Nottingham Nanocarbon Group

Date: 17th July 2019
Graduation

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• A huge congratulations to all of our group members who graduated this summer! This includes: Dr Max Astle and Dr Kate Walker who were awarded their doctorates as well as Ben Weare, Will Cull, and Sam Sutton who all obtained an MSci degree.

Date: 8th-11th July 2019
MC14 Conference

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• Luke Norman and Max Astle attended the biannual MC14 conference which was held at Aston University and was organised by the Royal Society of Chemistry. Both Luke and Max presented talks whilst there; Max spoke about his research on carbon nanoreactors for environmental remediation whilst Luke talked about thiomolybdate clusters in carbon nanotubes for electrocatalysis.

Date: 5th July 2019
Prof. Ute Kaiser visit

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• Prof. Ute Kaiser from Ulm University came to visit the school and also gave an inspiring talk about the new SALVE TEM equipment as well as some exciting research highlights. Prof. Andrei Khlobystov then presented her with an official University of Nottingham scarf to mark her visit.

Date: 2nd-3rd July 2019
PhD Research Conference

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• As part of the annual PhD research conference, three of our PhD students presented their research. Kayleigh Fung (3rd year PhD) gave a talk on nanoscale manipulation using the TEM which included some amazing TEM images. Jack Jordan and Luke Norman (2rd Year PhD) both presented a poster of their research on POMs in nanotubes and osmium nanochemistry respectively. Luke was awarded the Hubberstey Prize for outstanding poster in the Materials and Molecular Bonding theme.

Date: 27th March 2019
Max's viva success!

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• Congratulations to Max Astle who successfully defended his thesis entitled "Metal oxides inside carbon nanoreactors for environmental remediation", Dr Max will now continue in academia as an independent research associate.

Date: 13th March 2019
Yuri Oganessian visit

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• Professor Yuri Oganessian, Professor of Nuclear Physics presented the 2019 annual Jesse Boot Lecture discussing the discovery of super heavy elements. He is the last living person to have an element named after him.

Date: 9th November 2018
Dr. Julie Watts passed her viva!

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• Julie passed her viva today! Congratulations from the Nanocarbon group, "Watt" a success! Her thesis was titled "Investigations of Hollow Carbon Nanoshell Structures". All the best for your new job at the Nanoscale and Microscale Research Centre (nmRC) Julie!

Date: August 2018
7th EuCheMS Chemistry Congress

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• Rhys presented his talk titled "Coarsening of Nanoparticles During Catalysis: Is Ostwald Ripening the Culprit?" at the 7th EuCheMS Chemistry Congress held in Liverpool.

Date: July 2018
The International Conference on Coordination Chemistry (ICCC)

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• Jack presented his talk on polyoxometallates encapsulated inside single-walled carbon nanotubes at the International Conference on Coordination Chemistry in Sendai.

Date: 25th July 2018
Quiz Winners 2018

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• During the annual chemistry summer party, this year held at the CNL (Carbon Neutral Lab), the Nanocarbon Group defended their title of quiz winners. The group fought off tough competition from the other research groups and demonstrated their range of knowledge to return the trophy back to their office. They can be seen below recreating the famous 1966 England World Cup victory pose.

Date: 19th July 2018
Graduation: Summer 2018!

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• Congratulations to our 4th year MSci project students; Ruth Hayter, Ebuka Ezeugwa and Tom Peters who all graduated with first class degrees in chemistry. Good luck with all their future endeavours!

Date: 3rd July 2018
Warwick Physics Day

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• The University of Warwick hosted a symposium organised by Jeremy Sloan and Ana Sanchez entitled "Extreme Nanowire, Phase Formation and Molecular Encapsulation in Atomically Thin Capillaries: Practice, Theory and Experiment" and Andrei Khlobystov was asked to be one of the speakers to present the group's research. Andrei's presentation focussed on the reactions of molecules promoted by the electron beam in TEM and how this can be used as a tool for the discovery of new chemistry.
  Three of the group's PhD students; Kayleigh Fung, Jack Jordan and Luke Norman, were also in attendance to support Andrei and to learn about encapsulated materials and their properties. Speakers also present at the symposium included; Kazu Suenaga of AIST, Japan, and Nottingham alumni Thomas Chamberlain.

Date: 2nd July 2018
Inorganic and Materials Research Symposium 2018

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• Final year PhD student Max Astle presented his research to the school as part of the Postgraduate Research Week and won the illustrious Barker Prize for best presentation. His talk was entitled "Carbon nanoreactors for environmental remediation" and concerned the decontamination of chemical warfare agents using catalytic nanoreactors.




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• Second year PhD student Kayleigh Fung also presented her research entitled "ChemTEM - Imaging and studying chemistry at the single-molecule level" in the form of a poster during the Postgraduate Research Week. Kayleigh's research concerns using an electron beam to not only image molecules inside carbon nanotubes but to also act as a stimulus of chemical reactions.

Date: 23th April 2018
MSci students presenting their work

• Our MSci students Ebuka, Ruth, and Tom gave presentations on their work over the past academic year to their assessors today and it went quite well. Good luck on exams and writing your reports!

Date: 20th April 2018
NanoPrime with the UoN Nanoscale and Microscale Research Centre

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• The EPSRC and University of Nottingham funded NanoPrime scheme is a project providing funding for researchers from industry and academia. The launch event today included many exciting talks from world-leading experts in the field of nanoscale characterisation.

Date: 18th April 2018
Prof. Andrei Khlobystov awarded an Established Career EPSRC fellowship!

