This cover was designed by Dr. Jie Zeng for a special issue in Advanced Materials (2010, 22, pp. 1897) that was dedicated to nanomaterials research by UCTCers (co-edited by Professors Younan Xia and Shu-Hong Yu). It shows a "gold medal" that we would like to present to USTC for her outstanding achievements in producing a cadre of well-trained, independent investigators who can proficiently spearhead cutting-edge research in advanced materials, nanotechnology, and many other disciplines of science and technology.
This inside cover was designed by Ling Tong in Professor Ji-Xin Cheng's group at Purdue University for a joint paper published in Angewandte Chemie International Edition (2010, 49, pp. 3485-3488). It shows that Au-Ag nanocages emit bright three-photon luminescence (3PL) in the visible region when excited by a fs laser at 1290 nm. The 3PL was one order of magnitude stronger than that from pure either Au or Ag nanoparticles, making the Au-Ag nanocages a class of exciting imaging agents for the study of trafficking of nanoparticles in cells and their bio-distributions in small animals.
This cover was designed by Dr. Jie Zeng for an article published in Chemistry: A European Journal (2010, 16, pp. 12559-12563). It shows the color changes associated with colloidal suspensions of silver nanoplates upon exposure to air at a specific temperature. The intrinsic structural instability and striking color changes associated with the nanoplates make them particularly useful as a reliable recorder of environmental factors. Such nanomaterials can serve as indicators of time and temperature for various commercial needs.
This cover was designed by Dr. Meng-Yi Bai for an article published in Macromolecular Rapid Communications (2010, 31, pp. 1863-1868). It shows transmission electron microscopy (TEM) images of double-shelled hollow spheres of polypyrrole (PPy) with a common hole on their surfaces. The overall structure looks like a thermal bottle. These novel structures were formed by coating polystyrene hollow spheres with a hole on the surface. The porosity of the shells could be easily tuned by controlling the experimental conditions.
This cover was designed by Dr. Byungkwon Lim for an article published in Nano Research (2010, 3, pp. 180-188). It shows a high-angle annular dark-field scanning transmission electron microscopy (HAADF-STEM) image of the as-prepared, single-crystal palladium nanocube. It shows several types of surface defects on the {100} faces of the nanocube, including an adatom island and a vacancy pit. This result suggests that a two-dimensional nucleation and growth process is likely involved in the surface evolution of a nanocube via atomic addition from the solution phase.
This cover was designed by Dr. Byungkwon Lim for a major review article published in Angewandte Chemie International Edition (2009, 48, pp. 60-103). It illustrates the connections between atomic species (in the center) and metal nanocrystals of different shapes (the outer circle) through the seeds having different numbers of twin defects (the inner circle). Once the seed is fixed, the final shape displayed by the metal nanocrystal will be determined by the growth rates along different directions through the use of a capping agent.
This cover was designed by Dr. Jingwei Xie for an article published in ACS Nano (2009, 3, pp. 1151-1159). It shows neurites outgrowing from Dorsal Root Ganglia (DRG) on a two-dimensional mesh of electrospun nanofibers with orthogonal orientations. This kind of research provides valuable information pertaining to the design of nanofiber-based scaffolds for neuroregenerative applications, as well as the effects of topology on neurite outgrowth, growth cone guidance, and axonal regeneration.
This cover was designed by Dr. Sung-Wook Choi for a paper published in Small (2009, 4, pp. 454-459). It shows optical micrographs of polymer beads with uniform sizes in the range of 30-300 mm that could be easily produced using a simple fluidic device constructed from a syringe needle, a glass capillary, and a PVC tube. The uniform polymer beads could be assembled into three-dimensional lattices and further utilized as templates to produce inverse opal scaffolds with uniform pore sizes for tissue engineering.
This cover was designed by Matthew Rycenga (Ph.D., 2011) for a communication published in Advanced Materials (2008, 20, pp. 2416-2420). It shows the self-assembly of silver nanocubes (~100 nm in edge length) into dimers, chains, and three-dimensional crystal lattices. The self-assembly can be programmed and controlled by selectively modifying different faces of the nanocubes with a hydrophobic, alkanethiolate monolyer. For example, dimers formed when only one of the six faces is rendered hydrophobic.
This cover was designed by Dr. Jingwei Xie for a review article published in Macromolelcular Rapid Communications (2008, 29, pp. 1775-1792). It shows the basic setup for electrospinning and the use of electrospun nanofibers for various biomedical applications, including their use as scaffolds for tissue engineering. For example, uniaxially aligned nanofibers can be utilized to manipulate the differentiation of stem cells, and to guide and enhance the outgrowth of neurites. Such abilities are highly sought in nerve repair.
This cover was designed by Professor Hong Yang at University of Rochester for a special section on bionanotechnology published in Advanced Materials (2007, 19, p. 3085). This special section was co-edited by Professors Hong Yang and Younan Xia, and covers a broad range of subjects related to the synthesis of nanomaterials for biomedical applications (e.g., sensing, imaging, diagnosis, and treatment), as well as the use of biological principles in the design and fabrication of novel, much improved nanomaterials (e.g., biomimetics).
This cover was designed by Jingyi Chen (Ph.D., 2006) for a feature article published in Langmuir (2007, 23, 4120-4129). It shows a scanning electron micrograph (SEM) of platinum sea urchins -- aggregates of platinum nanoparticles whose surfaces are decorated with single-crystal platinum nanowires. The key to the formation of platinum nanowires is to slow down the reduction of a platinum precursor via oxidative etching, by simply introducing ferric or ferrous species into the reaction system.