Earlier this year, DTC students Ibbi Ahmet (3rd year) and Thomas Wildsmith (final year) travelled to Nova Scotia, Canada, to share ideas and learn more about the chemistry of germanium, tin and lead. Ibbi brings us this report.
From Monday 15 to Friday 19 July 2013, I attended the 14th International Conference on the Coordination and Organometallic Chemistry of Germanium, Tin and Lead (GTL 2013) with five other members from the University of Bath chemistry department, including final year DTC student Thomas Wildsmith and our supervisor, Dr Andrew Johnson. The conference took place in Baddeck, Nova Scotia, Canada and complimented our research on group 14 chalcogenide precursors for chemical vapour deposition (CVD) processes.
At the conference we presented our investigations into a range of novel tin chalcogenide precursors and their ability to deposit materials. Thomas Wildsmith gave an exceptional presentation on Single Source Precursors for the Low Temperature Formation of SnOx Thin Films by Chemical Vapour Deposition, which was awarded the best PhD presentation at this year’s conference. Dr Johnson’s presentation and my poster both showcased our research on Group 14 Metal Chalcogenide Complexes: Precursors for Thin Film and Nano-Particle Synthesis, which was well received by the conference attendees.
Speaking during the conference, Professor Kim Baines, chair of the conference’s advisory board and lecturer at Western University, said:
“The Bath boys gave very respectable presentations and were very professionally dressed, which also reflected their excellent research. … They brought a lot to the conference and it was a joy to have them here.”
GTL 2013 was attended by number of prestigious research groups that presented some excellent and interesting work. The research titled Pyramidanes presented by Yuki Ito and colleagues from the University of Tsukuba (Japan), explained both the synthetic route and computational methods that characterise the elusive non-classical structures of pyramidanes. Pyramidanes are molecular structures of 5 group 14 atoms that form a pyramid shape, as shown in figure below. It was a pleasure to see such a complete and well-presented poster and presentation, with an added comical reference to the ancient Egyptian pyramids.
The conference was also a good opportunity to network with other researchers, from students to internationally renowned professors. It was pleasure to meet Professor Bob West from the Organosilicon Research Centre (University of Wisconsin), who discussed with us the prospects of muon spectroscopy as an alternative tool in characterising stable +1 oxidation state group 14 compounds.
I also enjoyed spending an evening preparing BBQ’s with Professors Phil Power (University of California), Erik Rivard University of Alberta) and Cameron Jones (Monash University). These are internationally renowned professors of main group chemistry that were happy to discuss our research, provide advice and offered to collaborate with us in the future.
Overall the GTL 2013 was an excellent experience that will play an important part in my PhD and the research group’s progress
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