tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-61726208733438464362024-03-28T02:21:49.248-07:00NZ NanoJacob Martinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13042491185977653368noreply@blogger.comBlogger96125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6172620873343846436.post-15778953858322671102022-09-05T08:28:00.003-07:002022-09-05T08:43:31.642-07:00Carbon Conference 2022<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p dir="ltr" lang="en"><a href="https://twitter.com/BCarbonG?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@BCarbonG</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Carbon2022?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Carbon2022</a> - the World Conference on Carbon up and running <a href="https://twitter.com/imperialcollege?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@imperialcollege</a> - our first delegate <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/OUSTEM?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#OUSTEM</a> <a href="https://t.co/LwueDl6sts">pic.twitter.com/LwueDl6sts</a></p>— It’s Just Gareth (@GNeighbour) <a href="https://twitter.com/GNeighbour/status/1543611025324445696?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 3, 2022</a></blockquote><p style="text-align: justify;">The 2022 World Conference on Carbon was held at Imperial College London in early July. Given the tumultuous time, it felt remarkable to be sitting in the introductory lecture and welcomed by Prof. Geoff Fowler. It was especially remarkable for me as I had travelled on one of the longest flights in the world from Perth to London (17 hours) to be there. Here are some of my thoughts from my great week in London.<script async="" charset="utf-8" src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script></p><h2 style="text-align: left;">Carbon for a Cleaner Future </h2><div style="text-align: justify;">The theme for this year's conference was "Carbon for a Cleaner Future", which is an apt theme for a world in need of carbon to rapidly decarbonise. We heard from excellent plenary speakers including Prof. Novoselov on graphene, Prof. Bandosz on the chemical effects within porous carbon, Prof. Conchi Ania on lighting up nanoporous carbons for catalysts, Prof. Marc Monthioux on carbons mimicking water droplets on a spider's web and Prof. Milo Shaffer on assembling scalable nanocarbons! I filled many more pages of notes from other excellent speakers and presenters throughout the conference. </div><div><blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p dir="ltr" lang="en">Already exited and looking forward to the upcoming lecture of noble laureate Novoselov at <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/carbon2022?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#carbon2022</a>. <a href="https://t.co/UVlqhz9QUu">pic.twitter.com/UVlqhz9QUu</a></p>— etzoldlab (@etzoldlab) <a href="https://twitter.com/etzoldlab/status/1544594458871750656?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 6, 2022</a></blockquote></div><div><h2>Industry at the cutting edge</h2><p style="text-align: justify;">Another highlight was meeting and hearing talks from industrial scientists at the cutting edge of carbon science. It was remarkable to see the work on reducing the power and degradation of graphite furnaces from Dr Timm Ohnweiler at Carbolite furnaces. </p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjaqgrgcqByVLcMGW1sp-wXeaRdzczzWKkXURvFbUiMUql4Yd-R_fw1vopbU4on1Kv-KB8D4rHS4CQYv6tE4q8_Gx3EBCKzX8F1THt5Kmf6B49o7qfEqFFbTDwLcLts1d7xBZQh5k85LzU8mz07fE-tK8MZngFdNmKIAPc9LI02tlPoJrxVyxe8VChhHA" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="" data-original-height="562" data-original-width="602" height="374" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjaqgrgcqByVLcMGW1sp-wXeaRdzczzWKkXURvFbUiMUql4Yd-R_fw1vopbU4on1Kv-KB8D4rHS4CQYv6tE4q8_Gx3EBCKzX8F1THt5Kmf6B49o7qfEqFFbTDwLcLts1d7xBZQh5k85LzU8mz07fE-tK8MZngFdNmKIAPc9LI02tlPoJrxVyxe8VChhHA=w400-h374" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://www.linkedin.com/posts/carbolite_carbon2022-activity-6950836334517223424-D0zJ?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_desktop">LinkedIn post from Carbolite</a></td></tr></tbody></table></div><h2>Brian Kelly award</h2><div><blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p dir="ltr" lang="en">Brian Kelly award goes to (drum 🥁🥁) <a href="https://twitter.com/nzjakemartin?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@nzjakemartin</a> !! He is such an energetic and brilliant scientist! <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Carbon2022?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Carbon2022</a> <a href="https://t.co/zJLJqsyg4h">pic.twitter.com/zJLJqsyg4h</a></p>— Dr Irene Suarez-Martinez (@IreneSuaMar) <a href="https://twitter.com/IreneSuaMar/status/1543907622100914178?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 4, 2022</a></blockquote><div style="text-align: justify;">I was very grateful to receive the Brian Kelly Award from Prof. Fowler at the beginning of the conference. The work for which I was awarded the prize is close to that of Prof. Kelly's. In 1981, he wrote, </div></div><blockquote style="text-align: justify;">"The material presented shows that graphitisation is not a simple process, and it is not well understood." Brian Kelly, <i>Physics of Graphite</i>, 1981</blockquote><p style="text-align: justify;">Here is the personal story of the discussions and collaborations from past Carbon conferences that led to the work I presented in London. </p><div style="text-align: justify;">In 2017, at the Melbourne Carbon Conference, I met Dr Nigel Marks, Dr Irene Suarez-Martinez and Dr Carla de Tomas from the Carbon Group at Curtin University in Perth, Australia. I was in the middle of my PhD on soot/carbon black formation at the University of Cambridge but became fascinated by the disordered carbon structures the Carbon Group had prepared using molecular dynamics simulations that were able to capture all of the features in glassy and porous carbons. I visited Perth briefly and started to work on these structures with the group, employing some novel visualisation approaches of 3D printing and analysing the structures using a mesh. We managed to find a common nanostructure between the glassy and porous carbons. These disordered carbons also contained an excess of saddle-shaped (net-negative Gaussian) curvature [<a href="https://journals.aps.org/prl/abstract/10.1103/PhysRevLett.123.116105">Martin, Jacob W., et al. "Topology of disordered 3D graphene networks." Physical Review Letters 123.11 (2019): 116105.</a>]. The stacking order in the glassy carbon could then be explained by the sheets winding up to form screw-like defects that enabled a fullerene-like structure to be stacked in particular regions. This provided a potential explanation for the transition from porous carbon to impervious glassy carbon as well as the isotropic properties of the material. </div><div><br /></div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEh0cQKg3c-TUZOK1Gw4aP9myPx6C8E_1alLjn4HTID3KyuKTwV3_SeH5aoSwKhgPskKhRwNCBW_4jzjKvqC-LJX4Fid_a-aOsxO3k8ATd2AWmfo5HxZZ-IJjIku2ixl6K9atKHzbzIsRxEj_9NwVWTnL1RlY9fY6q45yS5IHdOsjmnSVuIFXA2v8TGSeA" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="" data-original-height="502" data-original-width="1109" height="290" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEh0cQKg3c-TUZOK1Gw4aP9myPx6C8E_1alLjn4HTID3KyuKTwV3_SeH5aoSwKhgPskKhRwNCBW_4jzjKvqC-LJX4Fid_a-aOsxO3k8ATd2AWmfo5HxZZ-IJjIku2ixl6K9atKHzbzIsRxEj_9NwVWTnL1RlY9fY6q45yS5IHdOsjmnSVuIFXA2v8TGSeA=w640-h290" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Model of disordered carbons</td></tr></tbody></table><br /></div></div><div style="text-align: justify;">I presented this work at the 2019 Carbon Conference in Lexington, USA and was very happy to receive the student prize for the talk. It was the SFEC French Carbon Award talk that drew my attention to graphite. Dr Philippe Ouzilleau spoke about the formation of graphite through a thermodynamic model that was done with Prof. Marc Monthioux and others [<a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0008622319303410">Ouzilleau, Philippe, et al. "Why some carbons may or may not graphitize? The point of view of thermodynamics." Carbon 149 (2019): 419-435.</a>]. They firstly showed that graphitisation is a second-order phase transition with a critical temperature around Tc=2550 K. Secondly, they suggested the presence of annealable topological defects in graphite that give rise to the phase transition while in non-graphitising carbons other non-annealable topological defects are present that are unable to be removed. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">In 2020 I was able to join the Carbon Group at Curtin University through a Forrest Fellowship. I began working with Jason Fogg and Kate Putman, both PhD students in the Carbon Group. They had been developing a novel, low-cost approach to heat up carbon to 3000 °C using the furnace in an atomic absorption spectrometer (AAS) [<a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0008622318303129">Putman, K. J., et al. "Pulsed thermal treatment of carbon up to 3000° C using an atomic absorption spectrometer." Carbon 135 (2018): 157-163.</a>]. This approach had been discovered by <a href="https://pjfharris.com/">Dr Peter Harris</a>, who had previously asked a colleague in chemistry to use these furnaces to prepare samples for electron microscopy.</div><div><br /></div><div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEilQuP0aRS9lvcFmPrwv_p5m7zN7XrQu2rZL1NlLaiID56CDjp56vllhJDbzb4gr1kLpt-_l4haWibJlEWMOpCuhWlGnt1UxlPqS6lqK3fcjXn0QKrCi0ODmNrhBJEMnDxsX_ClDQIjjQOknD0UIhzH-h4bFFuON4TuVvPyUUWhOAmgluMJHaUrR3OwTw" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="4222" data-original-width="6336" height="267" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEilQuP0aRS9lvcFmPrwv_p5m7zN7XrQu2rZL1NlLaiID56CDjp56vllhJDbzb4gr1kLpt-_l4haWibJlEWMOpCuhWlGnt1UxlPqS6lqK3fcjXn0QKrCi0ODmNrhBJEMnDxsX_ClDQIjjQOknD0UIhzH-h4bFFuON4TuVvPyUUWhOAmgluMJHaUrR3OwTw" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Carbon Group at Curtin University (Ms Kate Putman, Mr Jason Fogg, Dr Irene Suarez-Martinez, Dr Jacob Martin, Dr Nigel Marks)</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">The Atomic Absorption Spectrometer (AAS) was invented in Australia by Alan Walsh at CSIRO in the 1950s. It works by vaporising metals that then absorb light and it is often used for environmental metal tests such as detecting lead contamination. Vaporisation was originally achieved in a flame, however, a small graphite tube furnace has mainly replaced the flame. This small joule heated graphite furnace has been extensively developed since the 1960s to ramp up extremely rapidly (~3000 °C/s) and have power control to reproducibly control the temperature. Both time and temperature are critical to control for reproducible measurements. These ramp rates far exceed those for conventional graphite furnaces, which require at least an hour to reach >2500 °C. Given the precise control over the time and temperature, it was the perfect instrument to study graphitisation kinetics and so the Carbon Group worked with GBC Scientific, one of the original Australian companies to commercialise the AAS, to have a custom tube furnace provided. </div></div><div><div><br /></div><div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhNIcPRPrs6a5PNBGosMcdwaaRNcNXd8K-1oaK5ghsXrBlfbFoK-S41sYwG4ccytmD8c_zVUnzFKvRjy1RJPBvPIIFqbCSUbKL1G45gqyYPdjXPLEBRhh0pzFCNrSTB7tPy8wlr2WNDRMrSg3eJrU1Thp23SzV0DKhY1aKkRsXKYSQCtxnrePCg4wyY1g" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="" data-original-height="4640" data-original-width="6960" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhNIcPRPrs6a5PNBGosMcdwaaRNcNXd8K-1oaK5ghsXrBlfbFoK-S41sYwG4ccytmD8c_zVUnzFKvRjy1RJPBvPIIFqbCSUbKL1G45gqyYPdjXPLEBRhh0pzFCNrSTB7tPy8wlr2WNDRMrSg3eJrU1Thp23SzV0DKhY1aKkRsXKYSQCtxnrePCg4wyY1g=w400-h266" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Dr Irene Suarez-Martinez and Mr Jason Fogg operating the GBC graphite tube furnace.</td></tr></tbody></table><br /></div></div><div style="text-align: justify;">This new furnace provided a means to address the problem posed by Prof. Brian Kelly in 1981 for studying graphite. </div><blockquote><div>"The proper study of the variation of a property (of graphite) with time at temperature is difficult because of the necessity to raise the specimen temperature rapidly to very high levels, and the difficulties associated with very high temperature measurements." </div><span style="text-align: justify;">Brian Kelly, </span><i style="text-align: justify;">Physics of Graphite</i><span style="text-align: justify;">, 1981</span></blockquote><div style="text-align: justify;">When I arrived in Perth, I suggested we look at a graphitising carbon and search for an annealable topological defect. Jason prepared samples across the graphitisation transition with varying residence times by applying multiple thermal pulses. I then took the samples to the transmission electron microscope for imaging. This new microscope had a cold field emission gun that provided atomic resolution of the graphite and clearly resolved the interplanar defects as screw dislocations that were removed with heat treatment. To find out how the screws form and are removed we performed molecular dynamics simulations to find the mechanism for their removal. There was a nice connection with the screw dislocations, as Dr Suarez-Martinez studied these in her PhD with the late Malcolm Heggie. </div><div><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiwxOuHANSzxaBHD8DZWLTe0siu0tZ8RbLGVgKv6GNIk4tIf-03TA4osDB7JJ4h-s_ELd3ZUGFcACsoLGymrqtqvnXY_TeOtKYii5VYTTQp6mzfGRVs1IkqazCTis4oR1k9jShguZ-FKZLrNMv98lzmUootmqY63EMEm5ctYHszO_zDJ5vKpspygsL5Bg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="" data-original-height="276" data-original-width="407" height="217" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiwxOuHANSzxaBHD8DZWLTe0siu0tZ8RbLGVgKv6GNIk4tIf-03TA4osDB7JJ4h-s_ELd3ZUGFcACsoLGymrqtqvnXY_TeOtKYii5VYTTQp6mzfGRVs1IkqazCTis4oR1k9jShguZ-FKZLrNMv98lzmUootmqY63EMEm5ctYHszO_zDJ5vKpspygsL5Bg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Electron microscopy and model of a screw dislocation.</td></tr></tbody></table><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">We could then probe the kinetics of graphitisation by tracking the crystallites using X-ray diffraction of the pulse heated samples. This revealed that the graphitisation kinetics were more rapid than first thought, occurring on the seconds timescale. The speed at which graphitisation occurs was the aspect that most interested those in the graphite industry at the conference. At 2500 °C, graphitisation takes a few minutes, however, above 2800 °C it takes less than 10 seconds. These insights could have significant cost savings when it comes to industrial production of graphite. Additionally, the removal of screw defects could be targeted to catalyse graphitisation. <a href="https://arxiv.org/abs/2206.09105">The preprint for the work is currently online if you would like to read more.</a> A recording of the <a href="https://www.dropbox.com/s/q0rukgeug4v9s9y/Carbon2022_Graphite_Formation.mp4?dl=0">lecture I gave is also available online</a>. </div><h2>Nanocarbon in virtual reality and 3D printing</h2><blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p dir="ltr" lang="en">Why do we need advanced visualisation tools? Jacob Martin from <a href="https://twitter.com/CurtinUni?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@CurtinUni</a> demonstrated 3D graphene structures with computational microscopy - a talk with combination of <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/compchem?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#compchem</a> + imaging + 3d printing and much more! <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Carbon2022?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Carbon2022</a> <a href="https://t.co/7Zh5xQ3jS6">pic.twitter.com/7Zh5xQ3jS6</a></p>— Carbon 2022 (@BCarbonG) <a href="https://twitter.com/BCarbonG/status/1543955196367233028?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 4, 2022</a></blockquote><p style="text-align: justify;">Alongside the presentation on graphite, I gave two other talks on the formation of soot/carbon black (<a href="https://www.dropbox.com/s/8iq26qdkwk5yeht/Carbon2022_Soot_Review.mp4?dl=0">recording available online</a>) and also on the visualisations of carbon nanostructures using VR and 3D printing (<a href="https://www.dropbox.com/s/64knbue32erryu8/Carbon2022_VR-3D_Visualisation.mp4?dl=0">recording available online</a>). </p><p style="text-align: justify;">During the lunch breaks I was able to demonstrate the virtual reality headset and show people carbon in 3D. It was a lot of fun to see people explore these computational models. We also had the opportunity to view other groups' atomistic structures that were emailed as xyz coordinates, providing a new way to engage with other peoples work. </p><blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p dir="ltr" lang="en">Carbon goes virtual! <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Carbon2022?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Carbon2022</a> <a href="https://t.co/876P3E4jr4">pic.twitter.com/876P3E4jr4</a></p>— Chris Ewels (@chrisewels) <a href="https://twitter.com/chrisewels/status/1544953248037191681?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 7, 2022</a></blockquote><h2>Not yet back to normal</h2><p style="text-align: justify;">Many people were absent from the conference and were sadly missed. Colleagues from China and Japan could not attend due to travel restrictions in their home countries. There were also instances of scientists unable to attend due to global conflict. Dr Yuriy A. Olkhovyk from Ukraine gave an excellent recorded talk on containment of nuclear graphite at Chernobyl. I hope that these barriers will soon be removed within the Carbon community and we can all freely meet at future conferences. </p><p style="text-align: justify;">However, given the situation it was remarkable what the British Carbon Society achieved in spite of terrible uncertainty. I wanted to personally thank them for bringing together an excellent conference programme, expertly planned and executed. </p><p></p><h2>Molly the anthropomorphic Molymod</h2><div style="text-align: justify;">Another attendee sorely missed was <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0008622319302283?via%3Dihub">the late Malcolm Heggie</a>. In memory of Malcolm and to bring his humour back to the Carbon community, Molly was reconstructed out of a Molymod molecular modelling kit.</div><div><blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p dir="ltr" lang="en">Molly and I at <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Carbon2022?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Carbon2022</a> sharing memories about Prof <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/MalcolmHeggie?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#MalcolmHeggie</a>, her "creator" and my PhD supervisor. We miss him. Thanks to <a href="https://twitter.com/BCarbonG?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@BCarbonG</a> for building Molly again! <a href="https://t.co/WMJ3qQmZDs">pic.twitter.com/WMJ3qQmZDs</a></p>— Dr Irene Suarez-Martinez (@IreneSuaMar) <a href="https://twitter.com/IreneSuaMar/status/1545437821875396608?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 8, 2022</a></blockquote><script async="" charset="utf-8" src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Another carbon great passed away when the conference was just beginning - Prof. Robert Curl, from Rice University. The winner of the 1996 novel Prize for Chemistry discovered the C60 buckminsterfullerene, the molecule that started my love of carbon. <a href="https://news.rice.edu/news/2022/nobel-laureate-beloved-rice-professor-robert-curl-dead-88">I recommend the well written article from Rice University on Prof. Curl's life</a>. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">I recall emailing Prof. Curl as an undergraduate to ask for help with a paper. I was working on whether giant fullerenes could be synthesised. He not only responded to my email but organised for someone at Rice to perform an experiment I proposed, however, it was not initially successful. I tried a different approach to heating the fullerenes to size them into giant fullerenes, which ended up working. I sent him the manuscript that was <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S000862231730920X">subsequently published in Carbon</a>. He wrote, </div><div><br /></div><blockquote>"Thank you for sending me your manuscript on the heat driven solid state coalescence of giant fullerenes in toluene-extracted fullerene soots. I think this paper makes significant progress in understanding this interesting and challenging subject. I am flattered by your offer to join you as an author to this paper, but have to decline. I believe that any contributions I might have made to this work are trivial."</blockquote><div style="text-align: justify;">This was followed by extensive feedback on the manuscript. He continued to help me in another projects too. I was fascinated by the lack of fullerenes in fullerene-like carbons such as charcoal. Prof. Curl emailed the late Prof. Sir Harry Kroto and Prof. Alan Marshall to organise some high resolution mass spectrometry to be done at Florida State University. These experiments demonstrated similar oxygen-containing giant fullerene-like fragments, as seen in the giant fullerene paper. This suggested that the heat treated fullerene arc-carbon and charcoal share a common nanostructure. <a href="https://pubs.acs.org/doi/full/10.1021/acs.est.8b06861">We published this work in Environmental Science & Technology</a> with Prof. Curl again refusing to be on the authorship. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">He also kindly wrote a letter of support for one of my fellowship applications in 2020. I hadn't even met him in person but he agree to support the science present in my application. As a young person exploring carbon science this was extraordinarily encouraging with all of my interactions with Prof. Curl demonstrated his kindness, humility and generosity to a student he had never met.</div><h2>Conference dinner on the Thames</h2><blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p dir="ltr" lang="en"><a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Carbon2022?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Carbon2022</a> boat trip, pleased to announce it’s not falling down, just opening to let us through! <a href="https://t.co/sZC5LyJppQ">pic.twitter.com/sZC5LyJppQ</a></p>— Chris Ewels (@chrisewels) <a href="https://twitter.com/chrisewels/status/1545297577775611905?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 8, 2022</a></blockquote><p style="text-align: justify;">A significant highlight was having a sit-down dinner on board a river boat and having the tower bridge open for us. The cloudless sky was also a nice touch from the organising committee! </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj6n0ztHwEiqUVVyHR-NJeXKtVAJQEFx0ZW9VT7nPWHVXtLk4-FsuItiGXMJqBVhJ7kBwp93KXtECv6UGCw8sbY9U43soiUGPekf4GOF3Q0CK7qMbSgTnYBmTp5YMwFx-R_3LmBTfcKwcl9mUfUMlT2ESUHEh9jdQxfYOsp6NalE2Q1oIGllaTWNLZ7Zw/s4032/IMG_3738.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3024" data-original-width="4032" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj6n0ztHwEiqUVVyHR-NJeXKtVAJQEFx0ZW9VT7nPWHVXtLk4-FsuItiGXMJqBVhJ7kBwp93KXtECv6UGCw8sbY9U43soiUGPekf4GOF3Q0CK7qMbSgTnYBmTp5YMwFx-R_3LmBTfcKwcl9mUfUMlT2ESUHEh9jdQxfYOsp6NalE2Q1oIGllaTWNLZ7Zw/w400-h300/IMG_3738.JPG" width="400" /></a></div><p></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhsPRqU0FPc9ZmJg4zL9vcHhRAfJYNUloPaDkEqAS6_2HstJrzdLRgezvO7cn0Ws57xygGWMEA8Up4ieNCG8HDaoPfOsjqeqZSyD0-7153wVLRCwqiX6HGl0byPCAEOTIDPemM9asamO6OpTlpI8eLpoCIKz2nggb4xyfBHarzkCMcnxXLGF0KIEOVXNg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="" data-original-height="2320" data-original-width="3088" height="301" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhsPRqU0FPc9ZmJg4zL9vcHhRAfJYNUloPaDkEqAS6_2HstJrzdLRgezvO7cn0Ws57xygGWMEA8Up4ieNCG8HDaoPfOsjqeqZSyD0-7153wVLRCwqiX6HGl0byPCAEOTIDPemM9asamO6OpTlpI8eLpoCIKz2nggb4xyfBHarzkCMcnxXLGF0KIEOVXNg=w400-h301" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">On board the boat with friends.</td></tr></tbody></table><p>I spent the following week in Cambridge with a Covid-induced fever, enhanced by the heat wave, but with no regrets. I can only reiterate words from Prof. Kelly that ring true also for me: </p><div><blockquote>"The study of these materials has brought me considerable pleasure and the good fellowship of the 'carbon' community." <span style="text-align: justify;">Brian Kelly </span><i style="text-align: justify;">Physics of Graphite</i><span style="text-align: justify;">, 1981</span></blockquote></div>Jacob Martinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13042491185977653368noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6172620873343846436.post-43081849945316762452021-11-22T02:21:00.003-08:002021-11-23T14:50:06.004-08:00What’s in a flame? How soot forms from molecule to particle<p><a href="https://phys.org/news/2021-11-flame-mystery-soot.html" target="_blank"><i>Andrew Breeson and I put together this press release that was picked up by PhysOrg on a review paper Maurin Salamanca, Markus Kraft and I recently wrote.</i></a></p><p>Soot is one of the world's worst contributors to climate change. Its impact is similar to global methane emissions and is second only to carbon dioxide in its destructive potential. This is because soot particles absorb solar radiation, which heats the surrounding atmosphere, resulting in warmer global temperatures. Soot also causes several other environmental and health problems including making us more susceptible to respiratory viruses.</p><p>Soot only persists in the atmosphere for a few weeks, suggesting that if these emissions could be stopped then the air could rapidly clear. This has recently been demonstrated during recent lockdowns, with some major cities reporting clear skies after industrial emissions stopped.</p><p>But soot is also part of our future. Soot can be converted into the useful carbon black product through thermal treatment to remove any harmful components. Carbon blacks are critical ingredients in batteries, tires and paint. If these carbons are made small enough they can even be made to fluoresce and have been used for tagging biological molecules, in catalysts and even in solar cells.</p><p>Given the importance of soot and how long humankind has been producing it, you would think its formation was completely understood. However, this is not the case. In particular, the critical transition when the molecules cluster to form the very first nanoparticles of soot is unknown.</p><p>If the origins of soot were to be entirely understood, we could potentially eliminate its formation and therefore drastically reduce its environmental impact as well as make better carbon materials. With this in mind, researchers from the University of Cambridge and Cambridge CARES have recently published a comprehensive review on the birth of soot—where molecules become particles.</p><p>In the review, titled: "Soot inception: Carbonaceous nanoparticle formation in flames" published in Progress in Energy and Combustion Science, the authors Dr. Jacob Martin, Dr. Maurin Salamanca and CARES Director Professor Markus Kraft begin by noting that;</p><p>"It has only been in the last decade, however, that experimental and computational techniques in combustion science have been able to peek behind the door to reveal insights into the earliest formation mechanisms of carbonaceous particulates in the flame."</p><p>The figure below shows some of these new experimental insights along the path from fuel to soot. In this diagram it is nanoparticle formation (soot inception) that is the birth of the soot particle.</p><p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhAy-lMEHptGBAWHS7sNDXcxGXNpWyk8IH3YpYGp-w_BGnHuxPpw6B2aAFuk9t68xOpPMl_vps_EQn-0ihrNgHSjKVTC-2hPRkbmdsuYTK0xlHuCaSqxjyJAVgCHG6cHrOB4dcoRQuaQRky/" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1962" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhAy-lMEHptGBAWHS7sNDXcxGXNpWyk8IH3YpYGp-w_BGnHuxPpw6B2aAFuk9t68xOpPMl_vps_EQn-0ihrNgHSjKVTC-2hPRkbmdsuYTK0xlHuCaSqxjyJAVgCHG6cHrOB4dcoRQuaQRky/w613-h640/image.png" width="613" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The graphical abstract from "Soot inception: Carbonaceous nanoparticle formation in flames" Credit: Jacob Martin</td></tr></tbody></table><br />Two main pathways have been suggested for soot inception—either physical condensation in which molecules form droplets or chemical polymerisation in which molecules react to form particles. But either pathway by itself is non-optimal, as "physical and electrical condensation of precursor molecules is rapid but too weak to hold soot together, while most chemical bonds are strong but the mechanisms proposed to date are too slow to account for rapid growth of soot as observed in experiments."