£250 prize for schools electrochemistry challenge

The RSC's Electrochemistry Group is inviting students to enter a competition to design a battery and win up to £250.

The competition asks students 'Imagine you had a power cut at home - what could you use to produce some power?' The group are looking for the most imaginative solution that uses materials found in the home and garden.

A separate set of prizes is available to the best entry of a cartoon or illustration that demonstrates an electrochemical principle. Again, the judges are looking for creativity and entrants are asked to 'think different!'

More information can be found on the RSC Electrochemistry Group website. The deadline for entries is 15 December 2012.

more here: http://www.rsc.org/Membership/Networking/InterestGroups/Electrochemistry/electrochemistry-challenges.asp

Congratulations to Dr. Kattel

Krishna Kattel (Dr. Kattel now) completed his PhD from Kyungpook National University, Korea.

Congratulations Dr. Kattel. 

His thesis title was: 

"Synthesis, Characterization, In Vitro and In Vivo Studies of Lanthanide Oxide/Hydroxide Nanostructures for Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) Contrast Agent and Fluroscence Imaging (FI) Agent."

The size, composition, and shape of the nanoparticles are tuned by controlling reaction conditions. These nanoparticles are made dispersible in various media through proper surface modifications. The effects of particle size, shape, composition, and interparticle spacing on physical and chemical properties of the nanostructures are addressed by my research. I accomplished the synthesis of a series of biocompatible multifunctional magnetic nanoparticles for highly efficient diagnostic and therapeutic applications. In addition, I synthesized various paramagnetic lanthanide oxide nanoparticles for advanced T1 and T2 MRI contrast agents. I demonstrated the applicability of antibody conjugated iron oxide nanoparticles for cancer cell separation in buffer and IO-Ab nanoparticles to capture cancer cells without pre-treatment process.

As an extension of my research, I am planning to do further research on gold nanoparticles for a wide range of biological studies. Through precise control over the particle morphology and surface modification, I plan to design and create gold nanostructures that can be used for applications such as bio-sensing and therapeutics.

More on Dr. Kattel's can be found on his publications.
1) Kattel, K.; Park, J. Y.; Xu et al. “A Facile Synthesis, In Vitro and In Vivo MR Studies of D-glucuronic Acid Coated Ultrasmall Ln2O3 (Ln = Eu, Gd, Dy, Ho and Er) Nanoparticles as a New potential MRI Contrast Agent.” ACS Applied Materials and Interfaces, 2011, 3, 3325-3334. (IF:4.5)

2) Kattel, K. et al.; “Water–Soluble Ultrasmall Eu2O3 Nanoparticles as a Fluorescent Imaging (FI) Agent: In Vitro and In Vivo Studies.” Colloids and Interfaces A: Physiochemical and Engineering Aspects 2012, 394, 85-91. (IF: 2.3).

3) Kattel, K.; Park, J. Y.; Xu, W.; Kim, H. G.; Lee, E. J.;et al. “Paramagnetic Dysprosium Oxide Nanoparticles and Dysprosium Hydroxide Nanorods as new T2 MRI contrast agent.” Biomaterials 2012, 33, 3254-3261. (IF: 7.88).

4) Xu, W.*; Kattel, K.*; Park, J. Y.*; Chang, Y.; Kim, T. J.; Lee, G. H. “Paramagnetic Nanoparticle T1 and T2 MRI Contrast Agents.” Phys. Chem. Chem. Phys. 2012, 14, 12687-12700. [*authors have equal contributions]. (IF. 3.6)
5) Kattel. K. et al. “Surface Coated Eu(OH)3 Nanorods: A Facile Synthesis, Characterization, MR Relaxivities and In Vitro Cytotoxicity.” Journal of Nanoscience and Nanotechnology. (Just accepted).

Our congratulation to Dr. Anant Marahatta

Anant Marahatta successfully defended his PhD dissertation this month (2012, November) at Tohoku University Sendai, Japan. We would like to congratulate him for his achievement. 

 

His Ph.D. research work is mainly concentrated on the “Theoretical investigation of the structures and dynamics of the crystalline molecular gyroscopes”. His work is regarded as a complementary theoretical study that aimed to characterize the experimentally synthesized crystalline molecular gyroscopes (It is a compliment from the ACS reviewers). He computed series of quantum chemistry calculations by applying Gaussian-03 and density-functional-based tight-binding program (DFTB+) packages. Here is a short description   of his research work.

 

The phenylene-bridged macrocages whose interior rotator (phenylene) is protected by an exterior framework (stator) are found to be structurally analogous with the macroscopic gyroscope and expected to have many several useful collective effects and properties in the crystal such as dichorism and birefringence. Recently, an X−ray crystallography of the gyroscope like molecule having a phenylene rotator encased in three long siloxaalkane spokes was reported by Prof. W. Setaka and his group. They observed the phenylene rotator at three stable positions around the molecular axis, suggesting the molecule demonstrates functions as a molecular gyroscope in crystal. The rotational dynamics and the underlying mechanisms of such novel molecular gyroscope were not revealed. I am the first to carry out series of quantum chemistry calculations for theoretically investigating its crystal structures and the rotational dynamics. Another objective of my research is finding computationally cheap yet decent theoretical method that can characterize the experimentally synthesized crystalline molecular Gyroscope.

 

The most important conclusion of this research work is that in the presence of highly efficient encapsulating frame around the rotating segment, the rotational dynamics of crystalline molecular gyroscopes can be dramatically improved with an extremely low activation barrier. It is very essential to realize the rotationally free molecular machines. I am able to reveal the microscopic mechanisms of rotations with the help of reasonably simple theoretical methods. It will be highly beneficial for the development of nanoscale devices based on assemblies of molecular gyroscopes.

 

He has started a post-doctoral position at the same University in Japan. We wish him a successful career ahead.

For detail, you can go through his research paper:

http://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/jp308974j

Dr. Pandey moving to PENNSTATE for post-doctoral position

Binod Pandey successfully defended his PhD dissertation this month at University of Missouri – Saint Louis, US. We would like to congratulate him for his achievement.

Here is a short description of his PhD research.

Gold nano-structures are at the center of nanoscience and nanotechnology. Nanoporous gold is a gold nanostructure with pores and ligaments in the nm dimensions. Size and topography of these pores and ligaments can be compared to the dimensions of the microdomains of the membrane. Highly increased surface to volume ration of the nanoporous gold makes it an attractive substrate for protein immobilization and assay development. My study involved utilization of nanoporous gold for the development of electrochemical immunoasays for the cancer biomarkers such as prostate specific antigen (biomarker for prostate cancer) and carcinoembryonic antigen (biomarker for colorectal cancer). Another aspect of the study involved development of electrochemical techniques for the study of carbohydrate lectin interactions on the nanoporous gold surface as an alternate and close mimic of the cell surface for carbohydrate presentation, and as a model for carbohydrate protein interaction studies. Electrochemical lectin assays were also developed for the high throughput screening of the glycan targets in glycoproteins, glycoconjugates and cell surface carbohydrates.

His publications can be viewed at google.scholar site. 

http://scholar.google.com/citations?user=k8_W3EQAAAAJ&hl=en

After his PhD, Dr. Pandey will be joining Benkovic lab at PENNSTATE as a post-doctoral research associate. 

Best wishes from our side Dr. Pandey.