Although gold is the subject of one of the most ancient themes of investigation in science, its renaissance now leads to an exponentially increasing number of publications, especially in the context of emerging nanoscience and nanotechnology with nanoparticles and self-assembled monolayers (SAMs). We will limit the present review to gold nanoparticles (AuNPs), also called gold colloids. AuNPs are the most stable metal nanoparticles, and they present fascinating aspects such as their assembly of multiple types involving materials science, the behavior of the individual particles, size-related electronic, magnetic and optical properties (quantum size effect), and their applications to catalysis and biology. Their promises are in these fields as well as in the bottom-up approach of nanotechnology, and they will be key materials and building block in the 21st century. Whereas the extraction of gold started in the 5th millennium B.C. near Varna (Bulgaria) and reached 10 tons per year in Egypt around 1200-1300 B.C. when the marvelous statue of Touthankamon was constructed, it is probable that “soluble” gold appeared around the 5th or 4th century B.C. in Egypt and China. In antiquity, materials were used in an ecological sense for both aesthetic and curative purposes. Colloidal gold was used to make ruby glass 293 Chem. Rev. 2004, 104, 293−346

Gold nanoparticles: assembly, supramolecular chemistry, quantum-size-related properties, and applications toward biology, catalysis, and nanotechnology.

Titanium Dioxide Nanomaterials: Synthesis, Properties, Modifications, and Applications

Dye-sensitized solar cells (DSCs) offer the possibilities to design solar cells with a large flexibility in shape, color, and transparency. DSC research groups have been established around the worl ...

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Dye-Sensitized Solar Cells

J. Appl. Cryst.の発刊に際して

The long-standing challenge of designing and constructing new crystalline solid-state materials from molecular building blocks is just beginning to be addressed with success. A conceptual approach that requires the use of secondary building units to direct the assembly of ordered frameworks epitomizes this process: we call this approach reticular synthesis. This chemistry has yielded materials designed to have predetermined structures, compositions and properties. In particular, highly porous frameworks held together by strong metal-oxygen-carbon bonds and with exceptionally large surface area and capacity for gas storage have been prepared and their pore metrics systematically varied and functionalized.

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Reticular synthesis and the design of new materials

A Prussian Blue (PB) film formed on an indium tin oxide substrate was incorporated in an electrolysis cell with an ionic-liquid midlayer (N,N-diethyl-N-methyl-N-(2-methoxyethyl)ammonium bis(trifluoromethanesulfonyl)imide) as an electrolyte. The ionic-liquid electrolysis cell mounted on a SQUID magnetometer was examined under DC bias voltage up to 4.0 V by injecting the charge carriers electrochemically into the PB film. Electrochemical hole doping increased the FeIII/FeII ratio in the PB film, resulting in a remarkable enhancement of magnetization accompanied by quasi-reversible electrochromism.

Paramagnetism enhancement by in situ electrochemical hole doping into a Prussian Blue thin film

Innentitelbild: Photoswitchable Dynamic Magnetic Relaxation in a Well-Isolated {Fe2Co} Double-Zigzag Chain (Angew. Chem. 21/2012)

Artifact Calibration of Coordinate Measuring Machine (3rd Report) : Estimation of Uncertainty of Measurements After Calibration

In order to avoid some drawbacks of traditional Coordinate measuring machine (CMM) based on serial mechanism, we are developing Parallel-CMM based on a parallel mechanism. We have already built the prototype of 3-DOF Parallel CMM and now we are researching about the calibration of our Parallel CMM. When we use a CMM to measure the objects, we need to calibrate the geometrical parameters of the CMM to evaluate the uncertainty of measurement. In this paper, we discuss the details of calibration for 2-DOF parallel mechanism instead of 3-DOF parallel mechanism.

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Osamu Sato

Papers

Paramagnetism enhancement by in situ electrochemical hole doping into a Prussian Blue thin film

Innentitelbild: Photoswitchable Dynamic Magnetic Relaxation in a Well-Isolated {Fe2Co} Double-Zigzag Chain (Angew. Chem. 21/2012)

Artifact Calibration of Coordinate Measuring Machine (3rd Report) : Estimation of Uncertainty of Measurements After Calibration

Calibration of 2-DOF Parallel Mechanism

Hospital End User Computing in Japan: How to Use FileMaker Pro with Hospital Information Systems