The lecture competition is open to those aged up to 28 in the fields of materials, minerals and mining. The IOM3 offers cash prizes and an opportunity to compete at the national finals and the international finals in Australia. To compete please contact Prof Yanqiu ZHU E : y.zhu@exeter.ac.uk.
Arrive for 19:00
Wednesday Feb 15, 2017
Entry is free. Members and non-members are welcome.
Venue: Room 170, Harrison building, Streatham campus, Exeter University EX4 4QJ
Several studies have documented the fabrication of graphene-complex oxide ceramic nanocomposites for photocatalyst applications in the visible range via hydrothermal method. In this study, reduced graphene oxide with three-dimensional cellular architecture is hybridized with perovskite-type BiFeO3 through a facile freeze-casting process. The photocatalytic activity of the resulting materials is then evaluated by the degradation of congo red under visible light irradiation.
This study has been one of the first attempts to combine reduced graphene oxide with BiFeO3 by a freeze-casting method, which can be further applied to create more graphene-based technologies. Furthermore, the findings presented in this study add to our understanding of the origin of photocatalytic performance in graphene-complex oxide ceramic nanocomposites.
Zeolitic imidazolate frameworks (ZIFs) is a new class of metal organic frameworks (MOFs) than composed of metal ions and organic linkers. With structures similar to conventional aluminosilicate zeolites, the intrinsic properties of the material such as the porous structure, high surface area, high chemical and thermal stabilities and abundant functionalities has enable a wide range of potential applications of ZIFs. Intense research ranging from synthesis approaches to attractive applications of ZIFs have raised in this rapidly developing field. This presentation will give a brief introduction to ZIFs, it method of synthesis and it potential applications.
During the last 2 decades, smart materials have become a very promising field of research with an unlimited number of possible applications. This talk resumes some of the most relevant stimuli-response examples and cutting-edge applications related to my own PhD project. The applications analysed are smart windows and cancer imaging by using optical changes as a responsive property.
Carbon coatings on metal oxide materials have been widely studied because those composites combine both the chemical and physical properties of carbon and the original materials perfectly. As a result, the coated materials can be applied in sorbents, batteries and super capacitors, etc. In our research, carbon-coated non-magnetic metal oxide nanoparticles were realized using a rotary chemical vapour deposition system (RCVDS) which can precisely controlled with the coating layer thickness ranging from 2 - 10 nm. The coating thicknesses are variable and controllable via proper synthesising parameters. This method is advantageous over conventional static furnaces: it is simple, uniform, controllable and versatile, applicable to a wide range of kinds of micro-nanomaterials, and masy easily to be adopted into an industrial scale process.