RSC Advances Blog

Here at RSC Advances, we wish to celebrate Chinese new year by highlighting some of our recently published articles on energy and power generation: 

Sustainable power generation 

Chinese Dragon in a dragon dance. Image reproduced from wikipedia.

Supercritical fluid extraction (SFE) as an effective tool in reducing auto-oxidation of dried pine sawdust for power generation
Mehrdad Arshadi, Andrew J. Hunt and James H. Clark
RSC Adv., 2012, Advance Article, DOI: 10.1039/C1RA00715G, Paper 

Bioelectrochemical systems (BES) for sustainable energy production and product recovery from organic wastes and industrial wastewaters
Deepak Pant, Anoop Singh, Gilbert Van Bogaert, Stig Irving Olsen, Poonam Singh Nigam, Ludo Diels and Karolien Vanbroekhoven
RSC Adv., 2012, Advance Article, DOI: 10.1039/C1RA00839K, Review 

A new outlook on solubility of carbohydrates and sugar alcohols in ionic liquids
Lucinda J. A. Conceiçao, Ewa Bogel-Łukasik and Rafał Bogel-Łukasik
RSC Adv., 2012, Advance Article, DOI: 10.1039/C1RA01006A, Paper 

Lithium ion batteries 

Facile preparation of hydrated vanadium pentoxide nanobelts based bulky paper as flexible binder-free cathodes for high-performance lithium ion batteries
Xianhong Rui, Jixin Zhu, Weiling Liu, Huiteng Tan, Daohao Sim, Chen Xu, Hua Zhang, Jan Ma, Huey Hoon Hng, Tuti Mariana Lim and Qingyu Yan
RSC Adv., 2011, 1, 117-122 

Magnetite/graphene nanosheet composites: interfacial interaction and its impact on the durable high-rate performance in lithium-ion batteries
Jisheng Zhou, Huaihe Song, Lulu Ma and Xiaohong Chen
RSC Adv., 2011, 1, 782-791 

Electrospun carbon nanofibers decorated with various amounts of electrochemically-inert nickel nanoparticles for use as high-performance energy storage materials
Liwen Ji, Zhan Lin, Mataz Alcoutlabi, Ozan Toprakci, Yingfang Yao, Guanjie Xu, Shuli Li and Xiangwu Zhang
RSC Adv., 2012, 2, 192-198, Paper 

K0.25Mn2O4 nanofiber microclusters as high power cathode materials for rechargeable lithium batteries
Chaofeng Zhang, Chuanqi Feng, Peng Zhang, Zaiping Guo, Zhixin Chen, Sean Li and Huakun Liu
RSC Adv., 2012, Advance Article, DOI: 10.1039/C1RA00510C, Paper 

Stabilized cycling performance of silicon oxide anode in ionic liquid electrolyte for rechargeable lithium batteries
Jin-Woo Song, Cao Cuong Nguyen and Seung-Wan Song
RSC Adv., 2012, Advance Article, DOI: 10.1039/C2RA01183B, Paper 

Capacitors and supercapacitors 

Electrochemical capacitors utilising transition metal oxides: an update of recent developments
Wentao Deng, Xiaobo Ji, Qiyuan Chen and Craig E. Banks
RSC Adv., 2011, 1, 1171-1178, DOI: 10.1039/C1RA00664A, Review 

An electrochemically formed three-dimensional structure of polypyrrole/graphene nanoplatelets for high-performance supercapacitors
Peng Si, Shujiang Ding, Xiong-Wen (David) Lou and Dong-Hwan Kim
RSC Adv., 2011, 1, 1271-1278, Paper 

High-performance aqueous supercapacitors based on hierarchically porous graphitized carbon
Zheng Chen, Ding Weng, Hiesang Sohn, Mei Cai and Yunfeng Lu
RSC Adv., 2012, Advance Article, DOI: 10.1039/C2RA00887D, Communication 

Fuel Cells 

Robust solid oxide cells for alternate power generation and carbon conversion
Xiaoming Ge, Lan Zhang, Yanan Fang, Jie Zeng and Siew Hwa Chan
RSC Adv., 2011, 1, 715-724
DOI: 10.1039/C1RA00355K, Paper 

Symmetric and reversible solid oxide fuel cells
Juan Carlos Ruiz-Morales, David Marrero-López, Jesús Canales-Vázquez and John T. S. Irvine
RSC Adv., 2011, 1, 1403-1414, DOI: 10.1039/C1RA00284H, Review 

