It was a busy week in the Faul Research Group – we hosted a mini symposium with a large number of research groups based in the South West (Bath, Bristol, Cardiff) and active in the broad area of porous materials on Wednesday.
Sebastien did a great job in organising the symposium – thank you! We also received support from the Cabot Institute! The next meeting already planned for early next year!
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!
Charlie, former joint BCS CDT PhD student with the Manners group and now postdoc in the Seferos Group in Toronto, had another paper published from his PhD!
The study, accepted for publication in Macromolecules, explores the solution self-assembly of a heterobimetallic diblock copolymers with a crystallisable poly(ferrocenyldimethylsilane) (PFS) core-forming block and a corona-forming segment featuring a poly(cobaltoceniumethylene) (PCE) based polyelectrolyte/surfactant complex. More details to follow soon!
Congrats to Charlie, and other co-authors (Rebecca, Becs and Rob)!
Djen, who was a joint student with close collaborator Jonathan Rossiter and funded by the Farscope Robotics CDT, successfully defended his PhD earlier this week! It was great to have Herbert Shea from EPFL as his external examiner – thanks!
Well done Dr Djen!
We had the pleasure of hosting two collaborators from the Department of Chemistry, IIT Kharagpur in Bristol for a week! It was great to have Professors Sanjib Patra (who spent 4 years in Bristol as postdoc in our close collaborator Ian Manners‘ group) and Sabyashachi Mishra here interacting with colleagues, exploring new opportunities and giving talks!
This visit, funded by the University of Bristol’s International Strategic Fund, is part of a much larger collaboration (Manners/Faul – Patra/Misha) funded by the Indian government’s SPARC initiative. We also had the chance, with our local collaborator Dr Natalie Fey, to meet with the UoB’s International Office to discuss further interactions!
We look forward to many further future interactions and exchanges!
Charl spent a few days in Changchun, China, continuing to strengthen ties to Jilin University‘s College of Chemistry. He gave a short introductory course on soft matter and liquid crystals to a group of early career graduate students.
Great to visit again, and looking forward to the next visit in August!
Charl is currently teaching at the Yangqi campus of the University of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (UCAS) outside Beijing (which is currently very sunny and warm!). It has been a full week of teaching, group work and interactions with a great class of 60 early career researchers from a range of scientific backgrounds and disciplines!
It seems that Charl is the tallest in the class!
Faul Research Group 