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• Prof. Andrei Khlobystov, our supervisor, Professor of Nanomaterials and Director of the nmRC has been awarded an Established Career EPSRC Fellowship "ChemTEM: Triggering, Controlling and Imaging Chemical Reactions at the Single-Molecule Level by Electron Beam". Congratulations Andrei!

Date: 28th February 2018
Rhys' Talk at the Dan Eley Symposium

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• Dr. Rhys Lodge presented a talk on "Coarsening of nanoparticles during catalysis: Is Ostwald ripening the culprit?"" as part of the Dan Eley Symposium 2018. The annual symposium celebrates the wonderful career of Dan Eley with a series of talks from postdoctoral researchers as well as external guests. Rhys' talk was also voted the best talk of the day and was the winner of a prize from the school. Well Done Rhys!

TEM Image of the Month - January 2018

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• This first entry into our TEM image of the month feature was taken whilst imaging graphene-coated TEM grids that had been cleaned by various techniques. The image was taken at 80kV and has been digitally-coloured green.
  
  Imaged by: Dr Craig Stoppiello
  
  Research by: Abigail Browning

Date: 12th February 2018
Kayleigh Fung's 2nd Year Colloquia Talk

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• As part of the 2nd year colloquia talks, Kayleigh Fung presented her work on "Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) of reactions inside carbon nanotubes". Her research comprises of monitoring reactions involving perchlorocoronene that are induced by the TEM's electron beam. Not only can she see the reactions taking place at a single-molecular level which forms nanoribbons but she has also imaged the intermediate that the reaction proceeds via. This method of using the electron beam as both an imaging tool and the stimulus is known as ChemTEM.

Date: 14th December 2017
Dr. Stoppiello's inaugural lecture

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• On the 14^th December 2017, Dr. Craig Stoppiello gave his first lecture to fourth year undergraduates as part of the F14IMA module. His lecture concerned carbon nanotubes as containers for molecules and the reactions that can occur within their hollows. Craig utilised props and audience participation to make his lecture not only interesting but also engaging for the audience too. Congratulations from the Nanocarbon group and we look forward to your next lecture!

Date: 30th November 2017
Kate defends her thesis!

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• Kate's examiners didn't think her thesis was 'boron', passing her viva in a record breaking time! Her thesis was entitled "The Encapsulation of Nanomaterials within Boron Nitride Nanotubes and Carbon Nanotubes". Congratulations from the Nanocarbon Group Dr. Walker!

Date: 6th November 2017
Rhys' thesis not ripped to pieces

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• Rhys Lodge successfully defended his thesis entitled "Structure and Properties of Metal Nanoparticles on Carbon Nanostructures" and is now taking a well-earned break!

Date: 23rd October 2017
Mehtap passes her viva!

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• Mehtap Aygun passed her viva for her thesis entitled "Design of Catalytic and Functional Carbon Nanoreactors" and will be moving on to new and exciting projects.

Date: 12th September 2017
Rhys' Thesis

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• Rhys submitted his thesis titled "Structure and Properties of Metal Nanoparticles on Carbon Nanostructures" today. Now for the viva!

Date: 18th July 2017
Chemistry Graduation

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• Dr. Craig and our Masters students Hannah, Luke, Dom and Vivek graduated today! Hannah won the King Memorial Medal and Prize for outstanding laboratory work in Inorganic Chemistry in the final year of the MSci Degree course in Chemistry.

Date: 5th July 2017
Turner Thesis Prize

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• Dr. Scott Miners won the Turner Prize for the best PhD thesis submitted in the Inorganic and Materials Section, presented to him by Prof. Jim Turner. Scott’s research focussed on the application of single-walled carbon nanotubes as containers for preparative chemical reactions and utilised TEM/EDX and Raman spectroscopy at the nmRC to explore the properties of molecules inside carbon nanotubes.

Date: 5th July 2017
Inorganic Chemistry Colloquium

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• Bradley presented his work titled "Carbon Nanoreactor Hybrids for Electrocatalytic Transformations" on the first example of a preparative electrocatalytic organic reaction performed within a carbon nanoreactor. He combined the exceptional electrical conductivity of carbon nanotubes with nickel nanoparticles as the catalyst to create a hybrid system for electrocatalytic oxidation and subsequent alkoxy migration catalysed by electro-dissociated nickel (II) ions of propargyl alcohol.

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• Max Astle was one of the three winners of the Hubberstey Prize (best poster presentation) at the Inorganic and Materials Symposium, presented to him by Prof. Neil Champness. Max is interested in the application of Scanning Transmission Electron Microscopy (STEM) and elemental mapping (EDX) for the structural characterisation of hybrid materials comprising metal oxides and carbon nanotubes as catalytic nanoreactors for the decontamination of warfare agents.

Date: 26th June 2017
Engineering Colloquium

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• Julie Watts who is an Engineering PhD student and won first place for her third year presentation on the Advanced Materials Research Day held on the 26th of June. Julie's PhD aims to gain knowledge of the process-structure relationship and processibility of porous nanocarbon structures and evaluate functional properties of this novel material. As part of her studies Julie has used Tranmission Electron Microscopy (TEM) extensively as a means to visualise these tiny structures.

Date: 14th March 2017
Successfully defended his thesis!

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• Titled "Inorganic Synthesis inside Carbon Nanotubes", Craig Stoppiello successfully defended his thesis and passed his viva, obtaining the degree of doctor of Philosophy.
  
  Congratulations Craig!