Electrochemical growth of gold nanostructures on carbon paper for alkaline direct glucose fuel cell
Sze-Ping Tung, Ting-Kai Huang, Chi-Young Lee and Hsin-Tien Chiu
RSC Adv., 2012, 2, 1068-1073, Paper 

Solar Cells 

Large scale two-dimensional nanobowl array high efficiency polymer solar cell
Szu-Ying Chen, Yu-Ting Yen, Yi-Yang Chen, Chain-Shu Hsu, Yu-Lun Chueh and Lih-Juann Chen
RSC Adv., 2012, Advance Article, DOI: 10.1039/C2RA01258H, Communication 

Efficient Small Molecule Organic Semiconductor containing Bis-dimethylfluorenyl Amino Benzo[b]thiophene for High Open Circuit Voltage in High Efficiency Solution Processed Organic Solar Cell
Jooyoung Kim, Haye Min Ko, Nara Cho, Sanghyun Paek, Jae Kwan Lee and Jaejung Ko
RSC Adv., 2012, Accepted Manuscript, DOI: 10.1039/C2RA01271E, Communication 

A bilayer structure of a titania nanoparticle/highly-ordered nanotube array for low-temperature dye-sensitized solar cells
Jianqiang Luo, Lian Gao, Jing Sun and Yangqiao Liu
RSC Adv., 2012, Advance Article, DOI: 10.1039/C2RA00731B, Paper 

More energy-related articles can be read here. Please note that all of our articles are free to download upon a simple registration process. 

RSC Advances wishes a happy chinese new year to all our authors, referees, readers and editors.

Authors can now choose to publish their manuscripts as soon as it is accepted after peer review, prior to editing and proof-reading.

It means your research is readily available, in a citable form, even more rapidly. Once the finishing touches are done during the editing and proof-reading stage, the “Accepted” version is replaced with the latest version called “Advance Article”.

When submitting your manuscript to RSC Advances, authors can opt for their manuscript to be published as soon as it is accepted after the peer review process. You may want to join the other authors who have already selected this option.

RSC Advances “Accepted Manuscripts” are:

Biotemplated Synthesis of Catalytic Au-Pd Nanoparticles
Simon Hall, Andrew Collins, Natalie J Wood, Wataru Ogasawara, Moataz Morad, Peter Miedziak, Meenakshisundaram Sankar, D W Knight and Graham Hutchings
RSC Adv., 2012, Accepted Manuscript, DOI: 10.1039/C2RA01336C

Columnar mesophases of luminescent polycatenar liquid crystals incorporating a 1,3-substituted benzene ring interconnecting two 1,3,4-oxadiazoles
Jianchuan Tang, Rong Huang, Hongfei Gao, Xiaohong Cheng, Marko Prehm,and Carsten Tschierske
RSC Adv., 2012, Accepted Manuscript, DOI: 10.1039/C2RA01362B

Additional bioactive guanidine alkaloids from the Mediterranean sponge Crambe crambe
Stéphanie Bondu, Grégory Genta-Jouve, Marta Leirόs, Carmen Vale, Jean-Marie Guigonis, Luis M. Botana, and Olivier P. Thomas
RSC Adv., 2012, Accepted Manuscript, DOI: 10.1039/C2RA00045H

Efficient Small Molecule Organic Semiconductor containing Bis-dimethylfluorenyl Amino Benzo[b]thiophene for High Open Circuit Voltage in High Efficiency Solution Processed Organic Solar Cell
Jooyoung Kim, Haye Min Ko, Nara Cho, Sanghyun Paek, Jae Kwan Lee and Jaejung Ko
RSC Adv., 2012, Accepted Manuscript, DOI: 10.1039/C2RA01271E

Decoupling of CVD Graphene by controlled Oxidation of Recrystallized
Cu Ang-Yu Lu, Sung-Yen Wei, Chih-Yu Wu, Yenny Hernandez, Tzu-Yin Chen, Te-Huan Liu, Chun-Wei Pao, Fu-Rong Chen, Lain-Jong Li and Zhen-Yu Juang
RSC Adv., 2012, Accepted Manuscript, DOI: 10.1039/C2RA01281B

Phase selective carbohydrate gelator
Somnath Mukherjee and Balaram Mukhopadhyay
RSC Adv., 2012, Accepted Manuscript, DOI: 10.1039/C2RA00036A

Synthesis, Structural Characterization, Solvatochromism, and Ion-binding Studies of a Ditopic Receptor Based on 2-(4-[2,2′: 6′,2′′]Terpyridin-4′-yl-phenyl)-1H-phenanthro[9,10-d] imidazole (tpy-HImzphen) Unit
Chanchal Bhaumik, Dinesh Maity, Shyamal Das, and Sujoy Baitalik
RSC Adv., 2012, Accepted Manuscript, DOI: 10.1039/C2RA00023G