</p><p></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgXDCoECtvlikeZcPFLsk5ubP3p9MYzFCCRAORjoBqd9HNwfmuKkHg6df4WdC92QI0UzfRQGxHGpgZsrMwa94e8oYQr4pk0gY6N4GM5IKHc8p6DxIJegDsO0Gt2FUlmAoY1rgRsUgeHAhHq/" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="" data-original-height="1385" data-original-width="1642" height="337" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgXDCoECtvlikeZcPFLsk5ubP3p9MYzFCCRAORjoBqd9HNwfmuKkHg6df4WdC92QI0UzfRQGxHGpgZsrMwa94e8oYQr4pk0gY6N4GM5IKHc8p6DxIJegDsO0Gt2FUlmAoY1rgRsUgeHAhHq/w400-h337/image.png" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Schematic of various soot nanoparticles arranged as a function of their C/H ratio and molecular weight. Credit: Jacob Martin</td></tr></tbody></table><p>Instead, the authors suggest a "middle way" involving mechanisms with both physical and chemical aspects. Promising options are highlighted involving π-radicals and diradicals, however, conclusive evidence for a specific mechanism as well as predictive models are still lacking.</p><p>Ultimately, the authors conclude that "the emission of carbonaceous nanoparticles needs to be a research and industrial priority for the future of combustion devices and new material applications."</p><p>"<a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S036012852100054X" target="_blank">Soot inception: Carbonaceous nanoparticle formation in flames</a>" is published in Progress in Energy and Combustion Science by researchers from Cambridge Centre for Advanced Research and Education in Singapore Ltd and University of Cambridge.</p><p><br /></p>Jacob Martinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13042491185977653368noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6172620873343846436.post-61204439436594158922021-08-05T19:12:00.006-07:002021-08-06T00:15:45.713-07:00Molecular dance in sooting flames<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><i>Below is the press release that was picked up by PhysOrg </i><span style="text-align: center;"><i><a href="https://phys.org/news/2021-08-molecular-soot-pollution.html">https://phys.org/news/2021-08-molecular-soot-pollution.html</a></i></span> </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://como.ceb.cam.ac.uk/media/news/ezgif-4-26d40a160e5e_nMD8HiS.gif" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="205" data-original-width="314" height="257" src="https://como.ceb.cam.ac.uk/media/news/ezgif-4-26d40a160e5e_nMD8HiS.gif" width="394" /></a></div></div><p>A hidden, newly discovered molecular dance could hold the answer to the problem of soot pollution.</p><p>Soot pollution causes cancer and blood clots, as well as weakening immune systems to respiratory viruses. The atmosphere and glaciers are also blanketed by soot, leading to global heating and increased ice loss. Surprisingly, the way that soot particles form is still unknown, but is of pressing concern.</p><p>The reason for this long-running mystery is due to the extreme environment in which soot forms, the rapid speed of the reactions and the complex collection of molecules present in the flame. All of these obscure the pathway to soot formation.</p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg50eyxX8vlqFsDjlsNrP4N0DBn19URGhr5K5a8EmdiOtKAVV6SNg4_PpxQ1rtObRj45aytd28BJTVeBb-St2sUna0vAexIs9_eSMgns2bgMtdk-mVNsYyW40MHvS1VkY09Zo3PMYxfelgS/" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="" data-original-height="533" data-original-width="800" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg50eyxX8vlqFsDjlsNrP4N0DBn19URGhr5K5a8EmdiOtKAVV6SNg4_PpxQ1rtObRj45aytd28BJTVeBb-St2sUna0vAexIs9_eSMgns2bgMtdk-mVNsYyW40MHvS1VkY09Zo3PMYxfelgS/w320-h213/image.png" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Candle_flame_-_Macro_photography.jpg</td></tr></tbody></table><p>An international team from the UK, Singapore, Switzerland and Italy has now used two microscopes to reveal the molecules and reactions taking place in a flame. The first microscope operates by touch, feeling for the arrangement of atoms in the molecules of soot. These tactile maps provide the first picture of soot's molecular chicken wire shape. Quantum chemistry was then used to show that one of the molecules was a reactive diradical. A diradical is a type of molecule with two reactive sites, allowing it to undergo a succession of chain reactions.</p><p>The first microscope operates by touch, feeling for the arrangement of atoms in the molecules of soot. These tactile maps provide the first picture of soot’s molecular chicken wire. Quantum chemistry was used to determine a new class of reactive molecules, diradicals.</p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgigjwAPOssO4eldNcw2Dot0johbe6poL9dUsUeorc63yWwEx2eON_XPU4AbrjQLeBY1njHNhO-llpV3T4zQQN8SFMYpxcpxqE62xMRPVw3IuyT1j54wjDAeMLkO4pGpSpwd1UpdoShwGx0/s2270/Diradical.png" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="978" data-original-width="2270" height="173" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgigjwAPOssO4eldNcw2Dot0johbe6poL9dUsUeorc63yWwEx2eON_XPU4AbrjQLeBY1njHNhO-llpV3T4zQQN8SFMYpxcpxqE62xMRPVw3IuyT1j54wjDAeMLkO4pGpSpwd1UpdoShwGx0/w400-h173/Diradical.png" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Imaging of a soot precursor molecule and the reactive diradical revealed with quantum chemistry.</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><p>The second microscope is entirely virtual and shows the reaction between the diradicals. Quantum mechanics guided a supercomputer to virtually and realistically collide the molecules together and reveal the molecular dance in slow motion.</p><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/78bD4Y66DB0" title="YouTube video player" width="560"></iframe></div><p></p><p style="text-align: left;">This simulation showed that the individual molecules are held together by intermolecular forces after they collide. This gives the reactive sites time to find each other and create a permanent chemical bond. Even after they have bonded they remain reactive, allowing more molecules to "stick" to what is now a rapidly growing soot particle.</p><p style="text-align: center;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjcB3mZHGQ9D66Ymd_8mvwpyVlKvgNTqOSKqRW7sClqr26CwkSCspCyA57et7Ge5vc3C77Rx9xxY_H-NHd2b31eQ8Dn1l1T82hoZ90ghyphenhyphen9uGyAaFVNF9srv9SfeQcGRbGEAl57Ew6pXs5VS/s2048/ReactionTime.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1049" data-original-width="2048" height="205" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjcB3mZHGQ9D66Ymd_8mvwpyVlKvgNTqOSKqRW7sClqr26CwkSCspCyA57et7Ge5vc3C77Rx9xxY_H-NHd2b31eQ8Dn1l1T82hoZ90ghyphenhyphen9uGyAaFVNF9srv9SfeQcGRbGEAl57Ew6pXs5VS/w400-h205/ReactionTime.png" width="400" /></a></div><p style="text-align: left;"></p><p></p><p style="text-align: left;">This discovery could resolve the problems with previous attempts to explain soot formation via either a physical condensation or chemical reaction. In fact, both are required to adequately explain the rapid and high-temperature reactions.</p><p>One of the paper's lead authors, Jacob Martin, said, "If the concentration of these species is high enough in flames, this pathway could provide an explanation for the rapid formation of soot."</p><p>Co-author Markus Kraft, from the University of Cambridge's Department of Chemical Engineering and Biotechnology, said, "The project brought together cutting-edge computational modeling and experiments to reveal a completely new reaction pathway which potentially explains how soot is formed. Scientists and engineers have been working on solving this important problem for decades."</p><p>The researchers hope to target these reactive sites to see whether the soot formation process can be halted in its tracks. One promising option is the injection of ozone into a flame, which has already been found to effectively eliminate soot in some preliminary results in other work.</p><p><b>More information:</b> Jacob W. Martin et al, π-Diradical Aromatic Soot Precursors in Flames, Journal of the American Chemical Society (2021). <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1021/jacs.1c05030" target="_blank">DOI: 10.1021/jacs.1c05030</a></p>Jacob Martinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13042491185977653368noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6172620873343846436.post-88346311074558878762021-07-13T08:56:00.001-07:002021-07-13T09:18:05.455-07:00Tips for Postdoctoral Fellowship Interviews<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhx2lOIhdBlkCWFPmcAnd-YbTXHbvvUSKd2_D29NPpngrKoTwH921O-wKGIDCkzKkO9bOGy1RPftSYQEvE-p_-qjUUnuq34YmCNq3fnisbHUsVgqx6_TJw_PhmRpLhuwS4eOgu88yOb3t2h/s1024/WordItOut-word-cloud-4771891.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="634" data-original-width="1024" height="396" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhx2lOIhdBlkCWFPmcAnd-YbTXHbvvUSKd2_D29NPpngrKoTwH921O-wKGIDCkzKkO9bOGy1RPftSYQEvE-p_-qjUUnuq34YmCNq3fnisbHUsVgqx6_TJw_PhmRpLhuwS4eOgu88yOb3t2h/w640-h396/WordItOut-word-cloud-4771891.png" width="640" /></a></div><p style="text-align: justify;">Since my PhD I have applied for three different fellowships and interviewed for two. During these preparations, I have aggregated a series of questions and tips for the interview. Quite a few people in my family have also worked in recruiting and provided some more general questions. I thought I would bring these tips and suggestions together in this blog post. In particular, I have seen a lot of lists of questions but few detailed responses as to how to reply to them and what the question behind the question may be. Therefore, I hope this is helpful for those applying for postdoctoral fellowships. </p><h2 style="text-align: justify;">Know your audience</h2><div style="text-align: justify;">If you know who will be interviewing you, research them. Think about what motivates them and what sort of answers they might be satisfied with. Do they have an industry or academic background? What has been happening in their region/field recently? Before thinking about your answers it is important to know who you are trying to convince. </div><h2 style="text-align: justify;">Introductory statement</h2><div style="text-align: justify;">Often an interviewing panel will ask you to introduce your project over 5-10 mins. If slides are involved in this you will be asked prior to the interview to prepare these. It is important that you follow the narrative you presented in your proposal. I like to add some personal touches to this introductory statement about why I got interested in the topic. I wrote my introductory remarks out in full beforehand and then loosely followed them. Do expect to be interrupted during your introduction as this is often a way of seeing how you do under pressure. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">It is important that this introduction is focused on the impacts and not on methodology. If the interviewers have specific questions about your methodology they will ask them. I also like to show in the introduction that I understand how this research fits into the job's location and what questions people are asking in the location where the fellowship will be held. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Some important overarching themes you want to communicate in the introduction and in the questions are that you are: </div><div><ul style="text-align: left;"><li style="text-align: justify;">an independent researcher,</li><li style="text-align: justify;">at the cutting edge of international research,</li><li style="text-align: justify;">able to connect your expertise with problems or questions ordinary people are interested in.</li></ul><div style="text-align: justify;">It is also important to remember that the interviewers will be more interested in your approach to research than the intricacies of your methodology. </div></div><h2 style="text-align: justify;">Interview questions</h2><div style="text-align: justify;">Below are a series of questions I was asked, others were asked or I have scraped from the internet. These are not exhaustive and some are repetitive but hopefully, the comments for each question will help you prepare some responses.</div><div><ul style="text-align: left;"><li style="text-align: justify;"><b>Given unlimited resources, what would you do?</b></li><ul><li style="text-align: justify;">This question is trying to assess if you are an independent researcher. </li><li style="text-align: justify;">Can you frame research questions and plan projects? </li><li style="text-align: justify;">It also assesses where you want to go in the future and what your priorities are.</li><li style="text-align: justify;">This is an opportunity to talk about translating your research from the lab to the industry or the community.</li></ul><li style="text-align: justify;"><b>Tell us about yourself</b></li><ul><li style="text-align: justify;">This is fairly open-ended but is wanting you to go deeper than simply your research project. </li><li style="text-align: justify;">This is a helpful question to explain how you are relatable and that you are more than just your work. </li><li style="text-align: justify;">I split this question into academic, extracurricular and personal. The academic communities I am involved in are (physics, chemistry, combustion, materials etc). Outside of work I like to (list some hobbies). I would describe myself as a (personal adjectives).</li></ul><li style="text-align: justify;"><b>What would you say are your research expertises?</b></li><ul><li style="text-align: justify;">Depending on your audience I would go for overarching research themes and not a list of methodology or techniques you have mastered, e.g. analytical chemistry for pollution detection. </li></ul><li style="text-align: justify;"><b>What hobbies do you have?</b></li><ul><li style="text-align: justify;">This question is to help them assess whether you have a life outside of the lab/office. </li></ul><li style="text-align: justify;"><b>What inspired you to get into research?</b></li><ul><li style="text-align: justify;">I like to focus my answer on big picture issues here. What motivated me to get into research?</li><li style="text-align: justify;">I also would discuss who inspired me.</li><li style="text-align: justify;">This question is very useful for including a small story or anecdote.</li></ul><li style="text-align: justify;"><b>What would you bring to the programme?</b></li><ul><li style="text-align: justify;">Concrete ideas are good here and demonstrating some things you have previously implemented. </li><li style="text-align: justify;">Include things like mentoring, workshops, public outreach.</li></ul><li style="text-align: justify;"><b>What is the most pressing problem that you want to address?</b></li><ul><li style="text-align: justify;">This is a question about what issue or problem is motivating you. </li><li style="text-align: justify;">Make sure this relates directly to your research project and how your work will help to bring us close to solving the problem. </li></ul><li style="text-align: justify;"><b>Talk about a time when something goes wrong with research. How did you overcome it and what you learned about yourself.</b></li><ul><li style="text-align: justify;">Good opportunity for a story or anecdote.</li><li style="text-align: justify;">Perhaps focus it on the work and how you overcame a particularly challenging experiment. </li><li style="text-align: justify;">I prefer to focus on people. Academy is full of challenging people to work with. How did you manage the relationship? How did you support others? How did you reach out for help from specific people in your department/university? This answer is easier for discussing what you learnt about yourself than a research based question.</li></ul><li style="text-align: justify;"><b>Why do you want this position? </b></li><ul><li style="text-align: justify;">Opportunity to show them you understand what the fellowship is about and the parts of the fellowship you really like. Check out annual reports and the people they have funded to see what they like to promote. Their social media accounts are also helpful for this.</li></ul><li style="text-align: justify;"><b>Is perseverance or talent important?</b></li><ul><li style="text-align: justify;">These sorts of silly questions are often used where you have to choose between two things that are both important. </li><li style="text-align: justify;">I chose to answer the question according to the most important thing for me which is vision which will provide perseverance. For talent I mentioned that I think of talent in a group setting. In good collaborative work many people with different talents come together to get a project done. This answer highlighted broad thinking and team thinking. But it is quite personal so I would write something that is true to your view of this question.</li></ul><li style="text-align: justify;"><b>Could you tell us about how outreach is important for you?</b></li><ul><li style="text-align: justify;">This must be answered in the affirmative and gives you an opportunity to explain the outreach you have already been involved in.</li></ul><li style="text-align: justify;"><b>What are your breakthroughs and what impact have they had?</b></li><ul><li style="text-align: justify;">I like to mention them briefly. My first breakthrough was ... and this changed how the field of ... thinks about the problem. </li><li style="text-align: justify;">You might want to add how these breakthroughs will make further impact through the project you are proposing. </li></ul><li style="text-align: justify;"><b>What do you see as a weakness of yours? </b></li><ul><li style="text-align: justify;">There are some common answers to this question that you want to avoid if you can. e.g. I overwork, I come up with too many ideas etc. </li><li style="text-align: justify;">This is an opportunity for you to get personal about an aspect of your research you or others have noticed needs improving.</li><li style="text-align: justify;">Talk about what steps you are taking to strengthen this part of you and perhaps how this programme will help. </li></ul><li style="text-align: justify;"><b>What is your greatest strength?</b></li><ul><li style="text-align: justify;">This is not an opportunity to talk about all of the great research you have done or all of the ideas you have had. </li><li style="text-align: justify;">Focus it on soft skills and provide evidence for your statements. I am a team player and this can be seen in how I worked in my last group when ...</li></ul><li style="text-align: justify;"><b>Can you explain some of the novel aspects of your project?</b></li><ul><li style="text-align: justify;">Good to talk about the critical difference between others in the field and what you are proposing. </li><li style="text-align: justify;">What is the unique spin you are bringing to the problem/question that will hopefully lead to a breakthrough?</li></ul><li style="text-align: justify;"><b>What would you do if you don’t get this application?</b></li><ul><li style="text-align: justify;">I mentioned grants I have applied for. Avoid talking about other fellowships as they might think you're not serious about this one. </li></ul><li style="text-align: justify;"><b>What are some risks in your project and how will you overcome them?</b></li><ul><li style="text-align: justify;">This is an opportunity to talk generally and nonspecifically about barriers and how you overcame them. </li><li style="text-align: justify;">COVID-19 is a good thing to talk about here. Risks of not being able to collaborate as widely and how you can mitigate these risks by engaging in online conferences. </li></ul><li style="text-align: justify;"><b>How did your research proposal come about?</b></li><ul><li style="text-align: justify;">Important you demonstrate your independence and how you made this happen. </li><li style="text-align: justify;">Discuss the world-class group(s) you will be working with and why this is the best place to do this work.</li></ul><li style="text-align: justify;"><b>Why is it important to do this research now?</b></li><ul><li style="text-align: justify;">This is a big picture question. Discuss the big question/problem and how this research addresses this. Also make it regional - why is this important for the place the fellowship will be undertaken?</li></ul><li style="text-align: justify;"><b>Who else is currently working in this field?</b></li><ul><li style="text-align: justify;">This is a question aimed at working out how well embedded you are in academic circles. Who have you met and collaborated with? Have you attended conferences/workshops where these groups were presenting? What are they doing that is similar and what are you doing differently?</li></ul><li style="text-align: justify;"><b>Will you be using any new techniques?</b></li><ul><li style="text-align: justify;">This could be a trick question as new techniques can be problematic and can delay a project. The easiest projects are those that bring two well-known approaches from two different fields together for the first time. </li><li style="text-align: justify;">I like to talk about the new aspects or new ways we will be using the equipment but also say that the group I am going into is world leading in the techniques I want to use. </li></ul><li style="text-align: justify;"><b>How will you measure success during the course of your fellowship?</b></li><ul><li style="text-align: justify;">I would not say papers; this is a question about output.</li><li style="text-align: justify;">I would talk about outputs from the projects and the impacts of those outputs. </li></ul><li style="text-align: justify;"><b>What impact might this research have on your field?</b></li><ul><li style="text-align: justify;">This is simple question but might be nice to talk about problems/questions that cannot be solved/answered that will be possible after this project. </li></ul><li style="text-align: justify;"><b>What sort of socio-economic impact will your projects have?</b></li><ul><li style="text-align: justify;">I would start with the facts around how much money you think this could save/generate. </li><li style="text-align: justify;">You want to head quickly into the positive social benefits and how you understand what it will mean for the people where the fellowship is based.</li></ul><li style="text-align: justify;"><b>How would you describe your proposed research to a non-scientist?</b></li><ul><li style="text-align: justify;">This needs to be a 1-2 minute elevator pitch. You need some sort of hook to generate interest and explore what your research does in the context of a non-scientist. </li></ul><li style="text-align: justify;"><b>How will you communicate your research to a broader audience?</b></li><ul><li style="text-align: justify;">This is not papers. Think press releases, social media, trips to schools, blog posts, visiting companies, conferences, workshops. </li></ul><li style="text-align: justify;"><b>Can you give us evidence that you are developing research independence?</b></li><ul><li style="text-align: justify;">It is helpful to show some sort of collaboration that you independently set up aside from your PhD supervisor. </li><li style="text-align: justify;">Grants you have submitted with people outside of your research group. </li><li style="text-align: justify;">Organising workshops or talks can show independence also. </li></ul><li style="text-align: justify;"><b>Tell us about your best paper and the impact it has had. </b></li><ul><li style="text-align: justify;">Pick a paper that fits with the project you are pitching.</li></ul><li style="text-align: justify;"><b>Where do you see yourself in 10 years time? How will this fellowship help you achieve this?</b></li><ul><li style="text-align: justify;">Try to picture yourself either in academia or industry and what success would look like. For example, running a research group that has a diverse group of people from many different backgrounds to solve pressing problems using your expertise. </li><li style="text-align: justify;">This question also allows you to show them how this fellowship is the next step for you getting embedded into the system where the fellowship is based. </li></ul><li style="text-align: justify;"><b>Why should you be awarded this fellowship?</b></li><ul><li style="text-align: justify;">Something about how the project is world-leading and is based on work that has already generated world class insights and publications.</li><li style="text-align: justify;">I mentioned how the fellowship community would be a good fit for my values and how I see myself helping and contributing to PhD students' development.</li></ul><li style="text-align: justify;"><b>Please summarise your academic achievements and your personal contribution</b></li><ul><li style="text-align: justify;">This question is again assessing your independence as a researcher and how well you can attribute collaborators' contributions. </li><li style="text-align: justify;">You are not expected to have done all of the work but to have some academic ownership over the process and be able to share the ownership with collaborators. </li></ul><li style="text-align: justify;"><b>Can you describe your personal practical experience of research?</b></li><ul><li style="text-align: justify;">They are looking for broad interests and independence. How have each of these experiences enhanced each other?</li></ul><li style="text-align: justify;"><b>Can you share with us some aspect of research that you have read recently that excited you, outside of your immediate area of interest?</b></li><ul><li style="text-align: justify;">This question is assessing your ability to generate ideas outside of your immediate field. This should read like the outlook section of a paper. </li></ul><li style="text-align: justify;"><b>Have you ever had a conflict with a boss or professor? How was it resolved?</b></li><ul><li style="text-align: justify;">They are looking for maturity and a bit of an anecdote also. </li><li style="text-align: justify;">I would focus on a story that you can anonymise. This shows maturity that you think about privacy. </li><li style="text-align: justify;">I would try not to discuss your PhD supervisor unless they have provided you with a bad reference that you need to address. </li><li style="text-align: justify;">They are interested more in how you conducted yourself as opposed to who was right or wrong in the situation. </li></ul><li style="text-align: justify;"><b>What do you like or dislike about your current research location?</b></li><ul><li style="text-align: justify;">This could be a trick question as you do not want them to think you are quick to complain. </li><li style="text-align: justify;">I focused on what I really liked and some limitations at my current location that I need to overcome and that is why I am wanting this fellowship to develop a new skill.</li></ul><li style="text-align: justify;"><b>How are you working under pressure?</b></li><ul><li style="text-align: justify;">Important to talk about how you perform well but also know your limits. Setting work-life boundaries shows them that you are mature. </li><li style="text-align: justify;">Might also be helpful to mention that you are happy talking to others if you are struggling with a deadline and that you ask for help. </li></ul><li style="text-align: justify;"><b>Describe your dream job?</b></li><ul><li style="text-align: justify;">My response was "Leading a research organisation with world class researchers and enthusiastic students with new ideas and energy to solve pressing problems."</li></ul><li style="text-align: justify;"><b>Describe your management style?</b></li><ul><li style="text-align: justify;">My response was "Collaborative, heavy on planning and based on boundaries and respect."</li></ul><li style="text-align: justify;"><b>Who has been a role model for you?</b></li><ul><li style="text-align: justify;">Good opportunity for an anecdote. </li><li style="text-align: justify;">I would go with a personal story, ideally work related and not a long-dead academic.</li></ul><li style="text-align: justify;"><b>What have you learnt from mistakes on the job?</b></li><ul><li style="text-align: justify;">I like to talk about perseverance as research is hard. Things don't work the first time and you have to keep pushing ahead. </li></ul><li style="text-align: justify;"><b>What types of people do you find it difficult to get on with?</b></li><ul><li style="text-align: justify;">I said people that abuse others or are manipulative. However, I said I have learnt ways of dealing with such people. </li></ul><li style="text-align: justify;"><b>What have you done to improve your knowledge in the last year?</b></li><ul><li style="text-align: justify;">Perhaps talk about something outside of your area of expertise, an online course etc.</li></ul><li style="text-align: justify;"><b>What has been your biggest professional disappointment?</b></li><ul><li style="text-align: justify;">Perhaps an interpersonal issue.</li></ul><li style="text-align: justify;"><b>What are the most difficult decisions to make?</b></li><ul><li style="text-align: justify;">What to do next!</li></ul><li style="text-align: justify;"><b>How do you deal with conflict?</b></li><ul><li style="text-align: justify;">Basic conflict resolution techniques from management are quite useful here. Being proactive but respectful.</li></ul><li style="text-align: justify;"><b>What do you do for fun?</b></li><ul><li style="text-align: justify;">Talk about your hobbies. </li></ul><li style="text-align: justify;"><b>What has shaped you? </b></li><ul><li style="text-align: justify;">I would focus on academic mentors.</li></ul><li style="text-align: justify;"><b>What is the most controversial thing that you have ever done?</b></li><ul><li style="text-align: justify;">Easy answer to this is disagree with an agreed norm in a field. </li></ul><li style="text-align: justify;"><b>Why do you want to live in (location of fellowship)?</b></li><ul><li style="text-align: justify;">Best place in the world to do this project. Then something nice about the place that you are looking forward to.</li></ul><li style="text-align: justify;"><b>How is your work distinct from your supervisor’s/principal investigator’s? How intellectually independent are you?