Category Archives: Publications

ionic self-assembly, research projects, Charl FJ Faul, Charl Faul, Charl F. J. Faul, conducting organic material, tetra(aniline), tetraaniline, polyaniline, PANI, TANI, oligo(aniline), oligoaniline

Wei’s paper accepted (and already appeared online) by Chemical Science!

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A paper by Wei (who visited the Faul Research Group as a CSC visitor for one year), Maha, Alex, Kazu, Ben and other collaborators was just accepted for publication by Chemical Science!

The paper shows, for the first time, the ability to reversibly tune the packing parameter of amphiphiles (the packing parameter is a concept that has been used for many decades to predict the structures amphiphiles will form on self-assembly). We here show that it is possible to tune the tail volume of our electroactive amphiphile through non-covalent interactions (i.e., doping of the tetra(aniline)-containing tail!), providing a route to tune self-assembled structures reversibly between fibers and vesicle-like objects.

As the paper is available freely as an open-access publication, feel free to download and read “An addressable packing parameter approach for reversibly tuning the assembly of oligo(aniline)-based supra-amphiphiles“.  Well done Wei and team!

Dicker’s 2017 Scientific Reports publication a “Top 100” paper!

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Congratulations to Dicker, who’s 2017 paper in Scientific Reports was recently selected as a “Top 100 accessed chemistry article“!

The open access paper, entitled, “Light-Triggered Soft Artificial Muscles: Molecular-Level Amplification of Actuation Control Signals” discussed a biomimetic molecular-level approach that employed light, with its excellent spatial and temporal control properties, to actuate soft, pH-responsive hydrogel artificial muscles. Although this actuation is triggered by light, it is largely powered by the resulting excitation and runaway chemical reaction of a light-sensitive acid autocatalytic solution in which the actuator is immersed. This process produced actuation strains of up to 45% and a three-fold chemical amplification of the controlling light-trigger, realising a new strategy for the creation of highly functional soft actuating systems.

Scientific Reports published more than 5000 chemistry papers in 2017 – outstanding achievement, well done Dicker!

 

New year … and new publication!

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A paper, with authors from the Manners and Faul group, just appeared in Macromolecules. Liam, who is a joint PhD student between the two groups, contributed to the paper where the formation of uniform block copolymer fiberlike micelles of controlled length with a crystalline polyselenophene core was explored. Careful control of preparation conditions, especially choice of solvent for the self-assembly, led to the formation of very long fiberlike micelles (of up to 900 nm).

See the paper here for further details.  Well done to Emily, Ali and Liam!

 

Paper (with Yaozu and Arne) accepted … and published!

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A paper, with Yaozu (and his team at Donghua), Arne Thomas (in Berlin) and Charl on nitrogen-rich conjugated microporous polymers has now appeared in ACS Applied Materials and Interfaces.

In this paper we explore the use of nitrogen-rich conjugated microporous polymers (prepared using an oxidative cross-linking approach) in a variety of applications, including carbon dioxide uptake (with high selectivity over nitrogen) and energy storage.

Paper in Nature Communications!

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Great news from the continued collaborative efforts between the Manners and Faul groups (and many other collaborators):  our work on the production of “Uniform electroactive fibre-like micelle nanowires for organic electronics” has just appeared online at Nature Communications!

Well done to Pete (funded by the BCFN for his PhD and now working for NuNano, Edinburgh), Xiaoyu (now at BIT in Beijing, China), Liam, and others on some very exciting science!  We describe studies of field-effect transistor devices prepared from solution-processable, low-dispersity, electroactive fibre-like micelles of controlled length from pi-conjugated diblock copolymers. The resulting charge carrier mobility strongly depends on both the degree of polymerization of the core-forming block and the fibre length, and is independent of corona composition.

Book on supramolecular amphiphiles published!

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Alex, Kazu and Charl contributed a chapter to an RSC book on supramolecular amphiphiles, edited by our collaborator and colleague, Prof Xi Zhang from the Department of Chemistry, Tsinghua University, Beijing, China. The book, with a chapter from Bristol focusing on the use of electrostatic interactions for the formation of supra-amphiphiles, has just been published!

Great to have had the chance to contribute to this exciting book in the RSC’s Monographs in Supramolecular Chemistry series!

Paper with Yaozu, Jens and Arne accepted for publication!

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We just heard the good news that a paper with former post-doc Yaozu (now a professor at Donghua University in Shanghai), and close collaborators Jens Weber (Zittau) and Arne Thomas (TU Berlin) have been accepted for publication in Chemistry of Materials.

More details to follow on the paper “Conjugated Microporous Polycarbazole Networks as Precursors for Nitrogen Enriched Microporous Carbons for CO2 Storage and Electrochemical Capacitors“.  Well done to all involved!

Liam co-author on a JACS paper from the Manners group!

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Liam contributed to a paper that just appeared online at JACS entitled “Uniform “Patchy” Platelets by Seeded Heteroepitaxial Growth of Crystallizable Polymer Blends in Two Dimensions“.

The study demonstrates that the 2D crystallization-driven self-assembly approach (developed by close collaborator, and Liam’s joint supervisor Ian Manners) can be extended to heteroepitaxial growth by the use of different crystallizable polymers with compatible crystal structures. This allows the formation of well-defined “patchy” rectangular platelets and platelet block co-micelles with different core chemistries.

Well done Liam!