Layered silicates provide an interesting avenue to novel materials. There has been a growing interest in recent years for the development of functional materials using tailor made clays. This review highlights one such tailor made, water dispersible aminopropyl functionalized magnesium phyllosilicate (aminoclay) of the type R 8 Si 8 Mg 6 O 16 (OH) 4 , (where R ¼ -CH 2 CH 2 NH 2 ) and its multiple applications in catalysis, biology, fuel cells and light-harvesting hybrids.

MoS2 membranes show high performance H2/CO2 separation at high H2 permeability. The MoS2 membranes were found to be thermally stable up to 160 °C and a significant increase in gas permeability was observed due to the thermally driven phase transition from the 1T to the 2H phase.

We delineate the growth and stabilization of ultra-small (2-3 nm) {Cu(BTC)(HO)·xHO} MOF nanoparticles on a 2D layered aminoclay template. The composite shows significant CO uptake (5.35 mmol g at 298 K, 1 bar; 46% higher than pristine bulk MOF), superior CO separation efficiency from CO/N and CO/CH mixtures and higher catalytic proficiency for chemical fixation of CO into cyclic carbonates.

The crystal structure of a 3:2 complex of the frameshift mutagen proflavine with the dinucleoside phosphate cytidylyl-3'5'-guanosine has been determined. The complex has one drug molecule intercalated between Watson--Crick base pairs of the nucleotide duplex. The other two proflavine molecules are bound to the exterior of the miniature double helix. The orientation of the base pairs in this miniature double helix has aspects similar to that found in RNA 11.