</b></li><ul><li style="text-align: justify;">Very good to show clearly the different direction you are taking. You can still work with your supevisor on some projects but there needs to be some independence shown. </li></ul><li style="text-align: justify;"><b>What has been your role so far in developing research ideas and carrying them forward?</b></li><ul><li style="text-align: justify;">Demonstrate independence.</li></ul><li style="text-align: justify;"><b>What are your personal qualities?</b></li><ul><li style="text-align: justify;">It can be helpful here to say "I have heard people say that I am ..." This framing helps to make answering this question less awkward.</li></ul><li style="text-align: justify;"><b>What papers do you have coming through in the next year?</b></li><ul><li style="text-align: justify;">It might be helpful to highlight some papers that relate directly with the project. </li></ul><li style="text-align: justify;"><b>How will this job help you achieve your long term career plans?</b></li><ul><li style="text-align: justify;">You can be quite practical about what the fellowship would mean for career progression.</li></ul><li style="text-align: justify;"><b>What are the big issues in your research area?</b></li><ul><li style="text-align: justify;">Best to highlight something you are planning to address in your proposal.</li></ul><li style="text-align: justify;"><b>How does your work align with contemporary trends or funding priorities?</b></li><ul><li style="text-align: justify;">Good to look nationally and regionally here. </li><li style="text-align: justify;">Get some facts around investment in your field.</li></ul><li style="text-align: justify;"><b>How would you bridge the gap from your research to research users?</b></li><ul><li style="text-align: justify;">Commericalisation or policy channels you will use. Community engagement etc.</li></ul><li style="text-align: justify;"><b>The university is keen to serve the wider community and economy. Does your planned research have any potential in these areas?</b></li><ul><li style="text-align: justify;">What does your research mean for the person on the street. </li></ul><li style="text-align: justify;"><b>How do we deal with research in a COVID-19 world?</b></li><ul><li style="text-align: justify;">I would list out some risks, specific to your research area if possible, and how you plan to mitigate them.</li></ul><li style="text-align: justify;"><b>How do you feel about translating your research into innovation or spin-outs? Can you give an example of when you have been enterprising?</b></li><ul><li style="text-align: justify;">Might be nice here to talk about the pros and cons of commericalising a particular finding. </li></ul><li style="text-align: justify;"><b>How do you balance your time? If several challenges came up at the same time (grant deadline, pastoral care for a student, teaching commitments) how would you prioritise?</b></li><ul><li style="text-align: justify;">Communicating with your team must be part of the answer.</li></ul><li style="text-align: justify;"><b>What has been the most productive period in your research career and why?</b></li><ul><li style="text-align: justify;">Might be good to highlight a time after your PhD, if possible, to show you are independent.</li></ul><li style="text-align: justify;"><b>Why do you think you are ready for this position?</b></li><ul><li style="text-align: justify;">Important to show out of PhD experience here and supervising experience. </li></ul><li style="text-align: justify;"><b>If you get this position how will you run your research project?</b></li><ul><li style="text-align: justify;">This is similar to the "How will you manage people" question but also how will you collaborate with others to get the project done. </li></ul><li style="text-align: justify;"><b>How would you convince a funding body that they should fund your research rather than one of the other hundreds of proposals they receive?</b></li><ul><li style="text-align: justify;">Maybe pick out three core aspects to the proposal that you think are critical to understand/answer.</li></ul><li style="text-align: justify;"><b>In one sentence, what is the most important question you want to address?</b></li><ul><li style="text-align: justify;">Good one to write down.</li></ul><li style="text-align: justify;"><b>How does the work you propose follow on from what you are already doing?</b></li><ul><li style="text-align: justify;">Good to structure this according to your expertise and then how that feeds into your proposed work. </li></ul><li style="text-align: justify;"><b>What will you do if your hypothesis is proved wrong? Can you see any of your research proposal failing?</b></li><ul><li style="text-align: justify;">It is important that you structure the project so that it can be done in parallel so no part depends too strongly on another. </li><li style="text-align: justify;">You could also talk about the importance of proving something wrong. Negative results are very important in the sciences in particular. </li></ul><li style="text-align: justify;"><b>Have you already done anything to test the feasibility of your project?</b></li><ul><li style="text-align: justify;">Nice to talk about work you have already done with the group you are planning on working with.</li></ul><li style="text-align: justify;"><b>What resources will you need?</b></li><ul><li style="text-align: justify;">You will have to talk about the resources the group/uni will be providing to make it happen.</li></ul><li style="text-align: justify;"><b>Have you supervised doctoral candidates, and how did you find this experience? How did you manage them?</b></li><ul><li style="text-align: justify;">Important question and you need to explain the care and importance you placed on mentoring.</li></ul><li style="text-align: justify;"><b>How would you deal with a weak researcher?</b></li><ul><li style="text-align: justify;">I answered "Kindly but with clear direction."</li></ul><li style="text-align: justify;"><b>How would you fit with the existing activities in the department? Who do would you expect to collaborate with in the institution? Why do you want to collaborate with them?</b></li><ul><li style="text-align: justify;">Explain why this is the best place in the world to do this project. </li></ul><li style="text-align: justify;"><b>Why should we fund you over the other candidates?</b></li><ul><li style="text-align: justify;">I said " I cannot speak for other projects but you should fund this project because..." then list three main impacts that will make it worth it.</li></ul><li style="text-align: justify;"><b>How does your research collaborate with industry?</b></li><ul><li style="text-align: justify;">An example here is nice.</li></ul><li style="text-align: justify;"><b>What other research directions do you want to explore?</b></li><ul><li style="text-align: justify;">Demonstrate your wide breadth of interest/knowledge.</li></ul><li style="text-align: justify;"><b>What is the most important piece of work in your field?</b></li><ul><li style="text-align: justify;">Don't say your own work. Try something historical that links with your recent work and the project at hand. </li></ul><li style="text-align: justify;"><b>What do you think interdisciplinarity is?</b></li><ul><li style="text-align: justify;">My anser was "Respecting and integrating insights from other fields."</li></ul><li style="text-align: justify;"><b>Do you have any questions?</b></li><ul><li style="text-align: justify;">This is a really important question to answer as it shows them how much you have thought about the fellowship. </li><li style="text-align: justify;">One question I asked was "I have seen there is a big emphasis on mentoring, could you please give me an example of a fellowship holder that has done this really well?"</li><li style="text-align: justify;">I also asked how easy it is to collaborate between departments and universities in the area.</li></ul></ul></div><h2 style="text-align: justify;">Preparing responses</h2><div style="text-align: justify;">For my preparation I had a document where I wrote out in full my introductory remarks and then briefly answered the questions above. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The responses to the questions should only be 1-5 sentences long and bullet pointed. They should not be scripted word for word answers but just some ideas. During the interview I do not think I used the exact words in these responses but I had lots of ideas of what to say. </div><h2 style="text-align: justify;">Practice with people</h2><div style="text-align: justify;">It is important that you choose some people that match the interview committee - academics or non-academics. Give them some questions so they know what sort of questions to ask. Invite them beforehand to interupt you during a response so you get used to having to jump around during a response. Ask them for any tips afterward and write them down. Also see if you can talk with people at your university's research office if they can help you.</div><h2 style="text-align: justify;">How much time should I spend?</h2><div style="text-align: justify;">I spent a few days preparing just before the interview so it was all fresh in my mind. I like to think that the interview is only there to pick up any red flags with a person's personality and if you get through to the interview your research has already been picked and is of high quality. In the end, however, a lot more goes into the decision than simply your interview and you might not get the fellowship for many reasons and most will not be because of your interviewing skill or application. You could be a great candidate for a particular fellowship but others may suit it better for various reasons that are impossible to know. This doesn't mean your research or interviewing skills are bad! When I was not successful I found the process of preparing responses and framing my research very helpful and it improved my later applications. So don't worry, nothing is wasted. All the best for your applications! </div>Jacob Martinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13042491185977653368noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6172620873343846436.post-21322673844400939892021-05-17T20:16:00.004-07:002021-05-17T20:18:00.947-07:00Line them up: Self-assembly of molecules for making graphite or carbon fibres<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhZTUM81U2iN08pGKTxI5HTp17vlS3BWZp9Qj0P-rJK1D2Drd00-0yw7yLeXnLdKFI9f8pSgYFPmzvuIpOZqnV_g-pWWUmwov3UkLg8yi_QAqD8sbye8t4-GPvmENv2aSq5-9Dy-u2jCYvi/" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="" data-original-height="319" data-original-width="497" height="256" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhZTUM81U2iN08pGKTxI5HTp17vlS3BWZp9Qj0P-rJK1D2Drd00-0yw7yLeXnLdKFI9f8pSgYFPmzvuIpOZqnV_g-pWWUmwov3UkLg8yi_QAqD8sbye8t4-GPvmENv2aSq5-9Dy-u2jCYvi/w400-h256/ef-2018-01824e_0009.jpeg" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">How do the molecules align in carbon materials and form these coloured regions under polarised light? <br />Image Credit: <a href="https://pubs.acs.org/doi/full/10.1021/acs.energyfuels.8b01824">link</a></td></tr></tbody></table></div><p></p><p>tl:dr The self-assembly of disc-shaped molecules into aligned regions is important for making synthetic graphite for batteries and understanding how soot pollution forms. We showed in this paper how curving the molecules disrupts this molecular alignment a process that had been long hypothesised. <a href="https://como.ceb.cam.ac.uk/preprints/267/">Check out the preprint </a>or the paper recently published in the journal Carbon. </p><h1 style="text-align: left;">Self-assembly and liquid crystal displays</h1><p>Getting molecules to line up is more important than you might think. Liquid crystal displays (LCD) work by aligning and misaligning rod-shaped molecules using an electric field to let through or block polarised light. </p><p></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgKfbXAr7es8AzCqChjrHVtKpzNZa8PW3OIbT1ji3aKGgKEb2GAt6pq8HAqFW8ZxXKuBa_b5qNgroFdLP2RpC0Wa3caQFrUCe0bCOg_matW672VjvqW7Q2PWf_Lo8CDWzgsl-tv2UA_I1ne/" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="" data-original-height="277" data-original-width="524" height="211" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgKfbXAr7es8AzCqChjrHVtKpzNZa8PW3OIbT1ji3aKGgKEb2GAt6pq8HAqFW8ZxXKuBa_b5qNgroFdLP2RpC0Wa3caQFrUCe0bCOg_matW672VjvqW7Q2PWf_Lo8CDWzgsl-tv2UA_I1ne/w400-h211/lcd.png" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Image Credit:<a href="https://chem.libretexts.org/Bookshelves/Physical_and_Theoretical_Chemistry_Textbook_Maps/Supplemental_Modules_(Physical_and_Theoretical_Chemistry)/Physical_Properties_of_Matter/States_of_Matter/Liquid_Crystals">link</a></td></tr></tbody></table><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg5T1mVb0OYHM8J88n45vmxZfGbPj5jHPGIbB7XLJUlM7DqjnFMZoSUCdtxcJgeXzaJEdMFBtQeMr-pG_ORKJWYptEAH8MSSy06bcCTfU20ZGEpJ10gJKyqv0bitF3HZriIZFf68z9sEZvO/" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="" data-original-height="270" data-original-width="480" height="181" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg5T1mVb0OYHM8J88n45vmxZfGbPj5jHPGIbB7XLJUlM7DqjnFMZoSUCdtxcJgeXzaJEdMFBtQeMr-pG_ORKJWYptEAH8MSSy06bcCTfU20ZGEpJ10gJKyqv0bitF3HZriIZFf68z9sEZvO/w320-h181/static-text.gif" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Image Credit: <a href="https://randomnerdtutorials.com/esp32-esp8266-i2c-lcd-arduino-ide/">link</a></td></tr></tbody></table><br /><p>The molecules in liquid crystal displays are rod-like (Calamitic) and they form ordered configurations. These are not truly crystalline with solid and liquid phases but are disordered phases and are therefore called mesophases. </p><p></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi3ev0k8gEH6XJKDUFR86NOLjUeMjxx8IExgr-oZD31CiqvXqJrjn4Ut6beMjO66SKHXA6-WTwYhM-tDtY3aAiDiKQpM8qNOxoKTRWVKp8I_vd6hS6pT3dtj0XrpPedxsigK0-CLjWEnyCp/" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="" data-original-height="427" data-original-width="761" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi3ev0k8gEH6XJKDUFR86NOLjUeMjxx8IExgr-oZD31CiqvXqJrjn4Ut6beMjO66SKHXA6-WTwYhM-tDtY3aAiDiKQpM8qNOxoKTRWVKp8I_vd6hS6pT3dtj0XrpPedxsigK0-CLjWEnyCp/w400-h225/F2.png" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Image Credit: <a href="https://www.intechopen.com/books/liquid-crystals-recent-advancements-in-fundamental-and-device-technologies/from-a-chiral-molecule-to-blue-phases">link</a></td></tr></tbody></table><br />These aligned regions can be nicely visualised through cross-polarisers and provide for some stunning images. <p></p><p></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgPZZLf11WOBst0HBn5bWd7gjzgxwqsrZe6yJbxmLGLxDD73ibe4zf1gJuuvpjRTcUxB8nHO63eyFwZo0kKXo4CDKY8p8QXqjFotOmjI0sxgIkyYg1yIAI68w_ZD2hvLDS_fM71xcNUwbCq/" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="" data-original-height="1536" data-original-width="2048" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgPZZLf11WOBst0HBn5bWd7gjzgxwqsrZe6yJbxmLGLxDD73ibe4zf1gJuuvpjRTcUxB8nHO63eyFwZo0kKXo4CDKY8p8QXqjFotOmjI0sxgIkyYg1yIAI68w_ZD2hvLDS_fM71xcNUwbCq/w400-h300/Nematic_liquid_crystal.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Image Credit: <a href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Nematic_liquid_crystal.jpg">link</a></td></tr></tbody></table><br />Molecular alignment is also important in carbon material science. It is important for making carbon fibres, synthetic graphite for electrodes in electric motors and it is also important in making graphite for batteries. But to understand this a little bit of a historical digression is helpful. <div><h1 style="text-align: left;">Discovery of the mesophase</h1><p></p><p>Two Australian scientists Geoffrey Taylor and J.D. Brooks were exploring the geology of the Wongawilli coal seam in New South Wales in Australia in the 1960s (see below the picture of some of this coal coming out of the ground at the beach in Sydney). </p><p></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhcxiu641hUxxjLjUiktt_VdORkn5avV_uaGv6DZTC-OpoNSLh5dKY-jJbQ1KINnMrWRCEg7-GFKNp0C1pyJEkYz6eiaWjo13cSudeqayHN2U4Wk9uWHptAwcfRJ1KKWfIk4076US_mah48/" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="" data-original-height="1080" data-original-width="1920" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhcxiu641hUxxjLjUiktt_VdORkn5avV_uaGv6DZTC-OpoNSLh5dKY-jJbQ1KINnMrWRCEg7-GFKNp0C1pyJEkYz6eiaWjo13cSudeqayHN2U4Wk9uWHptAwcfRJ1KKWfIk4076US_mah48/w400-h225/Bulli-Coal-3.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Image Credit: <a href="https://fossilsaustralia.com/geology-of-the-illawarra-southern-highlands-html/">link</a></td></tr></tbody></table><br />In parts of this rock formation, ancient magma had pushed its way between the coal seam and led to some heat-treated regions of the coal (these are often called cokes). This provided a nice thermal gradient in the coal from the molten magma at thousands of degrees to low temperature as you went further away from the magma. This provided a fossilised record of the impact of heat on coals structure.<p></p><p></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhFx39XSvjD4KF7viOfVbCu6sbAdRfpViMNMHz7Oc6Ugdw8m4-irQIJy-eNCexcNg-rFLHZO38ty4TJeuqD582cdl1p2PIHZmrr4UcfKjV1STBo36pbhBAbxxZvBqqbV-K7lCAO-0cSZnMw/" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="" data-original-height="654" data-original-width="1713" height="153" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhFx39XSvjD4KF7viOfVbCu6sbAdRfpViMNMHz7Oc6Ugdw8m4-irQIJy-eNCexcNg-rFLHZO38ty4TJeuqD582cdl1p2PIHZmrr4UcfKjV1STBo36pbhBAbxxZvBqqbV-K7lCAO-0cSZnMw/w400-h153/Jurassic-Hotspot.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Image Credit: <a href="https://fossilsaustralia.com/geology-of-the-illawarra-southern-highlands-html/">link</a></td></tr></tbody></table><br />Looking under the microscope with a polarising lens Taylor and Brooks observed spheres where the molecules were all aligned. <p></p><p></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhugqrNFfGclowNGwAlSemN4JpBT-iUJy2YnTao3rZ0MIsDW0Z332B5AUf4XBBo5_-QaRCDYuyhhQUjX6wl_tIhYGM_-PcokJulZpeH4aZ9rdxVADqkvA3hRLLFBAS48DTdwpzWyTolCxpR/" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="" data-original-height="722" data-original-width="1190" height="194" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhugqrNFfGclowNGwAlSemN4JpBT-iUJy2YnTao3rZ0MIsDW0Z332B5AUf4XBBo5_-QaRCDYuyhhQUjX6wl_tIhYGM_-PcokJulZpeH4aZ9rdxVADqkvA3hRLLFBAS48DTdwpzWyTolCxpR/" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Image Credit: Harry Marsh</td></tr></tbody></table><br />These were called mesophase spheres and are regions where all of the graphitic molecules are aligned in stacks. This happens when the heat from the magma melts the molecules and they can start to align in a mesophase.<p></p><p></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEixlq2Z9QD3xj_nW3s-6tfHuG-3gZMXrzKQtMAKHRIbxZxTo1Jo22RPBz3XmMQDZG2nCYyNpYrKlJnluZ59PRwQsRGTB7zn8Ymw2L0ioBZsYDe5wuyV0Wn9I-VROlHGwVYiVBPOHpF4ubix/" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="" data-original-height="529" data-original-width="1714" height="198" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEixlq2Z9QD3xj_nW3s-6tfHuG-3gZMXrzKQtMAKHRIbxZxTo1Jo22RPBz3XmMQDZG2nCYyNpYrKlJnluZ59PRwQsRGTB7zn8Ymw2L0ioBZsYDe5wuyV0Wn9I-VROlHGwVYiVBPOHpF4ubix/w640-h198/Hurt2000.png" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Image Credit: <a href="https://physicstoday.scitation.org/doi/10.1063/1.883020">link</a></td></tr></tbody></table><br /><p></p><p>In their 1965 Nature paper, Brooks and Taylor showed that by heating up specific disc-shaped (discotic) molecules extracted from coal (pitch) they could reproduce this effect in the lab. They also observed that the spheres would fuse together and form a continuously ordered phase. </p><p></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh6wNbJIks2qNPpQnrox9TTLekYqEtdd9C-ZJqKVAnXyQasZLiUhPQoueJO-kqmlNDM7VdacpHgz64b5Y8czeQ9d45HpPr9tJ8L8e0GkObebIrCtX4D7uwvDZO9QJTrMXMCaFQ5HvLaeAPB/" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="" data-original-height="849" data-original-width="1606" height="211" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh6wNbJIks2qNPpQnrox9TTLekYqEtdd9C-ZJqKVAnXyQasZLiUhPQoueJO-kqmlNDM7VdacpHgz64b5Y8czeQ9d45HpPr9tJ8L8e0GkObebIrCtX4D7uwvDZO9QJTrMXMCaFQ5HvLaeAPB/w400-h211/ef-2018-01824e_0008.jpeg" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Image Credit: <a href="https://pubs.acs.org/doi/full/10.1021/acs.energyfuels.8b01824">link</a></td></tr></tbody></table><br />One of my favourite pictures of this is an electron microscope image showing one half where the spheres have merged and the other where they are still separated.<p></p><p></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhpPasV3WjiFKKCgW_lrmAVvEmRfzAiLGeHBXpMba1P905zREH3DkpewI6IUVngvUbGeXxeDpK1BQZutk4eZVOrrbgStIhu5GnB7K8YCRXo5ZZ3x68vLXTFq9utFEAyYmUZkhknCCTflJEp/" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="" data-original-height="668" data-original-width="1490" height="179" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhpPasV3WjiFKKCgW_lrmAVvEmRfzAiLGeHBXpMba1P905zREH3DkpewI6IUVngvUbGeXxeDpK1BQZutk4eZVOrrbgStIhu5GnB7K8YCRXo5ZZ3x68vLXTFq9utFEAyYmUZkhknCCTflJEp/w400-h179/ef-2018-01824e_0011.jpeg" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Image Credit: <a href="https://pubs.acs.org/doi/full/10.1021/acs.energyfuels.8b01824">link</a></td></tr></tbody></table><br />Since the 1960s, this technique has allowed for synthetic graphite to be made in large quantities for electrodes, batteries and carbon fibres. However, only very special pitches from fossil fuels will form a mesophase (so-called mesophase pitches). They are hard to make meaning synthetic graphites are still expensive. <p></p><p>In particular, it is not clear why almost all carbon-rich materials, such as cellulose in wood, do not form mesophases and instead form disordered forms of carbon. So recently a new push has been made to understand this molecular alignment. In what follows some very recent work other groups have recently published on the molecules present in pitch and then some of our work using computer simulations to look at mesophase development.</p><h1 style="text-align: left;">Observing the molecules</h1><p>So what do these mesophase pitch molecules look like? Only very recently have researchers been able to image the molecules using a technique called non-contact atomic force microscopy. This technique attaches a carbon monoxide atom to the end of a sharp needle. This is wobbled electronically using a tuning fork and the interaction of the carbon monoxide tip and the molecule allows for a picture of the bonding network in aromatic molecules to be imaged.</p><p></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh4qZCJPtA4_bt91Jzwi-Tq4flkOM_DWz6mQrjHWbxW7m9dR4WQHJbOClcwj7CfFJ7jIZnZ3Gt6a4vuwhhuiPfRM1keQ3NB_oXdfquIDJxaj7qYGdM0eyVdDzcUSpME7cWmkRACY0oZCdjz/" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="" data-original-height="720" data-original-width="631" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh4qZCJPtA4_bt91Jzwi-Tq4flkOM_DWz6mQrjHWbxW7m9dR4WQHJbOClcwj7CfFJ7jIZnZ3Gt6a4vuwhhuiPfRM1keQ3NB_oXdfquIDJxaj7qYGdM0eyVdDzcUSpME7cWmkRACY0oZCdjz/" width="210" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Image credit: <a href="https://www.zurich.ibm.com/amsel/">IBM Research Zurich</a></td></tr></tbody></table><br />The pitch molecules can be seen in the figure below. The molecules all have a basic aromatic domain where the carbon atoms are arranged in a hexagonal "chicken wire". There are also small chains or hydrocarbons on the edge of these molecules. The raw pictures and the drawings derived from these images are shown below.<p></p><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEieObzizMv38nXxFTdEgGN6sp2o24t3HZPxrD2ZU_NRRf33sYha8S2bDvyXuIKbSTRuP7eD3GeHHPgs1m9zrmwtxKsmX4-_MKhBViY7Aj2kgsKyzbV0bAFX4YqJ2hMNA55r8uzmObMU_tkv/"><img alt="" data-original-height="886" data-original-width="1821" height="195" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEieObzizMv38nXxFTdEgGN6sp2o24t3HZPxrD2ZU_NRRf33sYha8S2bDvyXuIKbSTRuP7eD3GeHHPgs1m9zrmwtxKsmX4-_MKhBViY7Aj2kgsKyzbV0bAFX4YqJ2hMNA55r8uzmObMU_tkv/w400-h195/1-s2.0-S0008622320300695-fx1_lrg.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh4CtxPq9NLVOwxp0jCgvivVQd0_kSgKBs0MVmnUElqzZ351WCwoJKUcuHrAzF4RnYr_3Vlh9MnWuvqalSoFqAf5n2_lVRz2axYpaUwA4TQ_24XJCNqCCm-vddk3fpHr4hdJcg9QzgOkoaz/" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="" data-original-height="1577" data-original-width="2048" height="493" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh4CtxPq9NLVOwxp0jCgvivVQd0_kSgKBs0MVmnUElqzZ351WCwoJKUcuHrAzF4RnYr_3Vlh9MnWuvqalSoFqAf5n2_lVRz2axYpaUwA4TQ_24XJCNqCCm-vddk3fpHr4hdJcg9QzgOkoaz/w640-h493/1-s2.0-S0008622320300695-gr5_lrg.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Image Credit: <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0008622320300695">Used with permission from Elsevier</a>. Scale bar in the AFM images is </td></tr></tbody></table></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div>We can use a molecular viewing software (Avogadro) to see what a molecule would look like. So for example P-15 you can see it forms a disc-like shape with some small chains attached at the edges.<p></p><p><br /></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjUevC77YinIZMsvmrin3xatOD73zQJxOzdDYtT_bkBVF_wY4-PKMRhXAV8Cjtu1apfqAWmiEncN7h377NbQTGR9ROYyq3S1j1xbjKCfaAdK_ogUkz9Nn0muTEyorneJWCYjkTV7srgIUG1/" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="" data-original-height="757" data-original-width="1482" height="204" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjUevC77YinIZMsvmrin3xatOD73zQJxOzdDYtT_bkBVF_wY4-PKMRhXAV8Cjtu1apfqAWmiEncN7h377NbQTGR9ROYyq3S1j1xbjKCfaAdK_ogUkz9Nn0muTEyorneJWCYjkTV7srgIUG1/w400-h204/P-15.png" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Image Credit: Jacob Martin CC-ND</td></tr></tbody></table><br />In order to look at how these molecules align in the mesophase, we made use of computer simulations.<p></p><h1 style="text-align: left;">Aligning mixtures of disc-like molecules</h1><div>To answer the question of how these molecules align we made use to computer simulations. Previous work had approximated the molecules as small squashed spheres (ellipsoids) and only a small amount of work was done on mixtures of different sized PAH. Instead we made use of the atomic forcefield developed in our group previously by Totton and Misquitta. </div><div><br /></div><div>Kimberly Bowal and I made use of molecular dynamics simulations that allow for the study of these molecules as they align. However, the timescales possible to simulate with molecular dynamics simulations are usually restricted to picoseconds to nanoseconds (a billionth of a second) whereas the mesophsae alignment occurs over seconds. <a href="https://como.ceb.cam.ac.uk/preprints/210/">Therefore we can use stochastic approaches (replica exchange molecular dynamics) to speed up the dyanamics.</a> We (Kimberly Bowal, Peter Grancic and myself) also developed <a href="https://como.ceb.cam.ac.uk/preprints/229/">a new Monte Carlo method to reproduce the result</a>. We found columnar arrangements of the molecules were the most stable. This showed the development of a mesophase in a nanodroplet with an atomic description for the first time. <a href="https://nznano.blogspot.com/2018/11/looking-inside-soot-particles_19.html">More details on this can be found in a previous blog post</a>. </div><div><br /></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgoK5M6GVhhq5eysHR-3JOjEwq1XqLOpeSRoTSb1VLryOej0hZ_eM4WZTaytzRJF1vVxHNCq5uXYwn9IJJSzlxe9qSb-4LmPC89mrc9AcloXmoBQKS5fflO-bMDDpZJ0y8gpAJvDIBiYTUU/s507/Screen+Shot+2018-11-17+at+12.42.54+PM.png" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="278" data-original-width="507" height="219" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgoK5M6GVhhq5eysHR-3JOjEwq1XqLOpeSRoTSb1VLryOej0hZ_eM4WZTaytzRJF1vVxHNCq5uXYwn9IJJSzlxe9qSb-4LmPC89mrc9AcloXmoBQKS5fflO-bMDDpZJ0y8gpAJvDIBiYTUU/w400-h219/Screen+Shot+2018-11-17+at+12.42.54+PM.png" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Image Credit: <a href="https://como.ceb.cam.ac.uk/preprints/229/">Kimberly Bowal</a></td></tr></tbody></table><br /></div><div>The question for this current paper was what will disrupt this ordering of these molecules in the mesophase. <br /><h1 style="text-align: left;">Impact of curvature on the mesophase</h1><p>Curvature is found in the carbon materials formed from materials that do not form a mesophase and <a href="https://physicstoday.scitation.org/doi/10.1063/1.883020">has long been suggested to disrupt the formation of a mesophase</a> (<a href="https://nznano.blogspot.com/2017/10/polar-aromatic-molecules.html">I have a previous blog post on how curvature is integrated into aromatic molecules through pentagonal rings</a>). I have also recently shown that in order to simulate these curved species correctly the flexoelectric dipole must be correctly described which Kimberly Bowal and I developed in a series of papers. </p><p>We made use of the replica exchange molecular dynamics approach described before and were able to find the most stable configurations of clusters of mixed sized curved PAH (see below).</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhxmG1YhvyXYmJ1decSQnO2l2RQd_4YU3awEFrxXAhpqttQZmxSSebypILShUzfo1ClfQTZCap4-MnXpmb3iJWHKI2zbERJtgGSuG4NX7dsoHzLTyVUVZ7S8LTov39BeUFmaS_KNfeTOv6u/" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img alt="" data-original-height="732" data-original-width="1828" height="256" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhxmG1YhvyXYmJ1decSQnO2l2RQd_4YU3awEFrxXAhpqttQZmxSSebypILShUzfo1ClfQTZCap4-MnXpmb3iJWHKI2zbERJtgGSuG4NX7dsoHzLTyVUVZ7S8LTov39BeUFmaS_KNfeTOv6u/w640-h256/Kimberly.png" width="640" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Comparing the flat and curved molecules it is clear that the curved species do not have a specific orientational order. This is due to the ability of curved molecules to form snaking columns of molecules that do not all align in one direction. Therefore we showed for the first time that curvature is able to disrupt the mesophase ordering. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">This might help to explain the impact of oxygen on disrupting the mesophase. Prof. Randy vander Wal and Dr Joseph Abrahamson recently demonstrated that two oxygenated precursors can either form a graphitising or non-graphitising carbon depending on whether the loss of oxygen (through carbon monoxide loss) led to the formation of a hexagonal flat PAH or a pentagonal ring that would form curved PAH. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiFhRfm_8xDEBksRLsLkQKIccGhPN8W2ha7G99dgj7DwnU1cvjtJbgUpSghWgbzH60s1HtjcHfkqDs4KaEg6upBbbWQBU1zgBYBo9NL8veFcrnpVhbZZPI9X59GA500C7LIzHz_t_9uqdRI/" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="" data-original-height="886" data-original-width="2196" height="161" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiFhRfm_8xDEBksRLsLkQKIccGhPN8W2ha7G99dgj7DwnU1cvjtJbgUpSghWgbzH60s1HtjcHfkqDs4KaEg6upBbbWQBU1zgBYBo9NL8veFcrnpVhbZZPI9X59GA500C7LIzHz_t_9uqdRI/w400-h161/1-s2.0-S0008622318304160-fx1_lrg.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Image Credit: <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0008622318304160">link</a></td></tr></tbody></table><br />There may be some hope for transforming more materials into graphite as curved PAH are known to orient <a href="https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/am100990c">themselves in electric fields as they are polar</a>. Adding aliphatic chains on the edge of cPAH has also allowed for aligned columnar stacking of curved PAH.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">In summary, molecular simulations can demonstrate how the mesophase forms and how it can be disrupted. Further interesting directions include understanding how other structures like crosslinks could disrupt the mesophase. Alternatively, strain or external electric fields could be used to align the molecules to reduce the cost of synthetic graphite. </div><h2 style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Further reading</h2><div>Liquid Crystals and Carbon Materials Physics Today 53, 3, 39 (2000); https://doi.org/10.1063/1.883020</div><div><br /></div><div>Chen, Pengcheng, et al. "<a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0008622320300695">Petroleum pitch: Exploring a 50-year structure puzzle with real-space molecular imaging.</a>" Carbon 161 (2020): 456-465.</div></div>Jacob Martinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13042491185977653368noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6172620873343846436.post-79511470161429025842021-02-02T16:33:00.003-08:002021-02-02T16:33:42.659-08:0038th International Symposium on Combustion<p><span face="Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; text-align: justify;">tl;dr >1300 combustion scientists logged into the first virtual combustion conference. I was involved in the workshops leading up to the conference and presented our group's work on soot formation. Some main themes included; low T combustion for clean combustion, biofuels for easy fossil fuel replacement, ammonia as a clean fuel and soot formation remaining a mystery.</span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span face="Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif"><span style="background-color: white;">The combustion symposium happens every two years since 1928 and was planned for 2020 in Adelaide Australia. Due to the pandemic, the conference had to move online and was delayed until January. The talks were all prerecorded and played during the session and then the speaker was live afterward for taking questions. One advantage of this format is that you can access the recorded talks for up to a few months after the conference. A disadvantage was that you are unable to have casual conversations, though they did have a chat feature so you could talk with conference attendees. Below is the interface showing the video box that you play the video within the website.</span></span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span face="Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif"><span style="background-color: white;"></span></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span face="Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif"><span style="background-color: white;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhDYtzziLWCxMF8khvKg0v-zQmgOLHAuzQOQ8QmKslfyjmfSwcgs9ZN1fRCEopZIZUuflUrh8a7rB1a7MV4OC5kB_9WMOgAjKu_Xl5yIKWpseydoLmiMiiAkp2JtQBDjasVjHKwpFKJfGIL/s1174/ChimeWebInterface.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="781" data-original-width="1174" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhDYtzziLWCxMF8khvKg0v-zQmgOLHAuzQOQ8QmKslfyjmfSwcgs9ZN1fRCEopZIZUuflUrh8a7rB1a7MV4OC5kB_9WMOgAjKu_Xl5yIKWpseydoLmiMiiAkp2JtQBDjasVjHKwpFKJfGIL/w400-h266/ChimeWebInterface.png" width="400" /></a></span></span></div><span face="Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif"><span style="background-color: white;"><br /></span></span><h2><span face="Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif"><span style="background-color: white;">The lead-up</span></span></h2><div><span face="Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif"><span style="background-color: white;">Before the combustion symposium, there are a variety of workshops that were organised. This year I attended and presented at the <a href="http://yju.mycpanel.princeton.edu/5th_flame_chemistry_workshop.html"> 5th International Workshop on Flame Chemistry</a> and the <a href="https://www.adelaide.edu.au/cet/isfworkshop/">5th International Sooting Flame Workshop</a> (ISF-5) both done virtually via zoom. I was asked to provide an overview of soot formation at the Flame Chemistry Workshop <a href="https://como.ceb.cam.ac.uk/media/presentations/Molecular_Insights_into_carbonaceous_nanoparticle_formation_in_flames_MARTIN.pdf">the slides can be found here</a>. For ISF-5 I worked with </span></span><span style="text-align: left;">Matteo Pelucchi to prepare some summary slides. Below is a nice summary of the talk I gave in a single slide. Credit to Matteo for doing most of the consolidation. </span></div><p></p><p style="text-align: justify;"></p><div><span face="Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjwxnF5hpQ_nMffTBY0PJ4Gxi7S_8SaeiFIzgKu-hgcLZcPAp0LfYQy1IkqqhtqHqMsc7t4Skwf-lM4QD2mmh75V-Ga0huORR2axrNIGajU0Mhufg2Zs0e9Kz8PbVCzplaiHrBi07LEjdM1/s960/ISF_Pelucchi_LAST_jwm50.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="720" data-original-width="960" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjwxnF5hpQ_nMffTBY0PJ4Gxi7S_8SaeiFIzgKu-hgcLZcPAp0LfYQy1IkqqhtqHqMsc7t4Skwf-lM4QD2mmh75V-Ga0huORR2axrNIGajU0Mhufg2Zs0e9Kz8PbVCzplaiHrBi07LEjdM1/w640-h480/ISF_Pelucchi_LAST_jwm50.png" width="640" /></a></div><br /><span style="background-color: white;">I also presented <a href="https://universityofadelaide.app.box.com/s/98h2yfk3w0qb4hb1vp1lf43g9wc9tn88">a poster as a video at ISF-5, which can be viewed online here</a>. </span></span></div><div><span face="Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif"><span style="background-color: white;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span face="Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif"><span style="background-color: white;">Some of the discussions centred around what is the molecular unit of clustering towards soot formation. Currently, there are two main views that small molecules around the size of pyrene form soot and the other view that molecules around the size of circumpyrene form soot. </span></span></div><div><span face="Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif"><span style="background-color: white;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span face="Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif"><span style="background-color: white;">It is challenging to know in soot whether the larger molecules seen are formed in the gas phase before they cluster to form soot or if they form after being condensed in soot. We currently think it is the former.</span></span></div><h2><span style="background-color: white;">Our work</span></h2><div><span style="background-color: white;">At the symposium I was involved in three papers and a poster that were accepted and the group contributed in total six talks. Here is a summary slide that we prepared. </span></div><div><span style="background-color: white;"><br /></span></div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEitnC0cnO-cH8Nzz1q8BXizwYzf-CGheTREZgaD9PY8VXwnJKZ8UwDPqSzwvCxRxlykN_k7gfbArjZTdraNv3-bEsA-dCmSgb5wvLHAmJOAoi1ttav4h__b74k9BJdiSsiTHLdIG7lZv3gv/s1280/Overview_CoMo_Slide.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="720" data-original-width="1280" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEitnC0cnO-cH8Nzz1q8BXizwYzf-CGheTREZgaD9PY8VXwnJKZ8UwDPqSzwvCxRxlykN_k7gfbArjZTdraNv3-bEsA-dCmSgb5wvLHAmJOAoi1ttav4h__b74k9BJdiSsiTHLdIG7lZv3gv/w640-h360/Overview_CoMo_Slide.png" width="640" /></a></div><br /><span style="background-color: white;">The work I was closely involved in focused on localised pi-radicals this was published last year and there is a<a href="https://nznano.blogspot.com/2020/03/localised-pi-radicals.html"> blog post written on it already</a>. We were able to demonstrate some pi-radicals form from hydrogen addition to pentagonal rings that lead to localised pi-radicals with considerable reactivity. The spin density plotted below shows this localisation. </span></div><div><span style="background-color: white;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: white;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiWFoza9FXGBqTQgQazoNg-_7D5Q0KmcJfWQgyOqZuYiEWn-X8wp_jHKOYXE5tfTgSj35E2-bOvnmontMdvmCoJfclym7i2rBkv1_EHdKBSdZfK2PBMWIrP1YY650B18jpRMfy-d1QjIEYM/s892/localvdelocal.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="805" data-original-width="892" height="290" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiWFoza9FXGBqTQgQazoNg-_7D5Q0KmcJfWQgyOqZuYiEWn-X8wp_jHKOYXE5tfTgSj35E2-bOvnmontMdvmCoJfclym7i2rBkv1_EHdKBSdZfK2PBMWIrP1YY650B18jpRMfy-d1QjIEYM/w320-h290/localvdelocal.png" width="320" /></a></span></div><div><span style="background-color: white;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="background-color: white;">Another paper Laura Pascazio presented extended this idea to crosslinked molecules. These can form from small PAH crosslinking reactions and lead to a flat molecule due to a double bond.</span></div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjkakETQVXnDOICCizawhoEOy5qJ3WivFxMpScHx83opVYlujfiQYIa-Fh1eJFqIRpR0FBkMq_T5X2npu7LdGIzQpAdv1gNHwkfclI9attaQte_EiyFmYP6tvk_i6U-Rwx3GU_FJSbIG02x/s1005/APLH.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="420" data-original-width="1005" height="269" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjkakETQVXnDOICCizawhoEOy5qJ3WivFxMpScHx83opVYlujfiQYIa-Fh1eJFqIRpR0FBkMq_T5X2npu7LdGIzQpAdv1gNHwkfclI9attaQte_EiyFmYP6tvk_i6U-Rwx3GU_FJSbIG02x/w640-h269/APLH.png" width="640" /></a></div><br /><span style="background-color: white;">Laura explored how they physically condense and found they were similar to pericondensed species indicating they are not going to cluster together at flame temperatures. However, in a link with our previous work hydrogen addition to the pentagonal ring gives localised pi-radicals (species <b>1d </b>in the figure above). Here is the spin density showing localisation for the penta-linked species.</span></div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEium-xezBY6Od5dc-x8C4qLtSD_NIL5HdN8FwjB94HUQxn1k60OEJStJ41d4qDwOSZY1l1JUciFWi6RHE12xeXpmQ__eXT8kUKqiHJcDBDkHuhDx3Dm5AkyG7R_CWkRX26br5offL6AFX8v/s1226/IS43_spin_red_spindensity.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1226" data-original-width="1001" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEium-xezBY6Od5dc-x8C4qLtSD_NIL5HdN8FwjB94HUQxn1k60OEJStJ41d4qDwOSZY1l1JUciFWi6RHE12xeXpmQ__eXT8kUKqiHJcDBDkHuhDx3Dm5AkyG7R_CWkRX26br5offL6AFX8v/w163-h200/IS43_spin_red_spindensity.png" width="163" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div></div><span style="background-color: white;">These reactive sites can recombine and form strong bonds that are thermally stable in a flame. We also presented reactive molecular dynamics simulations of the dimer bound at flame temperatures. </span></div><div><span style="background-color: white;"><br /></span></div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhTxmL7mQIeOx8bau5pOFjtl7hZCoa0uttIjsHOvWmpHDkEEFeFqeg78KTaFHAvIm1NOzJJiXQv_YADmKHF3kq_pZtHftPFVflsyw7L6WJ7xALizChGP2Gy0RCRt4qP6obFl8GD4sT9CakU/s1018/APLH2.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="640" data-original-width="1018" height="251" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhTxmL7mQIeOx8bau5pOFjtl7hZCoa0uttIjsHOvWmpHDkEEFeFqeg78KTaFHAvIm1NOzJJiXQv_YADmKHF3kq_pZtHftPFVflsyw7L6WJ7xALizChGP2Gy0RCRt4qP6obFl8GD4sT9CakU/w400-h251/APLH2.png" width="400" /></a></div></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div><span style="background-color: white;"><a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.proci.2020.07.119">An interesting paper that was presented by KAUST</a> showed that the m/z 154 ion that is usually ascribed to biphenyl is more likely to be acenapthene from fragmentation studies, <a href="https://nznano.blogspot.com/2020/03/localised-pi-radicals.html">which is what we predicted</a>!</span></div><div><span style="background-color: white;"><br /></span></div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh9gQ_nFNI7zS8dbh-7TTj1CyIKI4XEcu8Ny1AquT2usY-VxAcKuyJbWi-RKircdTlcuaXR_q8_7odqAGRkComoFsvTiYpkmXkuYYz8_IlyzOY9G5Er-BRmt06f-c0HfN6l3kBo_yWrrkRz/s771/acenathene.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="577" data-original-width="771" height="149" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh9gQ_nFNI7zS8dbh-7TTj1CyIKI4XEcu8Ny1AquT2usY-VxAcKuyJbWi-RKircdTlcuaXR_q8_7odqAGRkComoFsvTiYpkmXkuYYz8_IlyzOY9G5Er-BRmt06f-c0HfN6l3kBo_yWrrkRz/w200-h149/acenathene.png" width="200" /></a></div></div><div><span style="background-color: white;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="background-color: white;">This raises the question, what is the concentration of the partially saturated species C12H9 that we expect to be a reactive localised pi-radical. </span></div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div>Questions we received concerned what is the concentration of the partially saturated localised pi-radicals in the flame. This requires more complete reaction mechanisms to be simulated and new experiments that are able to measure the concentration of these partially saturated species. Optical approaches could also be applied and we are looking into these.</div><div><br /></div><div>Another interesting <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.proci.2020.06.367">paper looked at carbonaceous nanoparticle formation in pyrolysis experiments</a>. It showed firstly that as pyrene is heated in a furnace it breaks up and forms species around the size of 600 Da in size before forming the nanoparticles. It was also shown an increase in nanoparticles with temperature indicating a chemical process and not a purely physical condensation leads to these small particles. </div><div><br /></div><div>The molecules thought to be involved in premixed flames are a little bit lighter with a peak concentration around 450 Da as was shown in <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.proci.2020.09.022">another paper presented at the symposium</a>. There appears to be a convergence in thinking around the size of aromatic molecules that cluster to produce nanoparticles in combustion and pyrolysis systems.</div><div><br /></div><div>Some insights into what makes these aromatic molecules cluster was made in two papers. The first, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.proci.2020.09.022">already mentioned</a>, showed that there are a reasonable number of aromatic molecules with more hydrogen than would be expected for pericondensed unsaturated aromatic such as pyrene. <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.proci.2020.08.024">Second, the concentration of radicals in the flame was shown to be proportional to the amount of hydrogen in the soot</a>. This indicates that hydrogen addition to aromatic can lead to more radicals. These results are all consistent with the aromatic rim-linked hydrogen mechanism we have proposed.</div><div><h2 style="text-align: left;"><span style="background-color: white;">Low temperature combustion</span></h2></div><div><span style="background-color: white;">There was a real focus on what role combustion has in a low carbon world. The most interesting technology was the development of low-temperature combustion engines by Mazda. In 2019 they released the first commercial engine that operates in the so-called homogeneous charge compression ignition (HCCI) mode. This practically operates a petrol engine like a diesel engine but at much lower temperatures. The high compression allows the engine to have 20-30% higher efficiency than a normal petrol engine and dramatically reduces the concentration of soot and nitrous oxide (NOx that causes acid rain). </span></div><div><span style="background-color: white;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="background-color: white;">HCCI engines had been notoriously difficult to build requiring recirculation of the exhaust gas into the intake and superchargers to allow for the high compression of the fuel without autoigniting. The trick that Mazda developed was to make use of the spark plug to start things off. The video from Mazda shows the details of how this works. </span></div><div><span style="background-color: white;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/3WjG35pzcdg" width="320" youtube-src-id="3WjG35pzcdg"></iframe></div><br /><div><span style="background-color: white;">What is not discussed in the video is how Mazda developed a swirling fuel mixture that provides a slightly higher fuel mixture right where the spark plug is to allow it to ignite and push the charge above the critical pressure to auto-ignite in a homogeneous way. It can switch dynamically from spark ignition to the low-temperature HCCI combustion mode completely dynamically - some truly remarkable engineering.</span></div><div><span style="background-color: white;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="background-color: white;">So how does it reduce the soot and NOx pollutants? It comes down to the unique combustion mode that is able to operate in a sweet spot. The most helpful way to explain this is by using the equivalence vs temperature plot below.</span></div><div><span style="background-color: white;"><br /></span></div><div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg9r7ufDoi6hXhqkSz1TSBOUS2SaavP0rWmFeZ7R4ie59ice3OH9TqMnwbr_S4APomADXuPxQ1Q6d3F0myDBGKEYFyTak0UBwt8ezUjdBGPjFaPaPHcCPrnTEkWsiJT8kq9ksGxlHytgy5L/s1804/PhiT2.png" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1649" data-original-width="1804" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg9r7ufDoi6hXhqkSz1TSBOUS2SaavP0rWmFeZ7R4ie59ice3OH9TqMnwbr_S4APomADXuPxQ1Q6d3F0myDBGKEYFyTak0UBwt8ezUjdBGPjFaPaPHcCPrnTEkWsiJT8kq9ksGxlHytgy5L/s320/PhiT2.png" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://asmedigitalcollection.asme.org/ICEF/proceedings-abstract/ICEF2015/57274/V001T03A010/245416">Reference</a></td></tr></tbody></table><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div>The equivalence ratio is the ratio of fuel to air where a ratio of 1 is the exact amount of oxygen to completely burn the fuel and >1 is fuel-rich and prone to form soot. The blue line is showing the rough flame temperature and equivalence ratios in air during a cycle (adiabatic flame temperature in Kelvin so subtract ~273 to get Celsius). </div><div><br /></div><div>Diesel engines work by injecting fuel into a high-pressure chamber upon which it autoignites. A diesel engine will therefore have an equivalence ratio almost always >1 leading to soot, carbon monoxide and nitrous oxide. </div><div><br /></div><div>In a spark-ignition engine (like most petrol engines), the equivalence ratio is always close to one but because the flame front is quite concentrated and high temperature you get nitrous oxide formation. </div><div><br /></div><div>The clever thing about HCCI engines is they can operate in the 1400-2000 K by spreading out the flame so it homogenously burns and does not form NOx and by keeping the equivalence ratio <1 soot is not formed. </div><div><br /></div><div><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GnDGOSJkp8A">Prof. Yiguang Ju gave a very nice talk on the chemistry</a> of this low-temperature combustion and how multiple oxygen molecules attacking fuel molecules allowing for different types of flames if you are interested in the details.</div><h2 style="text-align: left;">Ammonia</h2><div>There was a lot of work on ammonia combustion because it is being seriously considered as a low carbon fuel for ship and energy storage. Combustion of ammonia leads to water and nitrogen - so no greenhouse gases that accumulate. </div><div><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #202122; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 14px; text-align: start;">4 NH</span><sub style="background-color: white; color: #202122; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 11.2px; line-height: 1; text-align: start;">3</sub><span style="background-color: white; color: #202122; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 14px; text-align: start;"> + 3 O</span><sub style="background-color: white; color: #202122; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 11.2px; line-height: 1; text-align: start;">2</sub><span style="background-color: white; color: #202122; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 14px; text-align: start;"> → 2 N</span><sub style="background-color: white; color: #202122; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 11.2px; line-height: 1; text-align: start;">2</sub><span style="background-color: white; color: #202122; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 14px; text-align: start;"> + 6 H</span><sub style="background-color: white; color: #202122; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 11.2px; line-height: 1; text-align: start;">2</sub><span style="background-color: white; color: #202122; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 14px; text-align: start;">O (</span><i style="background-color: white; color: #202122; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 14px; text-align: start;">g</i><span style="background-color: white; color: #202122; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 14px; text-align: start;">)</span></div><div><br /></div><div>Ammonia is also considered an chemical storage method for hydrogen. Hydrogen can be made from solar or wind powered splitting of water. Combining hydrogen with nitrogen in the air gives ammonia. Here is the usual sales pitch.</div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/cVwDeMPcJio" width="320" youtube-src-id="cVwDeMPcJio"></iframe></div><div><br /></div><div>The reason you would want to convert hydrogen into ammonia is that the latter is much easier to store and transport. Many of the challenges of using this fuel were addressed at the combustion symposium including, the low flame speed and the formation of pollutants nitrous oxides (NOx) or worse cyanides were all discussed. </div><div><br /></div><div>The first issue the low flame speed means that ammonia by itself makes for a very poor <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1540748920306532">fuel it can easily be blown off a burner and be extinguished</a>. Here is what blow off looks like from a burner. This is a significant industrial problem for turbines i.e. you don't want the flame to blow off in your planes engine...</div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/KmyGR6mSPe0" width="320" youtube-src-id="KmyGR6mSPe0"></iframe></div><br /><div>To maintain stability you must run ammonia in a fuel rich condition that leads to slip of the toxic gas ammonia through the combustor which is not ideal (called ammonia slip).</div><div><br /></div><div>There are a couple of solutions to the low flame speed problem. The most widely studied at the symposium was the addition of <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1540748920302212">hydrogen gives a much nicer fuel with flame speeds approaching hydrocarbons</a>. The other option is to add some methane to improve the burning conditions. This could potentially form soot so a<a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1540748920301498"> nice study was conducted to look into the production of soot in an ammonia/methane flame</a>. With low mixing of ammonia into a methane flame much of the soot was removed which is a good sign.<a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1540748920306556"> Mixtures of ammonia, methane and hydrogen</a> were also considered. As was the <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1540748920304302">addition of biofuels</a>. However, this mixed fuel with a hydrocarbon still produces CO2 and therefore the hydrogen addition is preferable. </div><div><br /></div><div>The second issue is the pollutants produced. Basically at the high temperatures in the flame oxygen combines with nitrogen in the air (N2) or in with ammonia related species producing nitrous oxide (NOx). This is a toxic gas that can turn into acid rain in the environment or react with hydrocarbons in the air forming smog. It was clear that ammonia combustion produces a lot of nitrous oxide more than a hydrocarbon flame. <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1540748920304934">One study demonstrated the highly toxic compound hydrogen cyanide </a>could also be formed in parts per million concentration, which needs to be avoided at all cost. </div><div><br /></div><div>There was quite a lot of work <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1540748920305848">on the chemistry</a> of <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1540748920303680">ammonia combustion highlighting in particular the importance of the OH chemistry</a>. As well as considering the <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1540748920302881">impact of pressure</a> and <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1540748920304028">flame structure</a>.</div><div><br /></div><div>The most interesting idea was the use of MILD combustion methods to reduce the emission of NOx. MILD combustion is a highly efficient flame-less form of combustion that preheats the inlet air and fuel so they they homogeneously combust in the reactor. <a href="http://www.princeton.edu/~yju/2nd-near-limit-flames-workshop/presentations/Paul%20Medwel.pdf">It can increase efficiencies of furnaces by up to 30%.</a> It is a form of low-temperature combustion that was mentioned in the previous section. A video of a furnace switch to the MILD combustion mode can be seen here.</div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/FkVxz9jeDBM" width="320" youtube-src-id="FkVxz9jeDBM"></iframe></div><br /><div>For a real in-depth look at how MILD combustion works here is a section from a very informative lecture.</div><div><br /></div><div><div style="text-align: center;"><iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/4x5P6OR_6LA?start=10431" width="560"></iframe></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div></div><div><a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1540748920302236">At the symposium a cyclonic reactor running in a MILD combustion mode was demonstrated allowing for significant reductions of NOx with water addition.</a></div><div><br /></div><div>The conference was excellently put together, however, the online format did not capture the buzz that you have with an international conference with everyone in the same place and timezone. I also missed catching up with friends after the conference. Hopefully, the conference in two years will be in person.</div><p></p>Jacob Martinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13042491185977653368noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6172620873343846436.post-82947433681239226302021-02-02T01:09:00.008-08:002021-02-02T06:28:13.497-08:00Information overload in research<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh8UhCUVjB-I8LNlS8QxJUDEI3IAJCtwOjvWLuB2mQZRZKXj9J_2YspKtGdg_b5hWJTEufEU6yUYWB1AyWj5dyPLiW7QlnHIdqfNXgx1WR9rBVu1ULllk16h3lO5gqcYREkk5cjINFMxIor/s2048/pexels-pixabay-159751.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1365" data-original-width="2048" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh8UhCUVjB-I8LNlS8QxJUDEI3IAJCtwOjvWLuB2mQZRZKXj9J_2YspKtGdg_b5hWJTEufEU6yUYWB1AyWj5dyPLiW7QlnHIdqfNXgx1WR9rBVu1ULllk16h3lO5gqcYREkk5cjINFMxIor/w400-h266/pexels-pixabay-159751.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br /><p></p><p>In academia, knowledge is stored in a variety of locations. These traditionally include, books, journal articles, lectures, conference talks and abstracts. There are now a huge number of other locations to find knowledge including websites, YouTube videos, preprint servers, blogs, audiobooks, massive open online courses, lecture notes online, online repositories, GitHub and many more.