Features for October 2011
One year after the Nobel Prize in Physics was awarded to Geim and Novoselov for their groundbreaking work on graphene, James Tour asks, “Does graphene now belong to the chemist?”
12 October, 2011
The efficiency of solar cells made from a conjugated polymer blended with a fullerene derivative has risen from around 1 % to over 9 % in the last ten years, making organic photovoltaic technology a viable contender for commercialization.
10 October, 2011
Research on organic light emitting diodes (OLEDs) has been revitalized, partly due to the debut of the OLED TV by SONY in 2008. While there is still plenty of room for improvement in efficiency, cost-effectiveness and longevity, it is timely to report on the advances of light emitting materials, the core of OLEDs, and their future perspectives.
10 October, 2011
A new class of polymer materials has been developed that can convert light energy directly into mechanical work, and show a variety of three-dimensional movements simply from exposure to light. These polymer materials can be fabricated into any shape and size using photolithographic methods and it is expected they will be developed for various applications. In this paper recent progress of this interesting class of polymer material is reviewed.
10 October, 2011
It has been recently shown that hybrid materials formed by nematic liquid crystals incorporated in complex micro-structured porous matrices are often capable of indefinitely retaining the alignment direction imposed by an electric field. This review examines this new class of material.
10 October, 2011
For the first time, a silicon nitride/carbon nanotubes microgear is electrically discharge machined with a remarkably high material removal rate, low surface roughness, and low tool wear.
10 October, 2011