besides its easy handling, the excellent structural stability and surface properties of the CNFs electrode improved the electron transfer rate at the electrode surface and increased the accessible surface area of the electrode, therefore allowing a higher loading of active enzyme.

These nanomaterials are promising candidates as enzymatic cathodes in biofuel cell devices.

“Fabrication of free-standing electrospun carbon nanofibers as efficient electrode materials for bioelectrocatalysis”, Ai-Fu Che, Vincent Germain, Marc Cretin, David Cornu, Christophe Innocent and Sophie Tingry, New J. Chem., 2011, Advance Article, DOI: 10.1039/C1NJ20651F.

Take time to have a look at it now ! Highly rated by the reviewers and the editorial office, this “Hot Article” will be FREE to access for a period of 4 weeks

Digg This
Reddit This
Stumble Now!
Share on Facebook
Bookmark this on Delicious
Share on LinkedIn
Bookmark this on Technorati
Post on Twitter
Google Buzz (aka. Google Reader)