</p><p>All of these sources can lead to information overload for academics. It can seem like a never-ending stream of new information. Another issue is that we are bombarded by so much other non-academic information that it's easy to get information fatigue and the thought of reading papers on top becomes challenging. </p><p>This blog post is about how I process the information I receive as an academic and how I reduce the amount of unnecessary information I'm exposed to so that I don't get overloaded. I will try to explain how I developed my own methods so that instead of trying to emulate them you can see the sort of decisions I made and decide for yourself how best to streamline your information channels. This is intended for those who are in research but I am sure some of the insights will be applicable for those in other information-heavy jobs.</p><h2 style="text-align: left;">Why do I prioritise reading the literature?</h2><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div>Although it can be a lot of work, I do prioritise reading the literature from my field. I personally enjoy this, which helps me stay motivated to keep up to date with new publications. Do you get a buzz out of finding out new information? While it can be difficult to dedicate time to this, the feeling of learning something important can motivate us to prioritise the literature. </div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjaWeFOcZjxZn_iRhL8Qx2lmiwFBTNSG-KEJx5Emj8Lfd8m36s1yovzBuooAJszboQZ5pbjfnqE1bZxbl2BthKYc_GREVjinXlhUkZWdbnNorTKLlT78xYv1pBWX_jyYaXjizGpNyiMOL6g/" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="390" data-original-width="420" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjaWeFOcZjxZn_iRhL8Qx2lmiwFBTNSG-KEJx5Emj8Lfd8m36s1yovzBuooAJszboQZ5pbjfnqE1bZxbl2BthKYc_GREVjinXlhUkZWdbnNorTKLlT78xYv1pBWX_jyYaXjizGpNyiMOL6g/" width="258" /></a></div></div><div><br /></div><div>Another significant reason I prioritise reading literature is that I am lazy and the thought of starting a project, writing it into a paper and then realising that someone else has done the exact same thing drives a lot of my reading. There is too much reinvention of the wheel in research. In some ways, it is helpful to be able to demonstrate reproducibility and rarely will two people do exactly the same work. However, more often than not we repeat experiments to death and waste our time and others' resources.</div><div><br /></div><div>There is a trap that if we see something attempted in literature and it does not yield the result we were expecting, we can think that it is not worth trying ourselves. Basically, we get stuck in ways of thinking that we never challenge. The antidote for this, I think, is reading more widely, especially looking just outside the boundaries of your field. I find if I do this instead of limiting my views they are broadened. Another antidote is not taking any one piece of information too seriously but waiting to see whether data is reproduced in different configurations. This is important for both positive and negative hypotheses. So a healthy bit of skepticism is needed and willingness to try something out you think might work.</div><div><br /></div><div>Finally, reading the literature gives me lots of ideas. You may be familiar with the post-academic conference feeling of having so many ideas. A good conference exposes you to a wide range of interesting insights that broaden your view of the field and other topics. If you are constantly reading the literature then you will do better research and be able to understand how it fits more broadly into the literature, which will help to get your insights seen by a wider audience. </div><div><br /></div><div><h2>Where to start?</h2><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgA7mbPcqhvV3Dr5Uq__OJBq8jNCn7_2t2c7A_5-E9sNr0Eo-o5jXNjTV98urrEq-uBO7Nida8y-2yVLQuHlj5F9fw56yZ-2p4dkiJQCkutJzNWR03LSI3Q5oqjyBlZ1eY3qfoss2gCKoM_/" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="834" data-original-width="421" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgA7mbPcqhvV3Dr5Uq__OJBq8jNCn7_2t2c7A_5-E9sNr0Eo-o5jXNjTV98urrEq-uBO7Nida8y-2yVLQuHlj5F9fw56yZ-2p4dkiJQCkutJzNWR03LSI3Q5oqjyBlZ1eY3qfoss2gCKoM_/w202-h400/image.png" width="202" /></a></div><br />When you approach a new topic it is often hard to know where to start with the literature. Here are some tips I have found useful: </div><div><ul><li>Textbooks are a good place to start. Head to the library and pick up some books. Find an approach to the topic that fits with your background and carefully read that book, make notes, do some of the examples. I quite like trying to plot some of the figures in the book in python to really prove to myself that I have understood the concepts.</li><li>Talk to people from that field. Look online - are there any free conferences/courses you can attend. Are there any workshops with recorded lectures. Can you attend a course in the department? You can usually sit at the back and audit the course. Attending a conference in person is very helpful for getting to know the cutting-edge research.</li><li>Find out who are the leading groups in the field. Look at their website. See if they have any YouTube lectures. Which conferences do they attend? What have they published recently? How do they talk about other groups' work? </li><li>Theses are often very good places to start. Read theses written in your group or department. Most theses are available electronically on university library websites.</li><li>Can you find a review paper on the topic or related topics? Review papers can be a bit hit-and-miss. There are roughly two types of review papers: those written by junior academics with minimal input from a senior academic and those that are written with input from someone who has spent their whole career in the field. It is pretty easy to tell. Another good sign is if many senior academics have come together to author a review. I will only read the really good reviews in full. As with the textbooks make notes and try to reproduce the information. Review articles are very good for finding the big questions in the field and setting future research directions.</li><li>Don't just stop with Google Scholar. <a href="https://academic.microsoft.com/">Microsoft has a search engine</a>, <a href="https://core.ac.uk/">CORE is for open source papers</a>, <a href="https://www.science.gov/">US federal science </a>has lots of reports and presentations that you will not find on google, <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov">PubMed</a> is good for biology and medicine, <a href="https://www.semanticscholar.org">Semantic Scholar</a> is designed to get the most important papers in a field, <a href="https://www.jstor.org/">JSTOR is also good for older sources</a>. </li><li>Your library will have a nice search engine that you should look at also. Libraries have great resources like interlibrary loans that let you get some of the most recent books into your library to read for a small fee. Libraries will also have courses on research, referencing and software to use and I thoroughly recommend getting this training. </li><li>The <a href="https://openlibrary.org/">internetarchive</a> is a great resource with many older books available online for free. They also host the waybackmachine which can show you websites from a previous time. This can be very helpful for tracking down academics that have since retired or moved to other institutes.</li><li>Look at the references in the introduction of journal papers. In many fields, there will be a set of papers that are always cited. These are usually quite a good place to start. What are the big questions in this field at the moment and what are the seminal papers? </li><li>Some education journals are very helpful at explaining complex topics with simple examples that have been developed with students in mind. Sometimes I find helpful insights from these education journals like Journal of Chemical Education.</li><li>I usually consider whether the journal has a good community reviewing the content. Often an unrelated journal will let a paper be published that a more domain-specific journal would have allowed. I take this into account when I read a paper. You can also look at how people cite and talk about a paper to see how it is viewed in the community. Conferences are also good at seeing how results and values are interpreted. It is important to remember that the peer review process is not foolproof yet the scientific community goes to a lot of effort to make sure rigorous work is done. I recommend following some of the scandals around paper mills and lack of replication as a warning of what not to do.</li></ul><div>Here is a <a href="https://www.sciencemag.org/careers/2016/01/how-read-scientific-paper">funny article on how to read scientific papers</a> and this <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-to-read-and-learn-from-scientific-literature-even-if-youre-not-an-expert-105061">article in The Conversation is quite good</a> as well. </div></div></div><h2 style="text-align: left;">Information pipelines</h2><div>One helpful approach is thinking about your information flows. This will help with the consolidation and archiving of information into searchable content. Below is a drawing of my information flows. </div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg9B4gLU5C3Ls1x-oQrGEfCE7wl2MU0unuAQHj0xtJgxsoR9uAtdVxOqNxJ2Q_iUFR96CkYqRKk4kyc0HnDx-JnqH7howrMrZ5YBHzr225i_bWJMOvEOGVgHbwITsLDygsHIL7_P-twIHjq/s1161/information_flow.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="443" data-original-width="1161" height="244" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg9B4gLU5C3Ls1x-oQrGEfCE7wl2MU0unuAQHj0xtJgxsoR9uAtdVxOqNxJ2Q_iUFR96CkYqRKk4kyc0HnDx-JnqH7howrMrZ5YBHzr225i_bWJMOvEOGVgHbwITsLDygsHIL7_P-twIHjq/w640-h244/information_flow.png" width="640" /></a></div><br /><div>I make use of an RSS feed server called feedly.com to get the titles and abstracts of papers and blogs that I can then decide whether I want to read. I also get Google Scholar alerts for specific keywords and authors that I am following. </div><div><br /></div><div>For all of the papers I want to read I will download their PDF into a folder on Dropbox. From there Mendeley automatically searches through the document and extracts the bibliography information. I also hand prepare a bibtex file when I am writing papers, in the typesetting software LaTeX. For LaTeX I use Overleaf, an online LaTeXserver that lets you collaborate on papers together with others. I used to have a folder system to sort papers but I found this unhelpful. </div><div><br /></div><div>There is lots of information that does not fit into the category of easily downloadable, for example websites and YouTube lectures. For these examples I have a Google document written like a journal entry. I always start the new day at the top of the Google document and then add in the URL and perhaps a picture into the document with some notes. This acts as my online lab book. </div><div><br /></div><div>For more intense activities such as the writing of a review paper, I will make use of a Google slide. This allows me to include references to papers through a URL to the paper online. This allows for a better aggregation of figures and charts that are difficult in a normal document. I also find the slides easier to move around when trying to sort out the order of the review narrative. </div><div><br /></div><div>Another information pipeline that I find very helpful is following the papers that are referenced in a paper I enjoyed reading. What papers do they cite and value? I often like to check whether the referenced paper really says what the authors are claiming. Are they overstepping its claims to support their hypothesis? I find it helpful to talk to others about what they thought about a paper and what shortcomings they could see.</div><div><br /></div><div>I have tried many different software packages and options such as Evernote, Word documents, hand writing out notes and Microsoft OneNote. The important thing is to find a set of tools that you want to use and avoid overcomplicating things. The use of online software like Google docs and Dropbox greatly simplified my information flows as I could access them from anywhere.</div><div><br /></div><div>It is important to regularly reassess this information flow. How resilient is it? I recently had my iPad stolen at an airport. All of my notes were saved automatically to Dropbox, however, my handwritten notes on my iPad were lost. After this, I set up automatic archiving of my handwritten notes through the Notability app. Another question to ask is how many times do you deal with the same piece of information without actually reading it? Can you reduce this by automating or simplifying your process? </div><h2 style="text-align: left;">Reducing distractions and removing barriers</h2><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg4A_-cqp_xuSKAcgc25aBtzUkwvbaQsFEeuK-ZYYWR8Hdu7Pd0dc7xgH9d-L6W3gxtvHTi18mGV123DRGOPKFdhBtuYwnX8ZNDcF5wOOwffx25WE0zh0RdaopXjD_ze-jHU5u0CMqGUgCk/" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="416" data-original-width="750" height="177" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg4A_-cqp_xuSKAcgc25aBtzUkwvbaQsFEeuK-ZYYWR8Hdu7Pd0dc7xgH9d-L6W3gxtvHTi18mGV123DRGOPKFdhBtuYwnX8ZNDcF5wOOwffx25WE0zh0RdaopXjD_ze-jHU5u0CMqGUgCk/" width="320" /></a></div><div><br /></div><div>Reading and processing information is hard. I find myself getting distracted or not being able to start because it is hard to start. Here are some tips I use: </div><div><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>Get a website blocker on your computer. I use the Chrome plugin BlockSite. Add your social media and news sites. Without blocking software I get nothing done. To keep social media separate I recommend software that can aggregate all of your social media channels such as Rambox. This keeps your emails and family Whatsapp group out of your work and also helps you not to miss anything. I have do not disturb enabled on my phone during the day so that I am not distracted by emails, messages, etc. I have also culled most social media apps from my phone. </li><li>Use a timekeeping approach to focus and take regular breaks. The approach I use is the Pomodoro technique with 25 minutes of focused work with a 5 minute break to follow. This helps to avoid decision paralysis where you have too many things to read/do. I find that writing down a task and doing it for 25 minutes without distractions helps me to get started. I use the website <a href="https://pomodoro-tracker.com/">Pomodoro</a>. I also only check my emails and news during my break. </li><li>Use the text-to-speech add-ons in Chrome or on the iPad to read out the paper for you. I find this helps me when I am feeling lazy. Often after having it read out to me for a few minutes I can concentrate enough to finish reading it without highlighting a paragraph and having it read out.</li><li>Read things on a tablet or a e-reader. Reading in a comfortable chair with a tablet is more attractive than reading on my laptop screen. Using the iPad with the pen input also allows quick annotation. </li><li>Get together with friends to read things e.g. journal clubs. This forces you to read the paper and process it by explaining it to others. </li><li>If you have an idea during reading a paper write it down and then carry on reading. </li><li>See if your university allows you to use a VPN. This can sometimes avoid having to log in to download the paper for every single paper. This speeds up the process with academic papers.</li><li>If I cannot access a paper, I usually head to ResearchGate and see if they have uploaded a preprint. Sometimes the university library will require the authors to archive their paper preprint. If all else fails I will email the corresponding author. I have yet to have someone reject my request. </li><li>I regularly trim the RSS feeds that are not useful and unneeded.</li></ul></div><h2 style="text-align: left;">Particular insights for the chemical sciences</h2><div>As this is my area of expertise I thought I would explain some tips for reviewing the literature within the physical chemistry subfield of chemical sciences.</div><div><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>Don't know the name of a molecule? <a href="https://www.chemspider.com/StructureSearch.aspx">Use the chemspider structure search</a>. Alternatively, you can build the molecule in MarvinSketch or Avogadro and view molecule properties or search for IUPAC name. </li><li>There are often many names for the same molecule so try them all in search engines. Often different fields will use different naming e.g. nanographenes, pericondensed aromatics, carbon flakes etc. Also try reaction classes or general naming strategies for the structures you are interested in e.g. aromatic, aliphatic, arynes etc.</li><li>There are a number of databases of chemical information that are worth checking out (see the review of<a href="https://como.ceb.cam.ac.uk/media/preprints/c4e-preprint-235.pdf"> these from my colleague Angiras Menon</a>). Some of my favourites are PubChem, https://cccbdb.nist.gov/, <a href="https://www.rcsb.org/">protein database</a> and Cambridge Crystallography Database.</li><li>Search for software on GitHub; there are lots of very helpful packages. Academic websites also include code that is free to use. </li><li>Many journals and governments require data associated with journal articles to be archived in open repositories. It is worth looking for input files or data before measuring/calculating it yourself. </li></ul></div><h2 style="text-align: left;">What about news and social media?</h2><div>I am undecided about the role of social media. I have found ResearchGate and LinkedIn most helpful for connecting me with researchers and research. However Twitter, Facebook and Instagram I have found more distracting. I know quite a few academics who share their new papers on Twitter and journals as well but I find the mix of work and personal uncomfortable.</div><div><br /></div><div>The news media is a little easier. I like catching up on the news. Often it can be helpful in understanding trends in government spending that will directly impact me as a researcher and it is important to be well rounded in my knowledge. I have tried to balance my news so as not to become polarised by it. I find <a href="https://www.poynter.org/fact-checking/media-literacy/2020/should-you-trust-media-bias-charts/">media bias charts</a> to be helpful in getting multiple perspectives on an issue. However, I have made it difficult to access news on my desktop computer as it is more distracting than helpful. </div><div><br /></div><div>For specific science news sites e.g. PhysOrg, ScienceDaily I will pull the RSS feed into Feedly to get articles that might be interesting. I also find Scientific American, National Geographic, Chemistry World, The Conversation, Education in Chemistry and C&EN to be good sources of general knowledge about science topics.</div><h2 style="text-align: left;">Information flow as a publisher of research</h2><div>As an academic, we are not just readers of information but we are also publishers and therefore there is another important aspect of considering how your research can be most effectively communicated. This means putting yourself in the shoes of a researcher interested in your topic and thinking about how to make your insights accessible. Journal articles are still considered the highest quality output that has been vetted by your academic community but after this, it is important to consider how you communicate that research through your groups website, talks, conferences, press releases etc. However, this is a conversation for another blog post. </div>Jacob Martinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13042491185977653368noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6172620873343846436.post-65693516375397862902020-11-13T23:34:00.010-08:002021-11-10T19:57:23.726-08:00A Middle Way: A Review of Physical + Chemical Pathways to Soot Inception<p style="text-align: left;">tl;dr <a href="https://como.ceb.cam.ac.uk/preprints/263/" target="_blank">Our new preprint "Carbonaceous nanoparticle formation in flames" </a><a href="https://como.ceb.cam.ac.uk/preprints/263/" target="_blank">is out</a><a href="https://como.ceb.cam.ac.uk/preprints/263/" target="_blank">.</a></p><p style="text-align: left;"><a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S036012852100054X">The paper is now published in Progress in Energy and Combustion Science</a></p><p style="text-align: center;"> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiYxHrDc4wr4jf4IhP5cEuxuWFk8RlXY_6CPaE7rSeSMPFuAp_Q-xhMafxqwqusiwhOm2cCpawZ8lLkiVsSPpK0aShP7X51rIV_oT5kcR2532wExaeRWHKN_bfHF_QfiFT5aDLDkbQgNQ-t/s1817/middle_way.png" style="text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1538" data-original-width="1817" height="339" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiYxHrDc4wr4jf4IhP5cEuxuWFk8RlXY_6CPaE7rSeSMPFuAp_Q-xhMafxqwqusiwhOm2cCpawZ8lLkiVsSPpK0aShP7X51rIV_oT5kcR2532wExaeRWHKN_bfHF_QfiFT5aDLDkbQgNQ-t/w400-h339/middle_way.png" width="400" /></a></p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p><p></p><p class="MsoNormal">A middle way can refer to many things. In common usage it
refers to a comprise between two positions. In philosophy or religion, it can
refer to a rejection of extremes as exemplified by Aristotle’s golden mean that
“every virue is a mean between two extremes, each of which is a vice”. In logic
it can refer to a fallacy - halfway between a lie and a truth is still a lie
and therefore some care is required in proposing such compromising positions.
In science it has been used for a variety of justifiable and unjustifiable
positions. One famous example being the middle way between physical scales and
another being a position we recently put forward for the formation of the
pollutant soot. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">In the influential paper “The middle way” published in the Proceedings
of the National Academy of Sciences of the USA in 2000, Laughlin <i>et al.</i>
discussed the challenge in probing the scale between the atomic and macroscopic
dimensions. In this mesoscopic region significant gaps exists in our
understanding of how atoms and molecules interact, organise and form complex
structures. This intermediate scale is too large to be measured by analytical
chemical approaches and too small to be approached from the macroscale. Examples
include protein folding, high temperature superconductors and disordered or
topologically frustrated materials.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Our recent study on the formation of the pollutant soot
illustrates the challenges probing the mesoscopic scale nicely. Figure 1 below
shows a schematic of the transformation of fuel molecules into the pollutant
soot. Only in the last 5 years have experimental techniques allowed for the
aromatic soot precursor molecules as well as the earliest nanoparticles to both
be directly imaged. Mass spectrometry has also allowed for the mass of the clustering
molecules to be measured during soot formation. However, the mechanism by which
these molecules cluster continues to baffle combustion scientists. The prize
sought is the ability to understanding and potentially halt the emission of
these toxic pollutants from internal combustion engines that damage almost
every organ in our bodies as well as contribute to climate change.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"></span></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjSe0kDHhkBWvGPKmayocG9qyofCvjYO0lEHEJ8eZOv-Xnc-jD22x42mgDp4Y7lWnl0axt6UHUFmXzETQNAIjfg5uTA4PC-i6sglYWnWEgUOFVEC43yOY234ORTtQGNqNUBTZTV-BIAzR5Z/s2048/Introdigure2.png" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1939" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjSe0kDHhkBWvGPKmayocG9qyofCvjYO0lEHEJ8eZOv-Xnc-jD22x42mgDp4Y7lWnl0axt6UHUFmXzETQNAIjfg5uTA4PC-i6sglYWnWEgUOFVEC43yOY234ORTtQGNqNUBTZTV-BIAzR5Z/w606-h640/Introdigure2.png" width="606" /></a></td></tr></tbody></table><p></p><p class="MsoNormal">Figure 1 – Schematic for the transformation of fuel into
soot inside a flame with insets showing the experimental results from which the
schematic is derived. High resolution atomic force microscopy (HRAFM)from
Commodo et al. 2019, Helium ion microscopy (HIM) from Schnek et al. 2013, high
resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM) from Martin et al. 2018 and
scanning electron microscopy (SEM) from Orion carbons. <o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">Our modelling efforts also struggle to traverse the molecule
to nanoparticle transition in soot formation. There are two main classes of
models that have been proposed for soot formation. The first is physical
nucleation where aromatic molecules grow until the intermolecular interactions
between the molecules allows them to stick together and condense. The second is
chemical inception where bonds form between the molecular systems. Only
recently have accurate computational approaches been developed to explore these
suggestions.<o:p></o:p></span></p><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
<p class="MsoNormal">Concerning physical nucleation, Prof. Kraft’s group worked
with the physical chemist Prof. Alston Misquitta (Queen Mary University) in the
2010s to accurately compute the intermolecular interactions between aromatic
species (using a symmetry adapted perturbation with a hybrid density functional
approach). From these results it was clear that the clustering species seen in
the flame are far too small to possess the significant intermolecular energies
required for physical nucleation mechanism. For my PhD, I explored electrical
enhancements to physical nucleation that arise from curved aromatic species
that possess a strong electric polarisation. While this electrical effect may
help explain the electrical control of soot formation it alone cannot justify a
nucleation mechanism either. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Concerning chemical inception, we recently undertook a
systematic study of the bonds that could form between reactive aromatic soot
precursors with Prof. Xiaoqing You’s group at Tsinghua University (made
possible by the CARES programme). This was only possible due to the direct
imaging of the reactive aromatics in 2019 (see Figure 1) and the recent
advances in density functional computational techniques optimised for radicals
(the meta hybrid GGA density functional method M06-2X). Figure 2 shows the
systematic comparison that was possible with such an approach for small
aromatic molecules. The green coloured grid squares correspond with thermally
stable species. Mr Angiras Menon was recently able to compute the rate at which
each of these crosslinks forms and compared them with the speed of soot
formation. We found that for these small species none of the crosslinks formed
sufficiently fast enough to explain the rapid clustering of molecules into soot
nanoparticles. <o:p></o:p></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj41D0dvazkdEzNug6aUQpxsCoXtbZPnufUzw1IrW_F_vY5jgN5zRWqktPQBGEKDBPw6IJQrdDzD4DJPDdtHDvJVqrVi_GBFSxTU2el3ZcHX5bJN2pTOpsrenZmIekEJMKK-IpThJJ1qXsY/s1530/Crosslink_structures.png" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="847" data-original-width="1530" height="221" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj41D0dvazkdEzNug6aUQpxsCoXtbZPnufUzw1IrW_F_vY5jgN5zRWqktPQBGEKDBPw6IJQrdDzD4DJPDdtHDvJVqrVi_GBFSxTU2el3ZcHX5bJN2pTOpsrenZmIekEJMKK-IpThJJ1qXsY/w400-h221/Crosslink_structures.png" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="text-align: left;">Figure 2 – Bond energy between various reactive aromatic soot precursors. Green indicates bonds that have enough thermal stability to be considered as important in flames.</span></td></tr></tbody></table><p class="MsoNormal">These detailed studies left us with the uncomfortable
conclusion that the two main routes proposed for soot formation were unable to
describe it. However, something did catch our attention crosslinks that allowed
the molecules to both bond and stack, see Figure 2 B), C) and D) sites. This
opened up another possibility that both physical and chemical mechanisms could
cooperatively contribute to soot formation. Upon exploring these possibilities,
we found that π-radicals on five membered rings, site B), formed highly
localised states that did not become deactivated as the molecule grew in size,
unlike their hexagonal ring equivalent, thereby remaining highly reactive. This
allowed for an additive contribution between the physical interactions and the
chemical bond only in these so-called aromatic rim-linked hydrocarbons (ARLH). Figure
3 shows the various mechanisms placed on a C/H versus molecular weight
schematic to show the middle way suggested.</p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiYxHrDc4wr4jf4IhP5cEuxuWFk8RlXY_6CPaE7rSeSMPFuAp_Q-xhMafxqwqusiwhOm2cCpawZ8lLkiVsSPpK0aShP7X51rIV_oT5kcR2532wExaeRWHKN_bfHF_QfiFT5aDLDkbQgNQ-t/s1817/middle_way.png" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1538" data-original-width="1817" height="339" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiYxHrDc4wr4jf4IhP5cEuxuWFk8RlXY_6CPaE7rSeSMPFuAp_Q-xhMafxqwqusiwhOm2cCpawZ8lLkiVsSPpK0aShP7X51rIV_oT5kcR2532wExaeRWHKN_bfHF_QfiFT5aDLDkbQgNQ-t/w400-h339/middle_way.png" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><p class="MsoNormal">Figure 3 – A middle way is schematically shown between physical and chemical mechanisms for soot formation. </p></td></tr></tbody></table><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal">As mentioned at the beginning of this article claims to
middle ways are poor arguments unless they can be justified. Currently, we have
shown that the addition of physical interactions and chemical bonding considerably
increases the thermodynamic stability of aromatic rim-linked hydrocarbons.
