News
September 2010: Contributed talk at the 3rd EuCheMS Chemistry Congress in Nürnberg, Germany.
Participation at the EuCheMS Chemistry Congress was generously funded by the Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC). A contributed talk was given at the Symposium "Analysis Manipulation and Simulation: New Developments in Theory".
July 2010: Two presentations at the Annual World Conference on Carbon, Clemson University, USA.
Two lectures "Mechanism of direct transformation of graphene to fullerene" and "Insight into the formation of multiply charged fullerene clusters" will be given at the Carbon 2010 Conference which will take place in July 11–16, 2010 in Clemson, USA. "From Nano to Macro" is the theme for Carbon 2010. For even as advances in nanocarbons continue to reveal exciting new applications, from electronic to optic to catalytic, there has been a resurgence in interest in bulk carbon materials, driven by increased demand in areas such as energy and transportation.
June 2010: Summer Visit of Dr. A. Popov from Troitsk, Russia.
June 2010: Article "Direct Transformation of Graphene to Fullerene" published in Nature Chemistry.
It may come as a surprise that more than twenty years since the discovery of fullerene the actual mechanism of its formation still remains somewhat of a mystery. Various models involving multiple steps and series of intermediates have been proposed over the years. Eventually the "carbon" community reached a consensus that graphite must disintegrate into very small fragments of carbon such as C2, which then join together to form a fullerene via complex mechanisms of molecular collisions and rearrangements. Although these ideas are now widely accepted, scientific intuition signals that there must be a simpler way for the transformation of graphite into fullerene. And it has been directly observed in transmission electron microscope! A new "top-down" mechanism has been proposed to explain the formation of fullerene from graphene under the electron beam irradiation. (pdf)
May 2010: Summer Student from Carroll University, USA Joins the Group.
April 2010: AIMPRO meeting 2010 "Modelling of Nanostructures and Interfaces".
The AIMPRO and COST MP0901 NanoTP Theory Meeting 2010 "Modelling of Nanostructures and Interfaces" took place in the School of Chemistry, University of Nottingham, April 19–22, 2010.
Unfortunately, the period coincided with the volcanic eruption in Iceland which blocked the travel plans for many of the attendees, notably those from further away in Europe such as Turkey, Greece, Portugal, and Switzerland. Nonetheless, the attendance was good, with modified travel plans including buses, boats, coaches, trains, and sleepless nights! The programme consisted of a series of invited and proposed oral presentations, along with a poster session. Extensive discussion time was built into the programme (and utilised), particularly given the few talk cancellations. There was also a presentation on the COST project.
March 2010: Keynote Lecture at the COST "NanoTP" scientific meeting, Berlin, Germany.
The scientific kick-off meeting of NanoTP was held in Berlin hosted by Bessy II represented by Dr. Peter Guttman. Unlike conventional conferences, the meeting was constructed mainly around the poster session, with posters representing the work of each participating group. A selection of keynote lectures described the current state-of-the-art scientific and technological problems and challenges for NanoTP over the coming four years. A guided tour of the Synchrotron facilities concluded the meeting.