Different types of phase separation in binary monolayers of long chain alkyltrichlorosilanes on silicon oxide
Simon Desbief, Lionel Patrone, Didier Goguenheim, Dominique Vuillaume
RSC Adv., 2012, Accepted Manuscript, DOI: 10.1039/C2RA01327D

Collision-Induced Dissociation of Singly and Doubly Charged CuII-Cytidine Complexes in the Gas Phase: an Experimental and Computational Study
Shuqin Zhang, Li Xu, Junguo Dong, Ping Cheng, Zhen Zhou
RSC Adv., 2012, Accepted Manuscript, DOI: 10.1039/C2RA01293F

Stabilization of poly-iodides: structural influences of the cationic disulfides of 2-mercapto-3,4,5,6-tetrahydro-pyrimidine and 2-mercatpo-pyrimidine.
Anita M. Owczarzak, Maciej Kubicki, Nikolaos Kourkoumelis, Sotiris K. Hadjikakou
RSC Adv., 2012, Accepted Manuscript, DOI: 10.1039/C2RA00013J

Synthetic 5′-phosphorylated oligodeoxynucleotide purification through catching full-length sequences by polymerization
Yinan Yuan, Fueangfung Suntara, Xi Lin, Durga Pokharel and Shiyue Fang
RSC Adv., 2012, Accepted Manuscript, DOI: 10.1039/C2RA01357F

ß-Lactam-host defence peptide conjugates as antibiotic prodrug candidates targeting resistant bacteria
Stephane Desgranges, Carol Ruddle, Liam Burke, Tara Mary Mc Fadden, John E O’Brien, Deirdre Fitzgerald -Hughes, Hilary Humphreys, Timothy P Smyth and Marc Devocelle
RSC Adv., 2012, Accepted Manuscript, DOI: 10.1039/C2RA01351G

Indirect Hydrodesulfurization of Gasoline via Sodium Borohydride Reduction with Nickel Catalysis under Ambient Conditions
Yafei Shen, Tonghua Sun and Jinping Jia
RSC Adv., 2012, Accepted Manuscript, DOI: 10.1039/C2RA01313D

Diffusion-diffraction using singlet spin states and various NMR coherences in a J-coupled AX spin system
Allan M. Torres, Bahman Ghadirian and William S. Price
RSC Adv., 2012, Accepted Manuscript, DOI: 10.1039/C2RA20063E

All 2011 and 2012 articles published in RSC Advances are free to download upon a simple registration process.

Below is a list containing some of the most downloaded RSC Advances articles in 2011:

A novel bath lily-like graphene sheet-wrapped nano-Si composite as a high performance anode material for Li-ion batteries
Yu-Shi He, Pengfei Gao, Jun Chen, Xiaowei Yang, Xiao-Zhen Liao, Jun Yang and Zi-Feng Ma
RSC Adv., 2011, 1, 958-960

Electrochemistry of graphene: not such a beneficial electrode material?
Dale A. C. Brownson, Lindsey J. Munro, Dimitrios K. Kampouris and Craig E. Banks
RSC Adv., 2011, 1, 978-988

CO2 chemistry: task-specific ionic liquids for CO2 capture/activation and subsequent conversion
Zhen-Zhen Yang, Ya-Nan Zhao and Liang-Nian He
RSC Adv., 2011, 1, 545-567

Incorporation of pyridazine rings in the structure of functionalized π-conjugated materials
Sylvain Achelle, Nelly Plé and Alain Turck
RSC Adv., 2011, 1, 364-388

Fe₃O₄@SiO₂@Pd-Au: a highly efficient and magnetically separable catalyst for liquid-phase hydrodechlorination of 4-chlorophenol
Zhijie Wu, Chongxia Sun, Yan Chai and Minghui Zhang
RSC Adv., 2011, 1, 1179-1182

Modulation of the photophysical properties of BODIPY dyes by substitution at their meso position
Jorge Bañuelos, Ismael J. Arroyo-Córdoba, Ismael Valois-Escamilla, Alejandro Alvarez-Hernández, Eduardo Peña-Cabrera, Rongrong Hu, Ben Zhong Tang, Ixone Esnal, Virginia Martínez and Iñigo López Arbeloa
RSC Adv., 2011, 1, 677-684

All the articles are free to download upon a simple registration process.