However, we have yet to show that such species can explain the rapid formation
of soot in the flame. This requires the collision efficiency between these
species and the concentration of the localised <span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">π-radicals on five-membered rings </span>to
be determined. Experiments are underway in the community to probe such species
and close this missing gap between the micro and mesoscale of soot formation. <o:p></o:p></p></span><p></p>Jacob Martinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13042491185977653368noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6172620873343846436.post-66955050752777107502020-11-08T19:35:00.130-08:002020-11-22T18:18:01.387-08:00Are any reactions fast enough for soot formation?<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQW3LI6qM7sKM2_9toAY4Z3NqDz_G7MvIov19AXQjpWSnpvfWcMbDn0KkSJpO7bMvA5gau5DuFoHmAun1pzga61-f-rC327OyWreSYqLjgDJE_QmnZFHwrWKOTP52Ds-juZOIA5OZ5d4oa/s667/jp0c07811_0010.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="242" data-original-width="667" height="145" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQW3LI6qM7sKM2_9toAY4Z3NqDz_G7MvIov19AXQjpWSnpvfWcMbDn0KkSJpO7bMvA5gau5DuFoHmAun1pzga61-f-rC327OyWreSYqLjgDJE_QmnZFHwrWKOTP52Ds-juZOIA5OZ5d4oa/w400-h145/jp0c07811_0010.jpeg" width="400" /></a></div><p>tl;dr In order to stop soot pollution, we need to know what reactions cause soot to form. We used the computer to work out how fast a variety of different reactions between soot molecules to see what reactions could be forming soot. Most of the reactions are too slow and suggest larger molecules are required. </p><p>Soot continues to be a problem for our climate by warming the atmosphere and melting ice. It also damages our bodies and causes significant health impacts. Some recent studies are coming out showing a strong relationship between polluted areas and places where the COVID-19 virus has taken many lives. For example in 66 administrative regions in Italy, Spain, France and Germany, 78% of COVID-19 deaths occurred in the five most polluted regions. (<a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0048969720321215">Ogen 2020</a>). With a recent study based in the USA finding that for every 1 microgram per cubic metre of PM2.5 soot pollution is associated with an 11% increase in COVID-19 death rate? (<a href="https://advances.sciencemag.org/content/6/45/eabd4049">Wu et al. Sci. Adv. 2020</a>). Frustratingly we are still unable to describe how soot forms at the molecular scale and this is inhibiting our ability to reduce the emission of these toxic pollutants.</p><p>In this paper, my coworkers and I were able to run a series of calculations on the computer to systematically compare the speed of many reactions thought to happen in the flame. We refined a table of bond energies that we proposed in a previous paper (<a href="https://nznano.blogspot.com/2019/11/new-reactive-aromatic-molecules-in-soot.html">see this blog post</a>) and by reordering the grid we found that we could categorise reactions into four main classes depending on the type of reactive site involved. </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiJ6BXkiKguGOTzz0YdBLq4PfL2r8xHRqK1kIlVjDdQVZoETXZa8-2DTvaIE4Pf-Hw7uM-L70mL6RolS2dvjf0mzUwkbv6stFnoWEyoNbMDC3Or_zUc9mnya6ipJFlHH0O8VNskbWvQZYLn/s1500/jp0c07811_0005.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="831" data-original-width="1500" height="354" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiJ6BXkiKguGOTzz0YdBLq4PfL2r8xHRqK1kIlVjDdQVZoETXZa8-2DTvaIE4Pf-Hw7uM-L70mL6RolS2dvjf0mzUwkbv6stFnoWEyoNbMDC3Or_zUc9mnya6ipJFlHH0O8VNskbWvQZYLn/w640-h354/jp0c07811_0005.jpeg" width="640" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div>Next we computed the reaction rate between each of these bonds using transition state theory. This involved computationally stretching the bonds until they were about to break and then determining the likelihood of a collision between these molecules leading to that transition state and ultimately the product with the bond formed. This allowed for a map of reaction rates versus temperature to be plotted and for the various reactions to be compared. </div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiizxskd4brlQvkOIHBf0qQPGdH_oF6EwoY3G_rESbzE_ApzMEYWV5fdZ9wyuR7iMUXpf6hbRmI_987NUNr6Nlj964yjYufo5jeulJFR5isICgFo-stFcpIXmJd37q2TgJ6scBUpBrot-5O/s942/Menon2020.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="693" data-original-width="942" height="294" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiizxskd4brlQvkOIHBf0qQPGdH_oF6EwoY3G_rESbzE_ApzMEYWV5fdZ9wyuR7iMUXpf6hbRmI_987NUNr6Nlj964yjYufo5jeulJFR5isICgFo-stFcpIXmJd37q2TgJ6scBUpBrot-5O/w400-h294/Menon2020.png" width="400" /></a></div><br /><div>Surprisingly we found that for all of the reactions between these small aromatics the reaction rates are too low to explain soot formation. This includes all of the mechanisms proposed to date involving small aromatic molecules found in flames. </div><div><br /></div><div>So we looked for various effects that could stabilise and enhance the reactions as the molecules enlarge. We found that for the localised pi-radicals the dispersion forces could enhance the equilibrium constant for dimerisation. It is unknown how this effect will impact the forward and backward rate constants but it is suggestive of an enhancement to the forward rate. </div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjOd6vr9jPJG32gaH53W0bWbToc8Mo55Fm4oYDTYh85cM_Kv0Y3XVnr2u4rf2aDfD47e4Fz0LYOA-Kww3RLABCdm15eR-DCCgVsjVHwzwedf0e4NqBpqDEaNiaF8V-zHZ5S4OgTfbWaWPvk/s1021/Menon2020_2.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="737" data-original-width="1021" height="289" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjOd6vr9jPJG32gaH53W0bWbToc8Mo55Fm4oYDTYh85cM_Kv0Y3XVnr2u4rf2aDfD47e4Fz0LYOA-Kww3RLABCdm15eR-DCCgVsjVHwzwedf0e4NqBpqDEaNiaF8V-zHZ5S4OgTfbWaWPvk/w400-h289/Menon2020_2.png" width="400" /></a></div><div>There is more work to be done to work out whether this stabilisation of the larger localised pi-radical dimers will speed up the reactions to explain soot formation and whether they are in high enough concentration. However, we think the main contribution of this paper is being able to rule out a large number of possible reactions that have previously been proposed for soot formation. <a href="https://nznano.blogspot.com/2020/11/a-middle-way-physical-chemical-pathways.html">This is discussed in more detail in the review article that is currently online as a preprint.</a> </div>Jacob Martinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13042491185977653368noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6172620873343846436.post-55884031698654481882020-09-30T09:30:00.008-07:002020-10-22T19:59:59.051-07:00Reflections on my PhD and what's next?<p>My PhD is officially conferred this month as well as <a href="https://news.curtin.edu.au/media-releases/international-researchers-awarded-forrest-fellowships-to-study-at-curtin/" target="_blank">my fellowship in Western Australia</a>. I wanted to take the opportunity to reflect on my experiences and talk about what's next. </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhR7ljDDUuQPcKABcED9NzXyZN4_BSR1G7UuKUkLvEVwd1Ni2hSBShQ0b0hcRjyPJNYqPDxzqm0BzlL6MusJ0Wm4s1S3lwiyB2Xsv5VqqRmm2StbJq1F7zBC84O0JB4a5ib2AFY2_60pli6/s1368/CREATE_Symposium.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="918" data-original-width="1368" height="343" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhR7ljDDUuQPcKABcED9NzXyZN4_BSR1G7UuKUkLvEVwd1Ni2hSBShQ0b0hcRjyPJNYqPDxzqm0BzlL6MusJ0Wm4s1S3lwiyB2Xsv5VqqRmm2StbJq1F7zBC84O0JB4a5ib2AFY2_60pli6/w512-h343/CREATE_Symposium.png" width="512" /></a></div><div><br /></div><h2 style="text-align: left;">Cambridge and the University Library</h2><div><br /></div><div>My PhD journey began in 2016 when I arrived in the UK and settled into Churchill College in Cambridge. The Chemical Engineering building was then on Pembroke Street, in the centre of the city (it's since moved out of the city to West Cambridge). I will always remember walking to the market to have lunch. The walk took us past the old Cavendish Laboratories and The Eagle pub where Watson and Crick first announced their discovery of DNA. I will also remember heading to Queens College over the Mathematical Bridge to have lunch in their dining hall followed by frisbee on the green next door. </div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgodO3fBxMywLUKzHBuiH3FsiuHRf8yGoINJ5HN98fTgBKUz5H2AB_4vWSzx7vgeURK7Pi8I0cw_af3KHRY5vXkZlFJcIXqNpmqv-nt8nJIyfPMmP_48S8aRwwTTBsREqqHskY1Q2LIwk7Q/s550/university-library.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="413" data-original-width="550" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgodO3fBxMywLUKzHBuiH3FsiuHRf8yGoINJ5HN98fTgBKUz5H2AB_4vWSzx7vgeURK7Pi8I0cw_af3KHRY5vXkZlFJcIXqNpmqv-nt8nJIyfPMmP_48S8aRwwTTBsREqqHskY1Q2LIwk7Q/s0/university-library.jpg" /></a></div><div><br /></div><div>The place that is most memorable for me, however, is the Cambridge University Library. This early 20th-century building was absolutely full to the brim with books. There was barely enough room to move past the shelves. You would often find me in the carbon materials science section this was on the left side of the tower in the photo above. There were narrow desks by the windows and a radiator for heating the building. I will always remember biking to the library in the cold of winter to sit next to the radiator while I pored over books. At the end of my PhD, I felt privileged to able to deposit my thesis in this magnificent library. </div><div><br /></div><h2 style="text-align: left;">Planning</h2><div><br /></div><div>I had planned out my PhD with great detail at the beginning of my first year, but new experiments performed in my and other groups soon redirected my research. This helped me understand my supervisor's reluctance to plan this kind of work too far in advance. I soon realised that my initial plans, while helpful for setting me off in the right direction, were not predictive of the final thesis I submitted. </div><div><br /></div><div>An example of this was a paper presented at the 37th International Symposium on Combustion in 2018 (<a href="https://nznano.blogspot.com/2018/08/37th-international-symposium-on.html" target="_blank">see my blog post on the event</a>). This revealed clear evidence for crosslinking between soot molecules. This led me to redirect my efforts into exploring the reactivity of soot molecules using computational approaches (<a href="https://nznano.blogspot.com/2019/11/new-reactive-aromatic-molecules-in-soot.html" target="_blank">see post on this</a>). I also worked directly with experimentalists in the group to find some of the first evidence of curved molecules in early soot particles and to see the impact of pentagon-containing fuels. </div><div><br /></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhvCzonoDMFHulZt7mwPJdkvRhyphenhyphenYU0w9KWzcxsrCqjotYfOf1d5Ato_DlYrYfbH_arobH9BVHMc-ywco6BOvMaRkd2C9Eqmaps9fmLfpN2G3GJMZQ-g0XKXwagbQHcCuu0fqcJ8BUneEEA7/s1304/NOTAFfirstyear.png" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="269" data-original-width="1304" height="106" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhvCzonoDMFHulZt7mwPJdkvRhyphenhyphenYU0w9KWzcxsrCqjotYfOf1d5Ato_DlYrYfbH_arobH9BVHMc-ywco6BOvMaRkd2C9Eqmaps9fmLfpN2G3GJMZQ-g0XKXwagbQHcCuu0fqcJ8BUneEEA7/w512-h106/NOTAFfirstyear.png" width="512" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The plan from my first-year report, which was not followed. <br /></td></tr></tbody></table><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><h2 style="text-align: left;">Travel</h2><div><br /></div><div>I had many opportunities to travel during my PhD for which I have to thank my supervisor, Prof. Kraft. </div><div><br /></div><div>In my first year I was able to attend the IChemE conference at Bath University and present work on gas molecules interacting with soot. This was a great opportunity to begin to understand the field of chemical engineering and the tools available. I was also able to attend the NanoTec16 conference at Trinity College Dublin, where I had the pleasure of meeting the late Professor Malcolm Heggie and hear him perform one of his famous songs at the conference dinner.</div><div><br /></div><div>In my second year, I attended the Carbon 2017 conference in Melbourne on my way back to visit my family in New Zealand. At this conference, I began a collaboration with the <a href="https://scieng.curtin.edu.au/research/carbon-group/" target="_blank">Carbon Group</a> at Curtin University that led to a letter being published in Physical Review Letters (and to my next research position). Another memorable event was the memorial for the late Professor Mildred Dresselhaus the "Queen of Carbon Science" who I did not meet but whom I have heard a lot about. <a href="https://nznano.blogspot.com/2017/08/carbon-conference-2017-and-queen-of.html" target="_blank">Read more in my post on the conference and Prof Dresselhaus</a>. </div><div><br /></div><div>In my third year, I attended the 37th International Symposium on Combustion 2018 in Ireland. Some of the most memorable moments from this conference were doing my first oral presentation at a scientific conference, the farewell dinner for my colleague Dr Maria Botero and seeing the first images of soot molecules presented. We managed to find a large Airbnb house very close to the conference where a group of us stayed. One night, we were challenged by a professor about whether curved molecules would invert in a flame and not be persistently polar. We went home early from the conference and a group of us managed to calculate the rate of inversion for a large curved aromatic molecule. This involved staying up late into the night and reprogramming software to include the many internal vibrations in these large molecules. To our delight we found it to be very slow - in fact only one flip every two years. We were then able to show this to the professor the next day and get some further critiques. This suggestion then lead to a nice paper and was a good example of the sort of fun challenges that come from a vibrant community. </div><div><br /></div><div>In my fourth year, I attended the Carbon 2019 conference in Kentucky, US with my colleague Angiras. On the way there, I had an opportunity to visit Prof. Green's group at MIT and Dr West's group at Northeastern. I also presented work at Penn State University, meeting many of the top carbon scientists in the field, which was kindly organised by Prof. Terrones' group. The kindness and generosity of these groups were overwhelming and I am sure much will come out of these meetings. At the Carbon conference, I was able to present four different talks - three of my own and one on behalf of a colleague. This was quite a lot to prepare for but I wanted to make sure I justified the travel. I was able to present the 3D graphene work for the first time and managed to 3D print some of the models of disordered carbons to pass around and discuss with people at the conference. There were some mixed reactions and some good discussions that came from the talks. I also very much appreciated the memorial for the pioneering carbon scientist Madame Oberlin (<a href="https://scieng.curtin.edu.au/research/carbon-group/" target="_blank">read more about her and the conference in this post</a>).</div><div><br /></div><div>After my first year in Cambridge UK, I spent the rest of my PhD programme at the University of Cambridge's Singapore centre (Cambridge CARES). This was an amazing opportunity to work with researchers at Asia's top universities, NUS and NTU. The CREATE programme, set up by Singapore's National Research Foundation, also invites other universities to set up centres and encouraged collaborations between these universities. This allowed me to participate in the Commonwealth Science Conference (<a href="https://nznano.blogspot.com/2017/07/my-week-at-2017-commonwealth-science.html" target="_blank">see blog post</a>), conferences with Shanghai Jiao Tong on biochar for carbon capture and a policy workshop with ETH Zurich.</div><div><br /></div><div>The Singapore experience also helped me to see the challenges facing the world. In Cambridge, it is easy to think that many of the problems will be solved with some new technology and everyone getting on a bike or using more public transport. Being in Singapore where rising water, increasing temperatures and more erratic weather pose an existential crisis, this is not as easy to brush aside. Singapore is the busiest port in the world and there are endless ships in the harbour, belching out soot. Singapore also hosts the largest oil refinery in Southeast Asia. It brought home to me the significant challenges we face in supplying clean energy to a world reluctant to wean itself off fossil fuels and has lead me to the next project I am undertaking. </div><div><br /></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-tYg9q8OpBlBAfPWMzyOEMBldNxSRhBIdtC-WGG34IVGFCUJmnovxvFf_W5SGQJxHNJAUwCQ4fQAy_urBmqn4QvhNnuU91FMriSYeIJiw1FG1SB5HrQYP_f5wXnki4jT1h4exmj16Vcr3/s1600/Sinagporeharbour.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1200" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-tYg9q8OpBlBAfPWMzyOEMBldNxSRhBIdtC-WGG34IVGFCUJmnovxvFf_W5SGQJxHNJAUwCQ4fQAy_urBmqn4QvhNnuU91FMriSYeIJiw1FG1SB5HrQYP_f5wXnki4jT1h4exmj16Vcr3/w480-h640/Sinagporeharbour.jpg" title="@Chung Kevin" width="480" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">@Chung Kevin <a href="https://pxhere.com/en/photo/1609054">https://pxhere.com/en/photo/1609054</a></td></tr></tbody></table><div><div><br /></div><div>Travelling also meant my wife and I were present for many significant events. We were in the UK for the vote concerning EU membership (and were even able to vote due to being Commonwealth citizens). We were also able to take a ferry over the channel to help refugees in Calais. In Singapore, we were on the street by chance when Kim Jong Un drove past to his meeting with President Trump. It was hard to know how to respond to being so close to a dictator and everyone in the crowd was eerily silent. We were also in New Zealand and Singapore during the coronavirus pandemic. With such restrictions on travel at the moment, we feel fortunate to have been able to travel as much as we did.</div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgNtlHQT6HRtUTfCSV70ZiHE4hp6YkS95j0ENtrXUKd2NrgjcZLmSxjs88tnFmTAHFZh42zJ0_NXqq-1nr17tP8GanY0fyZCprnqdFdiWExvPth220MvTLFS3vhdiie5QguFskRKgSaYwGu/s2048/KimJungUn.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1536" data-original-width="2048" height="384" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgNtlHQT6HRtUTfCSV70ZiHE4hp6YkS95j0ENtrXUKd2NrgjcZLmSxjs88tnFmTAHFZh42zJ0_NXqq-1nr17tP8GanY0fyZCprnqdFdiWExvPth220MvTLFS3vhdiie5QguFskRKgSaYwGu/w512-h384/KimJungUn.jpg" width="512" /></a></div><br /><div><br /></div></div><h2 style="text-align: left;">Collaborations</h2><div><br /></div><div>At the beginning of my time in Cambridge I mentioned in a blog post that there was less collaboration than I thought there was going to be (<a href="https://nznano.blogspot.com/2016/08/starting-phd-in-cambridge.html">link to post</a>). I think I was wrong about that. What I realised is that to complete a project required extreme focus and during the generation of results there was little need for collaboration. However, when it came to interpreting the results, extending them and deciding on the next steps I saw the intense collaboration and guidance that took place. </div><div><br /></div><div>Working closely with postdocs was highly valuable. My first 1st author paper from my PhD would not have been half as good if not for the careful guidance of Dr Radomir Slavchov. In subsequent work, I saw the importance of this guidance at critical points in my PhD from postdocs and my supervisor. Guidance from others in Cambridge was also invaluable, for example Dr Alan Hayhurst, Dr David Farrien-Jimenez, Dr David Wales, Dr Caterina Ducati, Dr Alston Misquitta and Dr Clive Wells.</div><div><br /></div><div>Collaborations with international groups also provided new directions and considerable energy. Dr Pascazio visited for a month during her PhD in Italy and over that time produced the main results for the hardness studies that were published recently. She is now a postdoc in the group and we are working closely together on a number of projects. Dr Dingyu Hou also visited for a year during her PhD at Tsinghua University. Her recent computational calibrations of various methods were critical for the <a href="https://nznano.blogspot.com/2019/11/new-reactive-aromatic-molecules-in-soot.html" target="_blank">paper on reactive crosslinks</a>. </div><div><br /></div><div>Working with Laura, Dingyu, Angiras, Gustavo, Kimberly, Chung and others in the CoMo group led to some great insights into soot formation and I have to thank them all. </div><div><br /></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi80R_dRQPZl_8r_Nn9uM6tgBaxnW3Quo_70fg4R77YUgFoHZ1P3FsRYIuNZLzWuLgSpZ5OeeIHPsEK675BJnAVRb4SgjeanrU6wEaqTy9PFmAPZtMrfrQ3lnOjhG9ymMvBZURmVFo7CmzN/s1600/37thISOCgroupphoto.jpeg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi80R_dRQPZl_8r_Nn9uM6tgBaxnW3Quo_70fg4R77YUgFoHZ1P3FsRYIuNZLzWuLgSpZ5OeeIHPsEK675BJnAVRb4SgjeanrU6wEaqTy9PFmAPZtMrfrQ3lnOjhG9ymMvBZURmVFo7CmzN/s640/37thISOCgroupphoto.jpeg" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">CoMo Group and collaborators at the combustion symposium 2018<br /><br /></td></tr></tbody></table><h2 style="text-align: left;">Challenges</h2><div><br /></div><div><div>Collaborations are challenging in research - on the one hand, groups have a friendly competition that drives the field forward. However, this does not encourage collaborations and significant trust must be established to achieve productive collaborations. Unfortunately, during my PhD there were times when groups broke our trust and made research more difficult. Examples included trying to block papers being published and having work copied. As a PhD student, this was quite disheartening. However, I learned that you have to keep doing good work and you will be rewarded eventually. </div><div><br /></div><div>Another challenge that is not unique to my PhD was arranging visas for me and my wife. I was surprised to learn that spouses of PhD students in Singapore are not eligible to apply for a dependent's visa. After a few months of unsuccessful job searching, my wife travelled back to New Zealand for three months while we sorted out a different kind of visa. My research organisation was very helpful and in the end my wife was able to find a job and live in Singapore with me. However, it was frustrating that it's assumed that anyone doing a PhD does not have a family. </div></div><div><br /></div><div>The final challenge surprised me and that was mental health. Throughout the PhD there were some times when I did not cope as well as I would have hoped. Through support from my friends, family, my very supportive wife and visiting a counselor I managed through the stress. This taught me the struggles that many PhD students face and that I am not invincible. </div><div><br /></div><div>Finally, coronavirus was the final challenge in my PhD. Though I am particularly fortunate in having done most of my work computationally there were some aspects I missed out on due to the coronavirus. I was unable to have an in-person oral examination for my PhD defense. This was a shame as I wanted to be physically present to defend my thesis and then to celebrate with my colleagues afterward. It would have also been nice to hand in my final thesis and to actually see it. However, there were some positives to having a virtual defense. We could go through the literature online and look through the thesis on my computer in a way I do not think we could have done in person. However, if I could do it again it would be nice to have done it in person and to have shaken my examiners' hands afterward. Finally, I graduated in absentia and do not know when I will be able to travel to the UK to attend a formal ceremony. This is something to look forward to as many of my friends will be graduating with me and will be a signal that the world has moved back to some sort of normalcy.</div><div><br /></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><img height="382" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjCBtTG26FVF6PUfiqE6rQvMXqjF7m1-aFakc9ygQw6Ap3oGE0gKhgswx4qAuqSy6uFVH9RVO-uj8fBD4lBUdPSvoTYzeYQh_RfnRpDdl6aPhm7yVk3w4C5DqY8zE7eN3fmt8f4rRX84fso/w512-h382/DefendingThesis.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" width="512" /></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Defending my PhD in lockdown<br /></td></tr></tbody></table><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><h2 style="text-align: left;">What's next? - Hydrogen in Perth</h2><div><br /></div><div>I have accepted a <a href="https://www.forrestresearch.org.au/" target="_blank">Forrest Fellowship in Perth</a> to undertake research in the area of hydrogen storage. This fellowship is based at Forrest Hall, which brings together PhD students and Fellows from around the world to work in Western Australia. The fellowship funds my research for three years and allows me to mentor the PhD students at Forrest Hall. </div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgfQP4Ee3w_8H3uDt9Mo5tKT0R22f5oPIpX9MLzl46WQkHdujza-2DAtwwaY0JErSzt91BHPm9lJt7DQT2LnC-gsQW_J9s98FKXIq-0G-sHzx-DHQbL9ZPPIvGZq4tWOVkMRO_m96F2Wu2K/s1440/ForrestHall.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1060" data-original-width="1440" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgfQP4Ee3w_8H3uDt9Mo5tKT0R22f5oPIpX9MLzl46WQkHdujza-2DAtwwaY0JErSzt91BHPm9lJt7DQT2LnC-gsQW_J9s98FKXIq-0G-sHzx-DHQbL9ZPPIvGZq4tWOVkMRO_m96F2Wu2K/s640/ForrestHall.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><p style="text-align: left;">The research I will be undertaking will bring together two areas of impact that I care deeply about: decarbonisation and the science of carbon nanomaterials. The goal is to make a 'sponge' for hydrogen out of a novel material called 3D graphene. This will allow for the storage and transport of green hydrogen produced from solar or wind power. </p><p style="text-align: left;">What makes the project so exciting is the groups I will be working with in the Physics department at Curtin University. The Carbon Group, headed by Dr Nigel Marks and Dr. Irene Suarez-Martinez, has developed some of the most accurate descriptions of carbon materials to date and I have collaborated with them previously (<a href="http://nznano.blogspot.com/2019/08/unraveling-complex-tangle-of-atoms-in.html" target="_blank">read more in this blog post</a>). The second group is the Hydrogen Storage Research Group headed by Prof. Craig Buckley, a world leader in hydrogen storage materials. Bringing these two world-leading groups together, the aim is to push carbon materials to hydrogen storage capacities not yet achieved.</p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj8J0mY_aDicITzkKa7ennZTnfCdxqRo19wOb_HGdxvW_KssxRu7KsVeti1YQdSArhYzVpBZ6TOSTTZdJ0aBoan2sXw8mtxE9HOYXGCnTMyfzN4bcE-fc5_9XyRlOXRYxlZCMuaEbF4e3BP/s875/CurtinGroups.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="875" data-original-width="820" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj8J0mY_aDicITzkKa7ennZTnfCdxqRo19wOb_HGdxvW_KssxRu7KsVeti1YQdSArhYzVpBZ6TOSTTZdJ0aBoan2sXw8mtxE9HOYXGCnTMyfzN4bcE-fc5_9XyRlOXRYxlZCMuaEbF4e3BP/s640/CurtinGroups.png" /></a></div><br /><div><br /></div>Jacob Martinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13042491185977653368noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6172620873343846436.post-40981371194686984082020-09-08T20:10:00.001-07:002020-09-08T20:25:38.099-07:00Combustion webinar - Carbonaceous nanoparticle formation in flames<p>At the end of last month Prof. Kraft, my PhD supervisor, presented the recent work on soot formation from the Computational Modelling group. I helped plan out the talk with colleagues and it is a very nice overview of the research we have been doing recently on the formation of soot. It is definitely for a more technical audience so be warned. For a less technical description, <a href="http://nznano.blogspot.com/2020/06/the-chemical-history-of-candle-and.html" target="_blank">I recommend the webinar I recently gave at Churchill College</a>. </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="350" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/GhSHCnBlEzs" width="550" youtube-src-id="GhSHCnBlEzs"></iframe></div><br /><p></p>Jacob Martinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13042491185977653368noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6172620873343846436.post-51465401243257540322020-07-08T20:22:00.003-07:002020-09-17T00:23:49.708-07:00Are new reactive molecules present in flames?<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgLI2Jwu4HPoVbmNs-AlDsaADep4Jphfuxv_IMns6yIy0Gi3UgsV0D2ViwE6Rl2yeBGruPeuPyG7Wlo3f1f87hdOpdIoV9oOvvcC5znkZhlXUK3hsQNjy4oDDMAX4zXOrT-98mwHYYTxjvJ/s1324/localised_pi_rad.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="783" data-original-width="1324" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgLI2Jwu4HPoVbmNs-AlDsaADep4Jphfuxv_IMns6yIy0Gi3UgsV0D2ViwE6Rl2yeBGruPeuPyG7Wlo3f1f87hdOpdIoV9oOvvcC5znkZhlXUK3hsQNjy4oDDMAX4zXOrT-98mwHYYTxjvJ/s320/localised_pi_rad.png" width="320" /></a></div>tl;dr<div>Which reactive molecules lead to the formation of soot? Recently we showed that adding hydrogen to the edges of soot molecules makes the edges reactive. In this paper, we showed that these sites are very common in flames, making them likely to be important for soot formation.<div><div><br /></div><div><a href="http://nznano.blogspot.com/2019/11/new-reactive-aromatic-molecules-in-soot.html">In my previous blog post,</a> I talked about our systematic comparison of possible crosslinks between reactive aromatic molecules that had <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1540748918302839">recently been detected using atomic force microscopy</a>. This gave the bond energies and allowed us to work out which bonds could be stable at flame temperature. It showed that adding hydrogen to a pentagonal ring gives a reactive localised π-radical that allows crosslinking and stacking. </div><div><br /></div><div><a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.proci.2020.07.042" target="_blank">In our recent paper that just got accepted in the Proceedings of the Combustion Institute,</a> "Reactive localised π-radicals on rim-based pentagonal rings: properties and concentration in flames" (<a href="https://como.ceb.cam.ac.uk/media/preprints/c4e-preprint-251.pdf">see preprint here</a>), we showed that these reactive sites are present in the flame in significant concentrations. </div><div><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="457" data-original-width="1329" height="138" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjdE8LI8bd44xRsabTyMEvXujk0TZfg4tQ534FM_wDRQHOZqQNxej3ydWaOr-6GpzmjYjFcQJT9s-UQ03NRWL8C6uhYcbQBXwJhoGK-Xj7w4PtE_Dz50sbeZvWBCCPq0Fp2phQaKxwdhias/w400-h138/TOC_PROCI.png" width="400" /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div>To show what we mean by localisation the electron's spin density is shown below. The spin density shows where the reactive electron is likely to be able to form a bond with higher values indicating higher reactivity. We find two classes of π-radicals, those that 1) delocalise in 6-membered ring aromatic molecules and 2) reactive localised π-radical for pentagonal rings or methylene (<span face="helvetica, arial, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #353535; font-size: 13px;">–</span>CH2) that does not delocalise across the molecule. </div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEihc218MjARtJ01pQ4bQnAiE9_KKQAqZL04rwuynfTMmLbIjzArOt8CiTYhzvKV7LEKXsZfopmPvSVytVeTninWkvusJW8xAmzde6s6RvHs8rjJ2_iId7JL_9zcNU5KBgoPO64wSN_kyUyD/s892/localvdelocal.