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

Environmentally Benign Chemicals Production from Unused Resources using Water Solvent

Characterization of the Molecular Orientation in LB Films of Rhodamine B Derivatives by the Optical Second Harmonic Generation Coherent Interferometry

Evaluation of measurement performance of a gear measuring instrument (GMI) is not easy task since a master gear with sufficient accuracy has not been available. The manufacturing the master gear with an ideal involute form is very difficult and the accuracy of the master gear is not able to be estimated. Therefore, we have proposed a new artifact named Double Ball Artifact (DBA) which consists of a base plate and two balls for evaluating the gear profile measurement performance by the GMI (1, 2). It has advantages of inexpensive, accurate, and calibrated with traceability. The DBA, however, is able only to evaluate the profile measurement capability of the GMI. In this paper, we describe a novel artifact evaluating the profile and the pitch measurement performances of the GMI simultaneously.

A novel artifact for evaluating accuracies of gear profile and pitch measurements of gear measuring instruments

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a dimming structure which has superior reflectivity and fail-safe property. SOLUTION: The dimming structure is constituted by stacking a transparent electrode 30, a transparent structure 10 having cells 11, and another transparent electrode 30 in this order, and characterized in that the cells 11 are arrayed regularly in a surface direction and a liquid crystal 20 having ≤0.02 refractive index difference in the absence of an applied voltage from the transparent structure 10 is charged in the cells. COPYRIGHT: (C)2007,JPO&INPIT

Dimming structure capable of switching between scatter transmission and reflection of light

Ein Spin-Crossover-Cluster mit {FeII4O4}-Kern wird von D. Y. Wu, O. Sato et al. in ihrer Zuschrift auf S. 1503 ff. vorgestellt. Der selbstorganisierte Cluster nimmt zwei High-spin- und zwei Low-spin-Zustande ein und zeichnet sich durch einen abrupten Spinubergang sowie durch ein vollstandiges lichtinduziertes Einfangen eines angeregten Spinzustands aus. Dies wird durch das Zusammenspiel von magnetischen Wechselwirkungen und Spinubergangen im Cluster ermoglicht.

Titelbild: A Spin-Crossover Cluster of Iron(II) Exhibiting a Mixed-Spin Structure and Synergy between Spin Transition and Magnetic Interaction (Angew. Chem. 8/2009)

Osamu Sato

Papers

Environmentally Benign Chemicals Production from Unused Resources using Water Solvent

Characterization of the Molecular Orientation in LB Films of Rhodamine B Derivatives by the Optical Second Harmonic Generation Coherent Interferometry

A novel artifact for evaluating accuracies of gear profile and pitch measurements of gear measuring instruments

Dimming structure capable of switching between scatter transmission and reflection of light

Titelbild: A Spin-Crossover Cluster of Iron(II) Exhibiting a Mixed-Spin Structure and Synergy between Spin Transition and Magnetic Interaction (Angew. Chem. 8/2009)