What a fantastic team effort – the Faul Research Group baking, chopping, making and serving more than 250 meals at BISC earlier this week! It was a busy evening, but teamwork at its best!
Thanks to all who helped (also Esther, Veronica, Sylvia and Matthew, who were unfortunately not on this photo!), including two further volunteers from the School of Chemistry – Prof Tim Gallagher and Dr Justice Archer!
Congrats to Charlie and all other contributors – our paper in Macromolecules was just published! In this study, entitled “Linear and Branched Fiber-like Micelles from the Crystallization-Driven Self-Assembly of Heterobimetallic Block Copolymer Polyelectrolyte / Surfactant Complexes” we explored the solution self-assembly of a heterobimetallic diblock copolymer with a crystallizable poly(ferrocenyldimethylsilane) (PFS) core-forming block and a corona-forming segment featuring a poly(cobaltoceniumethylene) (PCE)-based polyelectrolyte/surfactant complex.
We found that key features of the one-dimensional (1D) morphologies were dependent on both the polarity of the solvent medium and temperature. Read the paper for more details – the 11th collaborative paper with the Manners group!
We have the pleasure of hosting Kamran, a PhD student from the National Centre for Nanoscience and Technology, Beijing, China. Kamran is from the group of one of Charl’s former postdocs – Prof Zhixiang Wei!
Kamran will be spending 6 weeks in Bristol on a new collaborative project in the area of energy storage. Welcome!
The group took a break from the lab last week, and spent some time at “Locked in a Room” on the Bristol harbour side!
Glad to report that both the groups solved the riddles and escaped from their rooms within the allotted time! See if you can identify all of the mad scientists! We wrapped up the morning’s activities with a great lunch!
A group of students from the BCFN, including various Faul Research Group members, travelled to the State Key Laboratory for Supramolecular Materials and Structures at the College of Chemistry at Jilin University (Changchun), and then on to the State Key Laboratory for Polymers and Textile Fibers at Donghua University (Shanghai).
It was, in addition, great to have a mini Faul Research Group China reunion, with Yaozu, Wei (both now at Donghua), Robert, Esther, Henry, Christian and Charl!
Charl has, for the 4th time, taken a large group of BCFN students (and colleague, Tom Oliver!) to China for an extensive academic visit! First stop was ChinaNano 2019! In addition to students from the BCFN, a number of Faul group members also joined this scientific expedition!
Here the whole group, which included Pan, Robert, Christian, Victoria, Tom, Sian, Charl, Esther, Henry and Alicia!
And here the Faul group members Pan, Esther, Christian, Robert, Henry and Charl on their own! Fortunately Pan, who is from Beijing, helped us to find an excellent local Beijing roast duck restaurant!
Maha successfully passed her viva, with external examiner Cecile Dreiss from King’s College London. This fantastic achievement was celebrated in the appropriate fashion – with some home-made cake (by Veronica)!
Congratulations Dr Maha! Well done!
