We welcome Georgie Burgoyne-Morris, Jack Avery and Sibella Egerton to the PAM group. Georgie will be undertaking her PhD studies on triplet-triplet annihilation upconverters (TTA-UC) for solar energy conversion and contributing to the ERC SPECTRACON project. Jack, who is jointly sponsored by ISIS neutron and muon source, will be using small-angle neutron scattering to study light-responsive Pickering emulsions. Sibella joins us for her Part II project, also working on TTA-UC systems alongside Abi Collins.

Talks:

A. R. Collins (University of Cambridge, UK) Green-to-Blue Photon Upconversion for Solar Energy Harvesting using Organic-Inorganic Polymer Hosts 

H. Tunstall-Garcia (University of Cambridge, U.K) Polymer-POSS Composites as Hosts for Luminescent Solar Downshifters

Congratulations to Bea Jones whose work on light-responsive cubosomes has been published in JACS! We created nanoparticles with an internal, cubic liquid crystal phase, suitable to entrap small molecules. Using UV light, the release of these entrapped molecules could be triggered by squeezing the cubic lattice. These stimuli-responsive release systems may have huge potential as next-generation nanodelivery devices for drugs and catalysts. This work is supported by a joint EPSRC/ Diamond Light Source studentship.

You can read the paper here: Light-Responsive Molecular Release from Cubosomes Using Swell-Squeeze Lattice Control, Beatrice E. Jones, Elaine A. Kelly, Nathan Cowieson, Giorgio Divitini, and Rachel C. Evans*, JACS, 2022.

Congratulations to Dr Junxin Wang who has been selected as a finalist in the 2022 Chris Abell Postdoc Business Plan Competition!

Congratulations to Kieran whose work on light-responsive Pickering (particle-stabilised) emulsions has been published in Soft Matter. We identify a series of design rules to enable the preparation of light-responsive Pickering emulsions. Using a model system based on silica particles functionalised with a photoresponsive azobenzene chromophore, we demonstrated that reversible emulsification/demulsification can be achieved through the application of light.

Congratulations to Dr Junxin Wang who has been selected as one of 10 applicants to go through to the semi-final stage of the 2022 Chris Abell Postdoc Business Plan Competition where he will present future plans for his project on Smart Windows.

Dr Wang has also been awarded a Global Incubator Network Austria (GIN) Fellowship for this year’s 2022 IECT Summer School.

Congratulations to Bolong, Morton and Elaine for their recent review article on Förster resonance energy transfer in Luminescent Solar Concentrators. This work was funded by the European Research Council grant SPECTRACON.

The PAM group have won one of the university’s first LEAF (Laboratory Efficiency Assessment Framework) awards.

LEAF is a new tool developed by researchers at University College London to help improve the carbon footprint of lab-based research. The PAM group’s efforts have been led by Dr Bethan Charles and we have been hard at work over the past few months to implement energy-saving ideas, such as replacing our wasteful oil baths with aluminium heating blocks. We won a Bronze LEAF award for our efforts, and we’re currently working towards Silver.