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="805" data-original-width="892" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEihc218MjARtJ01pQ4bQnAiE9_KKQAqZL04rwuynfTMmLbIjzArOt8CiTYhzvKV7LEKXsZfopmPvSVytVeTninWkvusJW8xAmzde6s6RvHs8rjJ2_iId7JL_9zcNU5KBgoPO64wSN_kyUyD/s320/localvdelocal.png" width="320" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div>While these reactive sites have been seen in molecules sampled from the flame it was not clear whether they also exist in the flame. For example, sampling these molecules from the flame could lead to hydrogen being added while the molecules in the flame could actually be lacking this hydrogen i.e. it could be an artifact of sampling. </div><div><br /></div><div>In order to determine if these species are present in the flame, we calculated all of the reactions that could allow hydrogen to be added or removed (thanks to Angiras and Dingyu for this). We could then consider, given the concentrations of hydrogen species in the flame, what sort of concentration we would expect. The reactions are shown below (those barrierless reactions do not make computing the rates very easy but it can be done with sufficient approximations).</div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0fR3kUhLI6KwYqGN6HtCETAcPMN179DVaSkMH1zBr23Xu15TsdI8ZS9wqGVK2KmxtNenXfve2Ydx3L5Z2wHcohTmdwR26oafAcke4n6iS-a9Z1Rn75q0_JNudP6qJGULR3oT8AT8xWTRB/s2408/Fig4_.PNG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1498" data-original-width="2408" height="318" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0fR3kUhLI6KwYqGN6HtCETAcPMN179DVaSkMH1zBr23Xu15TsdI8ZS9wqGVK2KmxtNenXfve2Ydx3L5Z2wHcohTmdwR26oafAcke4n6iS-a9Z1Rn75q0_JNudP6qJGULR3oT8AT8xWTRB/w512-h318/Fig4_.PNG" width="512" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div>We found that between 1-10% of the molecules contained a localised π-radical on their rim-based pentagon (for between 1400-1500K which are temperatures within a flame where soot begins to form). <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0010218019301440" target="_blank">Comparing these results with the HR-AFM structures recently imaged</a> we found a consistent frequency of rim-based pentagonal sites with a ratio of 27:12:4 for the unsaturated, saturated and partially saturated rim-based pentagonal rings, showing that these species are present in the flame in significant concentrations.</div><div><br /></div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgss2x7LSkQpxGCq4aJFYJXND5tldgh0lO0UgkhN0DBbHNHVx5VqZL4diSEYfcu_zPrHiKkT-ki19kuDnEM2NVMDYCEptTTgNgyPLDi90qSUT6JnU-j8ozRjIWqcFCquhpNq_nGJvO-Qaae/s1156/1400K.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="794" data-original-width="1156" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgss2x7LSkQpxGCq4aJFYJXND5tldgh0lO0UgkhN0DBbHNHVx5VqZL4diSEYfcu_zPrHiKkT-ki19kuDnEM2NVMDYCEptTTgNgyPLDi90qSUT6JnU-j8ozRjIWqcFCquhpNq_nGJvO-Qaae/s320/1400K.png" width="320" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div>We explored another exciting possibility - that multiple localised π-radicals are present on a single molecule. These species are also likely to be present in reasonable fractions (thanks to Gustavo and Angiras for developing the KMC simulations). Of the molecules that were recently imaged using HR-AFM, over half contained one rim-based pentagon and roughly a quarter had two rim-based pentagons suggesting that the formation of multiradicals in flames is likely.</div><div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-EVhMd-RxxXajsncRZDhyl-UikaYouX_BT2n4djBh-aM-LJj9Gpvosn8YncADWQkcQgdPx0KfXY_ChBpAmZm2K326AlhktHobfuFnc4eeEzzyBrm4mpZ6qwmXPtEFDMP_guMacTd5yqIC/s611/1%252C3-diacecoronyl.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="420" data-original-width="611" height="176" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-EVhMd-RxxXajsncRZDhyl-UikaYouX_BT2n4djBh-aM-LJj9Gpvosn8YncADWQkcQgdPx0KfXY_ChBpAmZm2K326AlhktHobfuFnc4eeEzzyBrm4mpZ6qwmXPtEFDMP_guMacTd5yqIC/w256-h176/1%252C3-diacecoronyl.png" width="256" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><b>These results suggest a new mechanism </b><b>for soot formation</b><b> where molecules with two or more localised π-radicals can polymerise (a rapid chain reaction) - what we called the aromatic rim-linked hydrocarbon mechanism (ARLH).</b></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><b><br /></b></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">There is a nice historical connection with New Zealander Prof. John Abrahamson, Canterbury University. During a sabbatical in the '70s at the Chemical Engineering department at the University of Cambridge (where I did my PhD) he wrote a paper proposing that the partial saturation of aromatic platelets forms soot (see structure below). I spoke with him recently during the lockdown in New Zealand about the HR-AFM results that show partial saturation of aromatic platelets and our results showing the localised π-radicals and he was happy to hear about the recent insights and how close he got in 1977.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgPj2Xkq9M5ncqCRZbah2I3EyXUZnNLbqVBv4ge_Vp_K9e429jKneiNNsrQRAHyo8quMRCtvVqKB2uzDW8yVZbcn13Roz7-K_SvleGy6r0xZhXGhHtI1FSMGaT5JiJBm-hiH69oTRmrs0Gk/s457/Abrahamson1977.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="319" data-original-width="457" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgPj2Xkq9M5ncqCRZbah2I3EyXUZnNLbqVBv4ge_Vp_K9e429jKneiNNsrQRAHyo8quMRCtvVqKB2uzDW8yVZbcn13Roz7-K_SvleGy6r0xZhXGhHtI1FSMGaT5JiJBm-hiH69oTRmrs0Gk/s320/Abrahamson1977.png" width="320" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div></div><div><a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/266323a0" target="_blank">Abrahamson, John. "Saturated platelets are new intermediates in hydrocarbon pyrolysis and carbon formation." Nature 266.24 (1977): 323-327.</a></div></div></div>Jacob Martinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13042491185977653368noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6172620873343846436.post-77240023108658431652020-06-10T17:59:00.003-07:002020-08-10T01:57:49.734-07:00The Chemical History of a Candle and Structure of an Ember - Webinar<div style="text-align: center;">
<iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Tej93NXLMC4" width="560"></iframe></div>
A webinar presented on the 6th of May 2020 for the Churchill College MCR, University of Cambridge, by Jacob W. Martin.<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Abstract: Grab a hot chocolate and get cosy for a fireside chat about a candle's flame and the embers left behind. Following the lead of Michael Faraday in his 1848 Royal Institution Christmas lectures, I will provide an updated chemical history of a candle - including some experiments for you to try at home. The fun doesn't end there - after a flame is extinguished, there's a wealth of discoveries to be made in the embers. Understanding the structure of these carbon materials begins with Rosalind Franklin, best-known for her work on DNA, and continues with simulations on a supercomputer. While there are still many unanswered questions around flames and carbon materials, these recent insights are enlightening and important for cleaning up our planet.</div>
Jacob Martinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13042491185977653368noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6172620873343846436.post-34290685326298585842020-04-23T20:08:00.001-07:002020-07-08T20:37:13.739-07:00Defending my PhD thesis in lockdown<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjCBtTG26FVF6PUfiqE6rQvMXqjF7m1-aFakc9ygQw6Ap3oGE0gKhgswx4qAuqSy6uFVH9RVO-uj8fBD4lBUdPSvoTYzeYQh_RfnRpDdl6aPhm7yVk3w4C5DqY8zE7eN3fmt8f4rRX84fso/s1600/DefendingThesis.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1194" data-original-width="1600" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjCBtTG26FVF6PUfiqE6rQvMXqjF7m1-aFakc9ygQw6Ap3oGE0gKhgswx4qAuqSy6uFVH9RVO-uj8fBD4lBUdPSvoTYzeYQh_RfnRpDdl6aPhm7yVk3w4C5DqY8zE7eN3fmt8f4rRX84fso/s640/DefendingThesis.jpg" width="550" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
Just passed the oral examination for my PhD! A bit strange doing it via video but thankfully no technical difficulties. Thanks to everyone for your support. In particular, to my supervisor Professor Markus Kraft, members of the CoMo Group. To my parents/inlaws Debbie Martin and Brent Martin as well as Perine and Laurie Renwick for their moral and financial support. Finally, of course, to Louise Martin, you really made this happen.</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
If you are interested in what my PhD was about I recently gave a webinar that goes through the main findings.</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/L8xM4a-aCv4" width="560"></iframe></div>
<br />
<br />Jacob Martinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13042491185977653368noreply@blogger.com0Christchurch, New Zealand-43.5320544 172.6362254-43.9005494 171.9907784 -43.1635594 173.2816724tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6172620873343846436.post-81484942816431320552019-11-20T07:32:00.002-08:002020-02-03T01:17:56.213-08:00Finding the links between reactive molecules involved in soot formationtl:dr<br />
We still don't know how soot forms and this is stopping us from eliminating it from internal combustion engines and furnaces. Recently, the molecules present, just before soot formation, were directly imaged. For the first time, many of the reactive edges could be seen. In this work, we computationally screened these reactive edges. We then considered all possible crosslinks between these edges. We discovered a new crosslink that allows the molecules to be stabilised by physically stacking on top of each other and then becoming bonded at their rim. This could help explain the rapid growth of soot particles in the flames and lead to new ways to clean up combusiton.<br />
<br />
<a href="https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acs.jpcc.9b07558">We have just published a new paper in the Journal of Physical Chemistry C</a>. Here is the infographic/abstract figure.<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<img alt="Figure 1" height="154" src="https://pubs.acs.org/na101/home/literatum/publisher/achs/journals/content/jpccck/2019/jpccck.2019.123.issue-43/acs.jpcc.9b07558/20191024/images/medium/jp9b07558_0006.gif" width="400" /></div>
<h2>
Reactive molecules involved in soot formation</h2>
<a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1540748918302839">At the 37<sup>th</sup> International Symposium on Combustion, an extraordinary paper was presented</a> directly imaging the molecules present just prior to soot formation. In the case of most of these aromatic molecules it is the edge that is the most reactive and over the years many suggestions have been made but never directly observed. So here they are.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhuWajJWUzx-wzC9EXk43uZwzn88ujoFpmK7jDaHmH2kWz0jLXVjKC5zpQ_f51EMMU4EB1YiUCcnCqoyAWpC4ckqMHTc62fJ2j12pCvsaMn6Z0cDO75-NkPAT_NKX8EziRfT9dlNaTViLUn/s1600/HRAFM2018.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="393" data-original-width="700" height="223" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhuWajJWUzx-wzC9EXk43uZwzn88ujoFpmK7jDaHmH2kWz0jLXVjKC5zpQ_f51EMMU4EB1YiUCcnCqoyAWpC4ckqMHTc62fJ2j12pCvsaMn6Z0cDO75-NkPAT_NKX8EziRfT9dlNaTViLUn/s400/HRAFM2018.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
Here are some of the most exciting findings. </div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
Firstly, some were found to be crosslinked suggesting reactions between radicals and molecules during soot formation. This contradicted a commonly held view that only physical interactions and not chemical reactions were involved. </div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg3UAu3p16IEn7ZK77Zf97hSrAgc1zrIR_oN9y0R9QvGQR4Fe9hCWb3zQ8KJDZwZ9MMnnUjYsildQs5g45AmJDhliPbx1Hx5Qbhijp3Oj6EDP9xtAfQjP7nIdrmWg9dUYxMDjFhzacfR_2t/s1600/Schulz2019.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="437" data-original-width="745" height="187" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg3UAu3p16IEn7ZK77Zf97hSrAgc1zrIR_oN9y0R9QvGQR4Fe9hCWb3zQ8KJDZwZ9MMnnUjYsildQs5g45AmJDhliPbx1Hx5Qbhijp3Oj6EDP9xtAfQjP7nIdrmWg9dUYxMDjFhzacfR_2t/s320/Schulz2019.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
Secondly, there were lots and lots of pentagonal rings. Out of the 49 molecules (above 4 rings) imaged 28 contained at least one pentagonal ring and 12 contained two pentagonal rings on their rim. Previously only six-membered rings were thought to be stable at flame temperature.</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
Thirdly, species very close to curvature integration were found. While curved 3D were unable to be imaged using this technique at present, the presence of the almost curved molecules was encouraging for our suggestion of curved aromatic molecules being important in soot formation as<a href="http://nznano.blogspot.com/2018/09/fingerprinting-soot-finding-curved.html"> I have previously discussed in this blog</a>. </div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
Finally, some of these pentagonal rings were found to have hydrogen added to them. This forms a completely new radical type (–CH=CH– + H → –C<sup><span style="background-color: #fefefb; color: #242729; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica neue" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 15px;">•</span></sup>HCH<sub>2</sub><span style="font-size: 13.3333px;">– </span> which we found formed a localised π-radical)<span style="font-size: 13.3333px;">.</span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhhftgeUYRE18KDaMXuOwpvvN8YqT2BersAMfKJWdDMjw-sel2DRUHkhvBZDTZYxz486z4_krxvAwGlS3vQ8UHOpzamu9VbcDrEObbctKdznxG9Lgkl3TQtvcKVOW5jszUYlDOKgsUYURhm/s1600/HR-AFM1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="385" data-original-width="795" height="154" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhhftgeUYRE18KDaMXuOwpvvN8YqT2BersAMfKJWdDMjw-sel2DRUHkhvBZDTZYxz486z4_krxvAwGlS3vQ8UHOpzamu9VbcDrEObbctKdznxG9Lgkl3TQtvcKVOW5jszUYlDOKgsUYURhm/s320/HR-AFM1.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
Given the wide range of interesting new molecules that were found we considered how their reactivities compared.</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
We made use of computational chemistry to compute the energy needed to remove an electron from a particular spot on the "surface" of the molecular surface (average local ionisation energy). This told us how likely it was to form a bond with another molecule and therefore allowed us to compare their reactivities.</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiIGUvvBQF9VZwbVJ9iWU2xlgcmdEMhKijmWa3-19iyUVyLg7HnSQWSlXFnscdHWTHCigiHPN6ZP01vrIQg5FK5Np1_zm1HZ8aGou1TMS-ex4zYohDH02ODeBVt08qk40xBbd0JwdzR7vNC/s1600/LIP_arrowsHRsimple.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1143" data-original-width="1600" height="456" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiIGUvvBQF9VZwbVJ9iWU2xlgcmdEMhKijmWa3-19iyUVyLg7HnSQWSlXFnscdHWTHCigiHPN6ZP01vrIQg5FK5Np1_zm1HZ8aGou1TMS-ex4zYohDH02ODeBVt08qk40xBbd0JwdzR7vNC/s640/LIP_arrowsHRsimple.png" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
One significant surprise was the reactivity of pentagonal rings and a new localised π-radical on pentagonal rings <b>B)</b>.<br />
<h2>
Many reactions are important in the flame</h2>
<div>
Now that the reactive sites were characterised we considered which crosslinks between them could be important in the flame. Below is a figure of the crosslink energies. The green indicates bonds that are strong enough to persist at the high temperatures within a flame.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhjmYhGm6cUPUXTFrp0B3y1iQQd9HGYBuKoaVmK5If25TONrYXc6iqmammxaSiZzMPvAPqHaHvZxlRnbaJLrjqEsV6TxcKzhiCG1yFEdMXZvthhVNZU14rgCQgsz_TgEaNOISKFByzYZiPT/s1600/Dimersreorder2.PNG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1170" data-original-width="1554" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhjmYhGm6cUPUXTFrp0B3y1iQQd9HGYBuKoaVmK5If25TONrYXc6iqmammxaSiZzMPvAPqHaHvZxlRnbaJLrjqEsV6TxcKzhiCG1yFEdMXZvthhVNZU14rgCQgsz_TgEaNOISKFByzYZiPT/s640/Dimersreorder2.PNG" width="640" /></a></div>
<div>
<br />
Most crosslinks are well-known mechanisms, however, the reactions with the localised π-radicals <b>B)</b> were completely novel.</div>
<h2>
A new type of bonding is possible - rim-bonding</h2>
Most of the ideas for how the molecules in flames come together to form soot particles have been <b>either </b>stacked physically interacting interactions <b>or </b>chemical bonds in a long polymer that did not stack. However, the localised π-radicals <b>B) </b>allows for stacked and bonded structures that are strongly bound.<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjpD_Tg0a8NJCbH4giCO6sabD4WUNx_K8Zpe0L0BKAzhLW5IE107NPUV5yXP_USAxjpiJo9Wr3BXPTONOAON6953acPuPtCKFhyphenhyphenUIcEQYDHC7hJszdecxllUaaVB5k9sNW2IUr9KlW8bKbh/s1600/Dimers2.PNG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1045" data-original-width="1517" height="275" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjpD_Tg0a8NJCbH4giCO6sabD4WUNx_K8Zpe0L0BKAzhLW5IE107NPUV5yXP_USAxjpiJo9Wr3BXPTONOAON6953acPuPtCKFhyphenhyphenUIcEQYDHC7hJszdecxllUaaVB5k9sNW2IUr9KlW8bKbh/s400/Dimers2.PNG" width="400" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
This could allow molecules to rapidly condense and then crosslink which could explain the rapid growth of soot. Below is a drawing of how such a cluster could form we are calling an aromatic rim-linked hydrocarbon.</div>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZlw_dJcQ-DKXktPT8Bll53HOO5YDVwgDJ3dkb5rRgKB1RG9BL1Xs9C1sM8BArAS2ak8HwoCNOVs6QodfHDk0IXTcg9utQPSR1kst-kPoT3SogW0RezhDCgaagbCHbmFTbXC24xbpAeBJ3/s1600/localpi.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="350" data-original-width="1292" height="172" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZlw_dJcQ-DKXktPT8Bll53HOO5YDVwgDJ3dkb5rRgKB1RG9BL1Xs9C1sM8BArAS2ak8HwoCNOVs6QodfHDk0IXTcg9utQPSR1kst-kPoT3SogW0RezhDCgaagbCHbmFTbXC24xbpAeBJ3/s640/localpi.png" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
We need to figure out the concentration of this reactive site in the flame. We also need to compare how all of the possible crosslinks contribute to soot formation. Once this is achieved we can consider how to stop particular reactive sites from being made and reduce soot emissions.Jacob Martinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13042491185977653368noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6172620873343846436.post-48146047582981635612019-10-31T00:05:00.001-07:002021-06-08T00:19:40.747-07:00To burn<p> </p><span id="docs-internal-guid-8b065489-7fff-5d8c-504e-6aa5dd013ada"><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b>To burn</b></span></div><span style="font-family: Arial;"><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: 14.6667px; white-space: pre;"><br /></span></div></span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: 11pt;">Plastic washes against my feet,</span></div></span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: 11pt;">frightening me with such defeat.</span></div></span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: 11pt;">It also lies neatly piled along the beach</span></div></span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: 11pt;">collected by migrant workers baking in the heat.</span></div></span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: 11pt;">The piles off to the incinerator to burn.</span></div></span><span style="font-family: Arial;"><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: 14.6667px; white-space: pre;"><br /></span></div></span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: 11pt;">Acrid oil invades my nose</span></div></span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: 11pt;">and a golden rainbow frames my toes.</span></div></span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: 11pt;">The ancient creatures that long decayed</span></div></span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: 11pt;">now coats our beaches for free trade.</span></div></span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: 11pt;">The fuel off to the engines to burn.</span></div></span><span style="font-family: Arial;"><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: 14.6667px; white-space: pre;"><br /></span></div></span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: 11pt;">Ships as far as the eye can see.</span></div></span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: 11pt;">Belching acid and soot and CO2.</span></div></span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: 11pt;">Carrying the whims of the hungry masses.</span></div></span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: 11pt;">Hungry for progress and likes and greenhouse gases.</span></div></span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: 11pt;">The cargo off to the masses to burn.</span></div></span><span style="font-family: Arial;"><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: 14.6667px; white-space: pre;"><br /></span></div></span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: 11pt;">"How dare you make us use clean fuels"</span></div></span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: 11pt;">the shipping company proudly duels.</span></div></span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: 11pt;">"We already filter out the sulfuric acid</span></div></span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: 11pt;">and pump it into the waters beneath us."</span></div></span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: 11pt;">The acid off to the ocean to burn.</span></div></span><span style="font-family: Arial;"><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: 14.6667px; white-space: pre;"><br /></span></div></span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: 11pt;">Flares of methane shoot into the sky.</span></div></span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: 11pt;">On an artificial island producing artificial highs.</span></div></span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: 11pt;">When the island is swallowed up in rising waters,</span></div></span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: 11pt;">economics will be no longer be important.</span></div></span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: 11pt;">The gas off to the flares to burn.</span></div></span><span style="font-family: Arial;"><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: 14.6667px; white-space: pre;"><br /></span></div></span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: 11pt;">Streams of light catch the clouds,</span></div></span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: 11pt;">lifting my head above the shroud.</span></div></span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: 11pt;">To weep to mourn and hear the plight</span></div></span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: 11pt;">will give us strength to face the fight.</span></div></span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: 11pt;">The people off to the streets to burn.</span></div></span></span>Jacob Martinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13042491185977653368noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6172620873343846436.post-14757682572924959222019-08-28T02:43:00.002-07:002019-09-13T19:52:15.316-07:00Unraveling the complex tangle of atoms in charcoal, glassy carbon and activated carbons<div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span id="docs-internal-guid-7edea11d-7fff-ae2e-d94c-2d9d0f5b1cd5"><span style="font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">tl;dr: Scientists, myself included, were having trouble figuring out the nanostructure of disordered carbon (BBQ charcoal, or the material in your water filter). The structure is kind of like a graphite pencil, with layers of carbon, but these layers were tangled in a mess. We were able to use computers to reproduce this tangle of atoms and find out how they're connected. It turns out that the atoms are connected by warped, curved sheets that connect in 3D to resemble a foam. Stacking of the sheets, we think, is due to them being twisted together like a corkscrew. I've been trying to figure this out for a while and was very excited to work with researchers at Curtin University to shed some light on this long-standing problem in science. </span></span></div>
</div>
<div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b id="docs-internal-guid-a9b00a12-7fff-3cdd-e15a-e62b932ecb76" style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="border: none; display: inline-block; height: 516px; overflow: hidden; width: 527px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><img height="516" src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/6_vz4P53iJuerixHEMzo0-ho4ttEj5rD_TlE8hul_5cLvy8wmalXLreG20HEUfdy1-vjSNctHA1Qnx3DJSUEaR55NLNeVN4Wf4Ob87b2AIcJ2zaS5rxk73Xv55MG60Ax0TGmgVF6" style="margin-left: 0px; margin-top: 0px;" width="527" /></span></span></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><i>Disordered 3D graphene network (1.5 g/cc similar density to charcoal). Shown as a surface mesh constructed from the graphene rings with the curvature coloured saddle-shape red, bowl-shape blue.</i></span></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-weight: 700; white-space: pre-wrap;">Unraveling the complex topology of </span><span style="font-weight: 700; white-space: pre-wrap;">disordered </span><span style="font-weight: 700; white-space: pre-wrap;">3D graphenes</span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Disordered 3D graphenes may sound exotic but they are ubiquitous. They are the carbon materials found in BBQ charcoal, batteries' electrodes, water filters, gas masks, high-temperature ceramics, electrochemical sensors and insulation, and were even used to protect the Parker solar probe spacecraft from burning up on its approach to the sun. </span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Rosalind Franklin, the scientist who would later deduce the helical geometry of DNA, first discovered this class of materials in 1951. Most carbon-containing materials develop small layered regions of graphene when heated. Upon further heating, to thousands of degrees, she found (to her surprise) a complete reluctance of the carbons to convert to the most stable form of carbon graphite - making it supremely metastable. </span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Explanations for this reluctance to graphitise have centred around the integration of non-hexagonal rings which warp the network into either bowl-shaped fullerene or theoretically explored saddle-shaped schwarzite nanoforms of carbon, which are foam-like carbon networks. However, the nanostructures were unable to be resolved from experiments. </span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Researchers from Curtin University and the University of Cambridge this week published a possible solution to Franklin's problem in <i>Physical Review Letters</i>. They turned to large scale simulations using Australia’s Pawsey supercomputer to self-assemble the largest and most accurate networks of disordered 3D graphene networks to date. </span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><span id="docs-internal-guid-11b72117-7fff-739a-ef7b-995f416dda98"><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="border: none; display: inline-block; height: 327px; overflow: hidden; width: 581px;"><img height="327" src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/_ZYusviLj0FNniKYf0D1Dt_TYBufPpkTPLP490D8yd9HT7nJ0AhLXA5RX5H3nsDIig6_c5vPvp2OwHEZTif5m9kw3HNCXb7NtxsKbTPV3-SmJr7cV-n7w6CpiqBrTWKxhOoNkpjv" style="margin-left: 0px; margin-top: 0px;" width="581" /></span></span></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><i>Curtin Carbon group visualising a large scale carbon network using the Curtin Hive immersive display </i></span></span><span style="color: #1155cc; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><a href="https://twitter.com/CurtinHIVE/status/999853141267890180?s=20" style="text-decoration-line: none;">Twitter</a></span><i style="font-family: inherit; white-space: pre-wrap;">.</i></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Working with researchers at the University of Cambridge they developed a new metric for the global curvature of the networks, they found that for all structures an excess of saddle-shaped graphene sheets are present. These saddle shapes are caused by the integration of 7- or 8-membered rings within the hexagonal graphene network. This warping allows it to connect in 3D and the researchers suggest it is the cause for the material's resistance to convert into graphite.</span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><span id="docs-internal-guid-655e7b2a-7fff-506f-c3aa-df1721a83639"><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="border: none; display: inline-block; height: 267px; overflow: hidden; width: 579px;"><img height="267" src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/_tC-JJjCJo5FpogMTU_rCzOOejxNokmTLjwvWIutzUh0wfxoNeiibSMJR6ak_BoRODavCkJdvCTfhfbJwcLinkhz0j9vYZ0ZDyZ6V_MEyrU4uCVTOAFq2sHNFRAQemSponmf0rMG" style="margin-left: 0px; margin-top: 0px;" width="579" /></span></span></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><i>New nanostructure proposed for disordered 3D graphenes with bowl-, saddle- and ribbon-like graphene sheets. With increasing density, screw dislocations allow for winding up and layering of the network.</i></span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">How about Franklin’s small regions of layered graphene? The researchers found that upon increasing the density of the material, the graphene sheets wound up like a spiral staircase. This screw or helix defect is well known in graphite but has not been suggested in these disordered materials. A variety of other defects were discovered, which resolve many issues of the graphene network being both curved and layered. </span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><span id="docs-internal-guid-d78bde98-7fff-0c89-0c4c-def3d6f72ede"><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="border: none; display: inline-block; height: 168px; overflow: hidden; width: 572px;"><img height="168" src="https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/EKd9DdZp3BbHLgmjQd9yl4fg4FpHQnp4DpApttvO0qI0d4bT6oWox4Wta6Z5y1WSPUM81z8o7E2B-dhr-03b4dmWjBQyClMqyN3w3booSyTaGW9jY5NofDXvJljN7zdFcNXHraP1" style="margin-left: 0px; margin-top: 0px;" width="572" /></span></span></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><i>Defects observed in disordered 3D graphenes.</i></span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span id="docs-internal-guid-f8cff9f1-7fff-9e78-9fd3-f4b7c1334927"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">These results open up possibilities for understanding and engineering carbon materials for applications in supercapacitors, carbon fibres and high-temperature ceramics applications. However, more work is needed to experimentally confirm some aspects of the model. </span></span></span><br />