Yongyuth Yuthavong is interested in the development of novel antimalarial agents. He currently leads a research group at the National Center for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology (BIOTEC) in Thailand. Professor Yuthavong was the first president of the National Science and Technology Development Agency (1992-1998) and served as the minister of science and technology (2006-2008), both in Thailand.

When did you become interested in malaria?

During my studies at the University of Oxford, UK, I was investigating the chemical kinetics of enzymatic reactions. When I went back to Thailand, I realised that no one understood, or cared, about enzymes. To make people understand that studying enzymes is important, I decided to tackle a significant problem in the country using my expertise.  I studied red blood cell membranes and saw that malaria was a significant problem, and that both chemistry and biochemistry could be used to understand the parasite’s life and processes. The available drugs – such as chloroquine and pyrimethamine – were becoming ineffective so we needed new drugs. Together with other biochemists, I formed a malaria research group. We were lucky that we were mostly in the same department so we could meet on a daily basis, because it was very difficult to do research in Thailand.

Is the cure for malaria drug-based or vaccine-based?

It is still drug based. Some vaccines are being developed by GlaxoSmithKline, but they are not as effective. I think that there is still a long way to go on the vaccination side. The ideal drugs have to be cheap, orally administered and preferably cause no resistance, which is almost impossible. You will find that almost all anti-infection drugs, including antibiotics, will last at most 5-10 years before resistance is developed. I think that we need a new paradigm where the drug hits a more fundamental mechanism so that no mutation or resistance is possible.

What have you discovered?

We found the structure of the enzyme (Plasmodium falciparum) dihydrofolate reductase-thymidylate synthase [a target for antimalarials] (published in Nature Structural Biology in 2003). From there, we understood the basis of resistance owing to mutation in the active site so that we could design compounds that would avert the effect of mutation. Now we have many candidates, but we have not published the details yet. One in particular is P218, which is a flexible diamino pyrimidine with good efficacy. P218 is effective orally and does not cause much resistance (although this part needs to be investigated), and it is relatively cheap to manufacture.

How can developed countries help developing countries to eradicate the disease?

Thailand is good in certain areas of research but poor in others. For example, in malaria research, we are very strong in the clinical sciences. International researchers come from outside Thailand to study the disease clinically. Thailand is a good base for them to go to neighbouring countries where the disease is still prevalent. We also have very good basic early applied research, such as fundamental research in the discovery and development of new drugs. But, we severely lack scale-up capabilities, and an understanding of toxicology, pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics. We don’t have the facilities to study the preclinical phase and mutational studies.

So, we have to collaborate with external groups, for example that of Livia Vivas at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, UK. We have an ongoing collaboration with the Medicines for Malaria Venture, based in Switzerland, to help us validate the structure of the target and support us in developing good drug candidates based on those targets.

However, we can do some things on our own and lead our own researchers. I think that this is really important for scientists from developing countries. Most scientists in developing countries have participated in international research projects but until now, they have played very small parts, doing some screening or cell culture work. Very few rise to the level of planning and executing and developing that strategic thinking to lead a project. We do need that.

Is it difficult to find funding in Thailand?

We have to go out and tell people that our work is really important to get support. I decided to approach people who have important positions in national research councils and universities to persuade them that we do need a new kind of granting organisation. I found some very good people who listened to us and we founded the BIOTEC research centre and later on the National Science and Technology Development Agency. These are agencies that give grants as well as do their own research. Also, I helped to draft a law that started the Thailand Research Fund, which gives grants to researchers of £30,000-50,000. This would go a long way in Thailand.

Read the full interview published in Chemistry World here.

RSC Advances has published 9 issues in 2011 containing 234 articles and our first issue of 2012 is also online now. In this issue, you can read the following review articles:

Homogeneous and heterogeneous catalysts for multicomponent reactions
Maria José Climent, Avelino Corma and Sara Iborra
RSC Adv., 2012, 2, 16-58

Recent advances in the development of dental composite resins
Christine Lavigueur and X. X. Zhu
RSC Adv., 2012, 2, 59-63

Graphene–inorganic nanocomposites
Song Bai and Xiaoping Shen
RSC Adv., 2012, 2, 64-98

Other articles in the first issue of 2012 include: carbon nanocages for Li ion batteries, an inorganic biocatalyst, self-repairable polymer that changes to red when damaged. You can also learn about phonon-mode Raman spectra or how to purify drugs from bacteria.

Our content is free to download until December 2012. Please also note that RSC Advances authors can now choose to publish their articles immediately after acceptance. Click here for more details.

Thank you to all our authors, referees and editors for your dedicated support to RSC Advances. We wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New year 2012!