If you enter the website of JACS now you can see in the first slide of the research images on the top left three yellow bottles. The title of the corresponding paper is Redox-Responsive Gel−Sol/Sol−Gel Transition in Poly(acrylic acid) Aqueous Solution Containing Fe(III) Ions Switched by Light (J. Am. Chem. Soc., 2008, 130 (48), pp 16166–16167. Publication Date (Web): November 11, 2008. DOI: 10.1021/ja807087z). This is the latest publication of our group. Fei Peng is my young colleague. He’s a Master graduate student. And Zhen Tong is my supervisor.
Peng was originally assigned the task to investigate the gel point of polyacrylic acid/iron(III) gelling system. He prepared a series of gels and placed on his bench near the windows. However he sometimes found the gels melted mysteriously, which caused additional troubles to his experiment. When further examining this problem he accidentally discovered the effect of sun light sometimes entering the windows near his bench. Light can reduce the iron(III) to iron(II) which is not capable to crosslink polyacrylic acid. And this became the topic of this JACS paper.
Peng is in his last year of Master study. He is now busy finding a job. The global economic crisis has lead to dramatic shrink of labor market in China. He hasn’t signed any contract now. When asked why he did not go on getting a PhD degree, he said he is not interested in scientific research, especially theoretical studies. He is more interested in applied technology and hope to serve as a technician in the chemical industry. However, the current reality means he should accept any job offer no matter it is from a real estate investor or a bank.
Congratulations! My husband has just had a paper published in JACS this week too, so I must check out to see if you are in the same issue, or “batch” if currently online version only.
I wish Peng all the best with his job search. I hope he finds something he likes doing.
I had a look and found his paper. Oddly, it does not seem to have a doi. Yours is published on 11 November (with doi displayed) and his on the 18 November – but his is not yet in a printed issue. Even so, I don’t understand why there isn’t a doi displayed, because the paper surely must have one in order to be published. Strange.
I have a little trouble in locating the DOI too, and had to download the paper and check the bottom right corner. It seems ACS ascribes the DOI within the paid content.
Great job, Andrew! Of course, the title is about as intelligible to me as my papers must be to you, but your explanation cleared it up for me. I love these serendipitous discoveries. Congratulations to you and your young colleague, and much luck to him in his job search.