Charl is currently in China for a short conference tour. He is starting in Beijing, where he is speaking at the Porous Organic Polymers meeting (held in the impressive Chinese Academy of Science’s Academic Hall).
Charl will then also visit former FRG group member Yaozu Liao at Donghua University in Shanghai, to take part in an exciting one-day symposium (organised by Yaozu). Finally, Charl will use the opportunity to visit and give an invited lecture at Suzhou University.
Ben’s paper was very recently accepted by Chemistry – A European Journal as a very important paper! This investigation, done in collaboration with Natalie Fey (Bristol), Patrice Rannou (Grenoble, France, and long-standing collaborator) and Tomasz Marszalek and Wojciech Pisula (Mainz, Germany and Lodz, Poland).
Here we show that a redox-active star-shaped oligo(aniline) provides an opportunity to explore and model the intricate optoelectronic properties of a seemingly simple molecule, using a combination of experimental and modelling investigations. Congrats to all involved!
Are you interested in spending time in Bristol? Currently there is a call open, which provides an opportunity to Chinese nationals who are currently enrolled as PhD students at higher education institutions or research institutions in China, to spend up to 12 months in the UK.
The focus is on research areas that reflect the common interests and demands of both countries, including research related to energy. The UK-China Joint Research and Innovation Partnership Fund (known in the UK as the Newton Fund) PhD placement programme is delivered by the British Council China and the China Scholarship Council
Please contact Prof. Faul if you are interested in applying. Please note – placements must start between January and December 2017.
It was with a heavy heart that we all said goodbye to Wei, as she headed back to Xi’an after a year in the FRG. It was great to have her around as a visitor from the Xi’an Jiaotong University. We said goodbye in the traditional fashion – with pizza, and lovely cakes (made by Maha)!
We look forward to catch up with Wei – in Xi’an as we continue to collaborate, or hopefully back here in Bristol!
Yaozu, who is now back in China at Donghua University, and Ben and Zack (with our collaborator Jens Weber, in Germany) just had a paper accepted for publication in Macromolecules.
This study focused on the use of conjugated microporous polymer networks (prepared using Buchwald-Hartwig cross-coupling reactions with hexaphenylbenzene-based matierlas) for gas uptake. Very impressively, these systems can take more than 300 weight % of iodine up! Porosities and uptake capacities can also be tuned by changing the redox state of these materials! Well done to all!
A paper by Tom, another former FRG member and joint PhD student with long-standing collaborator Dr Wuge Briscoe, on the influence of solvent polarity on the structure of TANI-surfactant thin films has been accepted for publication by Physical Chemistry Chemical Physics!
Tom, who just finished a post-doc at the ESRF in Grenoble, investigated the influence of processing solvents on supramolecular structure formation using grazing-incidence X-ray diffraction (GIXS). Well done to all those who contributed, including Alex and Ben from the FRG!
Geri, a former PhD student in the FRG, and now doing a post-doc at MANA, part of the National Institute of Materials Science in Tsukuba, Japan, published the last paper from her PhD work in Langmuir. This output was a collaborative effort with Ian Hamley from Reading, and her second supervisor Guy Lloyd-Jones, now at Edinburgh.
Ionic self-assembled complexes of chiral perylene tectons were prepared and characterised in detail. See the just-accepted paper here! Well done Geri!
We have had a number of visitors to the group. Firstly we have May, who won a Nuffield Foundation Research Placement Scholarship, and will be spending 4 weeks in the group, exploring novel dye-surfactant supramolecular complexes.
Rui Yao, a 6-month visitor from Nanjing, where he is doing his PhD, arrived last week.
And finally, we have Jack Underhill, who has visited the group twice before, working alongside May on dye-surfactant supramolecular complexes.
Welcome!
Charl is visiting the chemistry departments at the Universities of Cape Town and Stellenbosch this week to explore potential collaborations and give research seminars. It is of course great to be back in South Africa, and great to visit old friends, colleagues and potential new collaborators.
Charl is being hosted by Assoc. Prof. Greg Smith at UCT, and Dr Prinessa Chellan at Stellenbosch.
Kazu is back in Bristol after a 2-week visit to the Akagi laboratories doing circularly polarised luminescence measurements. He also brought back lost of very tasty Japanese snacks for all to enjoy!
Welcome back!
Faul Research Group 