<br />
<span id="docs-internal-guid-f8cff9f1-7fff-9e78-9fd3-f4b7c1334927"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">In terms of new applications, the researchers suggest that carbon materials could be topologically tuned and optimised for a given product. For example, how could you steer a carbon towards becoming graphite (</span></span></span><span id="docs-internal-guid-f8cff9f1-7fff-9e78-9fd3-f4b7c1334927"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span id="docs-internal-guid-f8cff9f1-7fff-9e78-9fd3-f4b7c1334927"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">of particular industrial importance for making batteries and electrodes)?</span></span></span> This could open up many more materials for transformation into graphite, used in battery anodes, instead of having to mine the graphite. </span></span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">There is a pleasing connection with Franklin's later work on DNA in that the solution to her earlier problem of non-graphitisability in carbon materials could also lie in topology and the famed helix structure. </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><a href="https://como.ceb.cam.ac.uk/preprints/237/">Read the preprint here</a> while the <a href="https://journals.aps.org/prl/abstract/10.1103/PhysRevLett.123.116105">paper is published in Physical Review Letters.</a></span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Thanks to Carla de Tomas, Irene Suarez-Martinez and Nigel Marks from the <a href="https://scieng.curtin.edu.au/research/carbon-group/">Carbon group at Curtin University</a> for an excellent collaboration!</span></div>
</div>
Jacob Martinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13042491185977653368noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6172620873343846436.post-69212749576467082782019-07-30T02:22:00.001-07:002019-08-01T19:30:57.791-07:00Doug Williams: A Pillar of Gasification Technology<div 0pt="" center="" dir="ltr" margin-bottom:="" margin-top:="" text-align:="">
<div 0pt="" center="" dir="ltr" margin-bottom:="" margin-top:="" text-align:="">
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="border: none; display: inline-block; height: 339px; overflow: hidden; width: 300px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><img height="339" src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/tSVFqWH3BXhrsNfsd3tjubLUsKZVV5_wIUephmCOHb_bYG4Q3ieMkC7XUSLgl6Qag0bOWLzD5byKujfnXa8Q86ytIb1CrWHGk0S_UW34GQpOl_4pO6uM0NrmqXIAflmvC1Bn-q9b" style="margin-left: 0px; margin-top: 0px;" width="300" /></span></span></span></div>
</div>
<div 0pt="" 36pt="" center="" dir="ltr" margin-bottom:="" margin-top:="" text-align:="" text-indent:="">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div 0pt="" 36pt="" center="" dir="ltr" margin-bottom:="" margin-top:="" text-align:="" text-indent:="">
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">"We are only discovering what other people forgot, or chose not to do!"</span></span></div>
</div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;">
<b id="docs-internal-guid-03916202-7fff-6268-97eb-4293ec25a6ae" style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">With the passing of Mr Douglas Brian (Doug) Williams on 23 July, the world has lost a renewable energy visionary and a leader in the field of biomass gasification. </span></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;">
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Doug was trained as a boilermaker in New Zealand and began working with Fluidyne Research & Development Ltd in the 1970s. During this time Fluidyne was developing oil filters to remove moisture from engine oil and develop tests for oil quality. Energised by the Gulf oil shock of 1973, Doug and others rebranded the company to Fluidyne Gasification Ltd in 1976 with the goal of bringing independence to New Zealand’s energy supply. The company began to work on and improve a 1900-1940s technology that had been developed during wartime oil shortages in Europe to power automobiles with woody biomass - downdraft gasification. Fluidyne started to cofire diesel generators with wood gas as well as modifying vehicles to operate on wood using the gasifier, such as Doug’s own van. </span></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="border: none; display: inline-block; height: 191px; overflow: hidden; width: 283px;"><img height="191" src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/nSXHCNYgW6VQ-DvDFVS1zJpSVgkoesOPJGG7BmmxZv-8GOUZIfGIN8u7Hje-ebB9ZVvQbDdYr67bXluX0-C-lNWnin6BgEt3xq-eSqm2WhymDS9T9Jotnjd6jhAIvPGkfh3brK5W" style="margin-left: 0px; margin-top: 0px;" width="283" /></span></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="border: none; display: inline-block; height: 189px; overflow: hidden; width: 252px;"><img height="189" src="https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/I2cpXtuQoCtokdsq1M6watkzNrBLM3T7NHCnRyxgXa8FPY9v7DtrsMoP24_0S-LrOax77c7IxyN9mb_wYyGSP-seol0cCYDOw4jybXQLDxBItzCtKGF2X3lsaT64OUF-G02EKyIM" style="margin-left: 0px; margin-top: 0px;" width="252" /></span></span></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">(left) Fluidyne’s uninsulated gasifier fuels a three cylinder diesel engine with vacuum governor, 1977. (right) Doug’s personal gasified van in the 1970s. </span></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;">
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">In 1977, the European Commission put out a call for remote electric power generation in the tropical region of the Pacific Ocean. Fluidyne got to work designing and building the Pacific Class gasifier rated for generating 30 kWe and by 1984 the first four units were sent to Fiji, Malaysia, South Africa and North America (Maine). The Pacific Class technology gained a lot of attention and was the winner of the New Zealand Steel Awards in 1984. </span></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="border: none; display: inline-block; height: 241px; overflow: hidden; width: 299px;"><img height="241" src="https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/fV8BKkfCE19ZNm4bPHO63a5LnqPl0XtGtHD6udDE38edMcyWyL8MplpPwQmz89riMMbvC5R9U6xiIjWGMkMeXKfoAROA480p8CEVY10sv36-6KxpaacHNjYnt7yJwkJ88fQC7VoR" style="margin-left: 0px; margin-top: 0px;" width="299" /></span></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="border: none; display: inline-block; height: 242px; overflow: hidden; width: 181px;"><img height="242" src="https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/3zmQMAne3IJm0-Vs7Kifc8uS3CVse1vyZ67VhPG6K2TR3m-jtyWRqS1YQfevnqfr7Vq5wwa2KY5jDI_EWyC2DhA28Wz5NuXB-FxV6lNUhMZoxYpVaN5C6WAzKMKpODIWIrlK_3-o" style="margin-left: 0px; margin-top: 0px;" width="181" /></span></span></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">(left) Front view of Pacific Class gasifier. (right) The gasifier installed at a NZ farm. </span></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;">
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Fluidyne Gasification Ltd quickly became a leader in small home and farm scale gasifiers. Fourteen Pacific Class gasifiers were built and sold to projects in Fiji, Malaysia, South Africa, Indonesia, USA, Mozambique, Pitcairn Island, Papua New Guinea, Uruguay, Germany and the UK. In 1987, Fluidyne designed the smaller 10 kWe Pioneer Class gasifier, which was designed for stationary power in a farm setting. The Pioneer Class gasifier did not end up being developed into a commercial unit but it lay the groundwork for the subsequent developments. For example, a unit was shipped to Massey University where it was used for training students under Prof. Ralph Sims. </span></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;">
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="border: none; display: inline-block; height: 176px; overflow: hidden; width: 268px;"><img height="176" src="https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/OdXt7dk1MWEA-Ec4kz8Oefs691xnqSlJMo8U3OQIfMkdoimEEeD3YhKGC7EoC_pL3bbUgiADHD7xgWBm8k_tn_rSaiOGVM8sOgxdtXfpr8upNfOPJ-c0HSF6X-sGnE3AFVXsmuSS" style="margin-left: 0px; margin-top: 0px;" width="268" /></span></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="border: none; display: inline-block; height: 175px; overflow: hidden; width: 268px;"><img height="175" src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/xRi87XylA6N5kG-XbltU067jno00MoHaxSDmbcbW6RteA7N1LQ558SUHuAuFoRmM127KR42HW6dKKPfJ54lhSuVSbuRTACxjDVJqfAnGjlmtJ6KxiVraVf-qvDb-w5eyfHVm8MjO" style="margin-left: 0px; margin-top: 0px;" width="268" /></span></span></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The Pioneer Class gasifier at a music festival.</span></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;">
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Ahead of the curve, in 1978 Doug purchased land outside Kumeu and grew one of the first forests solely for fuel production in New Zealand. In his own words, </span></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">“The plan was to plant eucalyptus and coppice every seven years, and according to the New Zealand Forestry Department, this small plantation was the first purpose planted energy plantation in New Zealand. They even borrowed a few trees to cut down for a TV programme, so if nothing else, this plantation has served a useful purpose of education for they still stand today.” </span></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;">
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">At the same time native forests were developed on the land:</span></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">“The back of the farm has a reserved block of native forest regenerating from kauri timber cutting early in the 1900s. We have also shut off adjacent areas to keep stock out and it is regenerating the native species.” </span></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;">
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">At the back of the property he placed a Pioneer Class gasifier and power generator for educational purposes. Over the years many people would be trained on his properties to prepare and dry the fuel, and importantly, how to operate the gasifier. </span></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;">
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="border: none; display: inline-block; height: 235px; overflow: hidden; width: 176px;"><img height="235" src="https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/lJldZSYZJ2TV0zQ4cC4L9NbWY8znxKxyu1w6myqaH8oZcysqYdq5miv01T6jkKkXxNp0TNK5hN-eoLUT5EVVX8VN8tZPPU8bUMhcgC8o9PscqlSOKlSdSB-akyijyVS6hFApwj-X" style="margin-left: 0px; margin-top: 0px;" width="176" /></span></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="border: none; display: inline-block; height: 236px; overflow: hidden; width: 313px;"><img height="236" src="https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/6m_CmYT419ruVcbZzCZiHmvTwQ1UtGZ2XrA547gEu8Uy2H0z2vKW9XRiS0JILS7Yb9rPdc1laDbSYwnxs-XRHhr0MBRYt-kosLRPKxs2DBPjzCY_SxKYBojwBeWigaNd3Nh9CdOg" style="margin-left: 0px; margin-top: 0px;" width="313" /></span></span></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">(left) The back shed where the forest and Pioneer Class gasifier was set up. (right) Doug demonstrating how to operate the gasifier in 2006. </span></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;">
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Fluidyne Gasification Ltd was closed in 1998 with Doug’s retirement, however, Doug began collaborating with other companies around the world. In 1999, </span><a href="http://innovation-tech.co.uk/ProjUpdates/gasifier.htm" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Innovation Technologies (Ireland) </span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">became involved with a gasifier project which led to them speaking with Doug and licensing Fluidyne’s technology to develop a commercial downdraft gasifier. From 2000-2004 they developed a 30 kWe gasifier based on the Pacific Class design and did extensive testing with sewage pellets and MDF. Parallel development of the larger Mega Class gasifier rated at 2 MWe was completed by ITI and built in Canada. This design used a linear hearth to provide incredible fuel throughput. The work with ITI culminated in the development of the Atlantic Class gasifier in 2005/2006 rated for generating 70-80 kWe. </span></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;">
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="border: none; display: inline-block; height: 202px; overflow: hidden; width: 152px;"><img height="202" src="https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-Ovjd5esN1dlL1m3nPSILuclGvsTX_JwfxOC-VcRT5UgdABfNazOMyTKRVMxsRhDQTHtdHxHHC8ByzHgm9W_vi6dP9Hz8aNYDJBTdYaKUHnGJgKWXxNCQNzmthl03vwPxMba0zE9" style="margin-left: 0px; margin-top: 0px;" width="152" /></span></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="border: none; display: inline-block; height: 204px; overflow: hidden; width: 151px;"><img height="204" src="https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/zZCs9--eHajODpwZL9B1PNKdlK-Qjyl44oK9lQD_h8VUZxJ1sUAkrqOjLTvvmML-M0CL84DdmmCSV3isM3JdlIK_rOgufPXiu3AIHbAdby6VHS1OSXQYK9UuspDkxGU0XVudByhE" style="margin-left: 0px; margin-top: 0px;" width="151" /></span></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="border: none; display: inline-block; height: 206px; overflow: hidden; width: 273px;"><img height="206" src="https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/QLyNUbfNSS-bPIYNNrB_ZFmZ56UY3NwwYbD9gqQFT51sCunoydxt_NVJPNVitNKTOrkZDH-44kbetOVEi6BbtkiQYv6IwdlAP2fUEa91crRBuB9czXEqRN3FjkDLBhoFos-4G8aT" style="margin-left: 0px; margin-top: 0px;" width="273" /></span></span></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">(left) Mega Class gasifier from 2000-2003 (middle) Mega Class gasifier mark two rated for 2 MWe in 2004. (right) Atlantic Class gasifier 70-80 kWe in 2005/2006.</span></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;">
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Doug launched the Fluidyne Archive (</span><a href="http://fluidynenz.250x.com/" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">http://fluidynenz.250x.com/</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">) in 2001 to mark the 25th anniversary of the founding of Fluidyne Gasification Ltd. On the website he made available the designs for a low-cost, easy to assemble gasifier. This was based on a design brief provided by the gasification research team at Bremen University to develop a simply constructed wood gasifier for developing countries in 1989. The design was unique in that it avoided many of the expensive high temperature steels or refractories by using the charcoal itself as the insulating material. This simple design allowed for easy tuning of the gasifier to provide a tar-free gas. This was achieved by moving a tube into the oxidation lobes until the gas was forced to travel through the oxidation zone of the gasifier; the reduction zone was also easily tuned by varying the height of a grate during operation. The easy-to-dismantle top allowed the char bed to be meticulously taken apart to determine exactly where all of the zones were, which greatly aided in tuning the gasifier for the fuel to reduce the amount of tar produced. This provided one of the first, and potentially most influential, open source designs for gasifiers and was quickly picked up by a burgeoning DIY gasification community. </span></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;">
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Doug’s support extended past simply providing plans - he actively engaged with those building the gasifiers and supported them to learn the technology. One example of this was his collaboration with Douglas Diaz from Chile. Doug visited Chile to commission the small DIY gasifier that was built in 2007. This collaboration lead to the development of the commercial Andes Class gasifier, a 100 kWe unit, which he again visited in 2008 to commission. </span></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;">
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="border: none; display: inline-block; height: 265px; overflow: hidden; width: 183px;"><img height="265" src="https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/Eo0p-kLuAijoeB2OUKEzGF-5lfY5GUMmgeBa--EzoYp9KQU9QUx5Kgnr4D8Yxm6_-0uZ_vRP9dusHz0eoEvGYL3oTUv-KbCgS3NahqYwL_P68P1NpbBizCZ7qIPr5YspmL3X8Onq" style="margin-left: 0px; margin-top: 0px;" width="183" /></span></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="border: none; display: inline-block; height: 263px; overflow: hidden; width: 197px;"><img height="263" src="https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/ZQ507STGggDfbY7HPcENM4P_XgMDqqG6SOEOsnzCXSAqxMmiNoEVPkklijsVoHiSCgRwWzQWf743bCuWv-mgrTSalNGcTUJqbJp8OnlMhSOqRO8_Ei5KqkcM74rekhdCO_P1aqmG" style="margin-left: 0px; margin-top: 0px;" width="197" /></span></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="border: none; display: inline-block; height: 266px; overflow: hidden; width: 199px;"><img height="266" src="https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/6bNGB2hQ1PHCwnqmFtVA1J3V9b3QjQx_0jtcV7VEnLF0uBvT4XEMVnewJOjwNhEo9h3Oh1nnJ5MAh4olJo0GfrSy3sD2WVD1LOrz45gsig7295JHrQoIbiscZ_wc-q8m74AsVKmD" style="margin-left: 0px; margin-top: 0px;" width="199" /></span></span></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">(left) Innovation Technologies Ireland gasifier built by summer students in 2002. (middle) Douglas Diaz and Doug Williams in Chile with the DIY gasifier design in 2007. (right) Andes Class gasifier 100 kWe in 2008. </span></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;">
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">In 2006, a Pacific Class gasifier was purchased by Calforest for heating their conifer nurseries. This led to a long collaboration between Doug and Tom Jopson from Calforest. Following the development of the Andes Class gasifier in Chile, Calforest built a similar unit. This developed into the Sasta Class gasifier in 2012/2013, which combined the Andes Class scale with the Mega Class linear hearth design to provide a high throughput gasifier that could produce heat but also significant amounts of charcoal for the nursery. </span></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;">
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="border: none; display: inline-block; height: 282px; overflow: hidden; width: 211px;"><img height="282" src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/XIoKzq0FG6aKt_sjpkPd_dgMtGGUdkKMWbRNHnsdNLnMmfoPWrpQuRQQJGOV8FRLze6iYlsqyZ0rtb7B1sCVRep4oZ6VOGsXFLBIIKzfD_ZzrEMAGlUDK0icEGIrdVkpmMAp1l24" style="margin-left: 0px; margin-top: 0px;" width="211" /></span></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="border: none; display: inline-block; height: 222px; overflow: hidden; width: 297px;"><img height="222" src="https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/3lGpKqUd-P_WlEapYZ8sRrPdIYzLtNbomvAFGzg96lVwL8M-r5GAqrKVKiH6SQ3WI3_tsZtZ__l2KNwZfoITVZ2Z6rJfpkhuPoyoDkVudGOyF5zPq9oL97FP3udENQBF8--yezFq" style="margin-left: 0px; margin-top: 0px;" width="297" /></span></span></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">(left) Calforest Andes Class gasifier from 2008. (right) Doug and Tom Jopson from Calforest with the Sasta Class gasifier 100 kWe from 2012/2013. </span></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;">
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Doug was also a pioneer of charcoal generating gasifiers. This technology is considered one of the critical carbon capture technologies required to counteract some of the most difficult CO</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-size: 0.6em; vertical-align: sub;">2</span></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> emissions to eliminate, such as those from air travel. The heat treatment in the gasifier traps ~50% of the carbon photosynthetically captured by the tree in a stable char (often called biochar). The biochar can be sold as it improves the soil and can therefore provide incentives for carbon capture. Doug used the same linear hearth design from the Mega and Sasta Class gasifiers to design a char maker with Canadian company Alterna Energy in 2007. Calforest modified their Sasta Class gasifier to provide large volumes of char in 2017 during Doug’s last visit to California. </span></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;">
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="border: none; display: inline-block; height: 308px; overflow: hidden; width: 231px;"><img height="308" src="https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/B1Rqqjlx6wE84n0UepJ7c8J2fRayl7hxEHeHgvfLqEwvLJ6c7WB45osJYfs0XSOeyVAUki56U6pisnX1fGTP6CafmQWYzxhmWBr1qP9ajVmaGp-CDJvOqcw2Gcmruxp0Cp6th27O" style="margin-left: 0px; margin-top: 0px;" width="231" /></span></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="border: none; display: inline-block; height: 314px; overflow: hidden; width: 235px;"><img height="314" src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/B25I_lj5fR8PSGUwLjXsgzQgUltTNA6koYVcBHtyMUEBU1oHkj42HazszORjgIr4HXCBgiYGXVF1q9wBfk7igzrwjvkraTs4AsjpBQACOVjc5bbqnfJqmzSF5TR6-3HqYs8HwFqE" style="margin-left: 0px; margin-top: 0px;" width="235" /></span></span></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">(left) Calforest’s Sasta Class gasifier in char making configuration, 2017. (right) Conifer seedlings without and with char.</span></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;">
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Gasification Australia Pty Ltd was established in 2005/2006 and developed the Tasman Class gasifier. The gasifier was rated at 10-15 kWe, slightly larger than the Pioneer Class. Dr John Sanderson from Gasification Australia Pty Ltd went on to develop a mobile pyrolysis unit to produce charcoal from waste wood in the 2010s. At least three of these mobile units are in operation in Australia with the company Green Man Char selling the charcoal/biochar for gardening. One of these units has even been installed in Hong Kong’s Park and Garden Department to generate char for their nurseries. </span></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;">
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="border: none; display: inline-block; height: 231px; overflow: hidden; width: 174px;"><img height="231" src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/uqSIGlEsaDBCHkVS45azJtDPKtqpX1rrCjx943Q0Ssi7Xl5Muzs9wd4FPOaR5YnJl09fOK8IdS-irM8dnCNn0Xechtlfvs_mqin8TME15dyzjBKyohav8vxe5MLq0X-FlsdNRja1" style="margin-left: 0px; margin-top: 0px;" width="174" /></span></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="border: none; display: inline-block; height: 231px; overflow: hidden; width: 308px;"><img height="231" src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/b7hlTwnY_g1vs0ieO8BH9Eh8cNy89TPCkmDViiWYClW8sdHS_bHpAckbc4LHNUNYs_l0DCrNyC013c8E0GhYEqrQ1uWd-QM39wWQ0XLmmLio-46kLEYdFA3TG8o9jtWQ2ymDtE9I" style="margin-left: 0px; margin-top: 0px;" width="308" /></span></span></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">(left) Mark 3 Tasman Class gasifier, 2009. (right) Charmaker mobile pyrolysis unit, 2014.</span></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;">
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">One of Doug’s most significant contributions was his generosity in educating people about gasification. Doug was very active on the early online forums such as the </span><a href="http://lists.bioenergylists.org/mailman/listinfo/gasification_lists.bioenergylists.org" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #1155cc; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">bioenergylists</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, which began in 1995, as well as the gas-to-fuel and wood gas Yahoo group forums. Within these platforms a new generation of engineers was trained and many projects and companies resulted. One company I will highlight is All Power Labs. All Power Labs began with American Jim Mason, who required off-grid power for his small art collective in 2002. This led to the development of an energy-hacking culture. Jim was very active on the gasifier bioenergy mailing list and exchanged many messages with Doug and others. In 2007/2008 they launched a low cost Gasifier Experimenter’s Kit (GEK) capable of generating ~10 kWe. This quickly led to a surge in hobbyists tinkering with the technology and generated a huge amount of interest. This developed into the Power Pallet technology in 2010, a turnkey downdraft gasifier capable of generating 25 kWe of electricity. As of 2013 All Power Labs has sold more than 500 units worldwide and supported research in at least 50 different universities. All Power Labs is now developing a 150 kWe container scale unit for larger scale applications. Other companies can certainly vouch for Doug’s contributions to their technologies. Many took the knowledge that Doug taught for downdraft gasification and brought ease of use through automation, providing truly turnkey products. Doug has been called one of the three pillars of biomass gasification on these forums, the other two being Mr Tom Miles and the late Dr Tom Reed, who passed away last October. Doug will be sorely missed in these online communities. </span></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhEedt8shlqVpt5j8qWIaCL5NHzpAiEALTzB166RZ5N0tO6bkOH_Mdre8zd5BMHlkyfPgf-LHudYIR_14jUCeiPaf5t4ZWVJ2tQQUs3zr9mCDKadj9p1KLdFamQDg113jSOlhk8M3VynsYg/s1600/Copy-of-right-angle-with-white-back-ground-april-27th-2018-e1560534256529.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1376" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhEedt8shlqVpt5j8qWIaCL5NHzpAiEALTzB166RZ5N0tO6bkOH_Mdre8zd5BMHlkyfPgf-LHudYIR_14jUCeiPaf5t4ZWVJ2tQQUs3zr9mCDKadj9p1KLdFamQDg113jSOlhk8M3VynsYg/s400/Copy-of-right-angle-with-white-back-ground-april-27th-2018-e1560534256529.jpg" width="343" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
</div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><a href="http://www.allpowerlabs.com/products/product-overview" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">All Power Labs 25 kWe Power Pallet Gasifier.</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;">
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I (Jacob Martin) first interacted with Doug on these mailing lists in my mid-teens. He generously gave his time to discuss my designs and ground me in what was actually achievable through emails and phone calls. In 2008, I visited his farm and was trained on the Pioneer Class gasifier as well as the much smaller Micro Class gasifier/fuel tester. During the summer of 2008/2009 I constructed the Discovery Model gasifier, slightly larger than the Micro Class and able to generate 3 kWe. Doug taught me how to tune this gasifier for my fuel to produce tar free producer gas for power generation. This involved very carefully removing the char bed, layer by layer, and analysing every detail of the charcoal - is it shiny or covered in soot; how is it disintegrating as it is reduced? This provided a map of the different zones within the gasifier and allowed me to rapidly tune the grate and reduction tube to provide a clean continuous stream of fuel gas. I ended up doing many tests of the gasifier and submitting my research to regional and national science fairs in New Zealand. These competitions provided me opportunities to travel overseas and a summer internship gasifying algae biomass (</span><a href="https://nznano.blogspot.com/2016/12/gasification-and-carbon-capture.html" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">more details can be found in a previous blog post</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">). Doug developed this scale of gasifier into the Microlab Class gasifier in 2011 that was supplied to Ulster University for students to learn gasification and to facilitate research on different fuels with Dr Mark Anderson. </span></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;">
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="border: none; display: inline-block; height: 209px; overflow: hidden; width: 158px;"><img height="209" src="https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/UCFgXuwahHCVejskh5HCeX5GWIGL5ryQGICmuc59qMSH6Kh_0y0UzL1Rj3Mid4AX7BpzbfwoNHf6mdaoMLi7kcE1p02xtxfMZ_CTaoiMwU3YFJKfYKKTDULqIG4fJS_qRhig5jH0" style="margin-left: 0px; margin-top: 0px;" width="158" /></span></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="border: none; display: inline-block; height: 211px; overflow: hidden; width: 159px;"><img height="267.548" src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/4jEvJmQiwlMRzDNZ5lOddgI_L1ScwD7Fnp6sD63g-iHIlwegwsMcV-pI4hZ1DsBYwHSbjLzi9qfgsDuUi3txzyQk3wBRl0HWp77tOpMHZtPIvfnSwWRA5RjH1yFmgmidZBI_1jT3" style="margin-left: -34.344px; margin-top: 0px;" width="193.344" /></span></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="border: none; display: inline-block; height: 211px; overflow: hidden; width: 170px;"><img height="257.42" src="https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/lqd-EBEDm0lYhpgJn91EoNU5y-wpwY_wh8jLZlW3m4TLR_euSXd1R7nNoedsm6t226nX-R-XZlSNz72USC60cPrIbfcJNnJB7tlR8jqopKwrdezSe2TfUejQN_ypuq5NivC5dNjr" style="margin-left: -20.98765432098765px; margin-top: -46.42px;" width="190.98765432098767" /></span></span></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">(left) Microclass gasifier fuel tester 2003. (middle) Me with the Discovery Model gasifier built in 2008. (right) Doug testing the Microlab Class gasifier at Ulster University, 2011. </span></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;">
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Doug was also very observant and found that some of the char could be attracted to a high strength neodymium magnet. He asked me to look into it, which may have been the most important piece of guidance I have received and which led to my love of research. I got in contact with Prof. Merrilyn Manley-Harris and Prof. Brain Nicholson from Waikato University and began analytical analysis of the gasification charcoal. Using a variety of different instruments, we were able to show that the magnetism was due to iron in the wood being reduced to the ferromagnetic metal and was not due to the carbon material. However, this piqued my interest in the atomic arrangement of atoms in the charcoal, otherwise known as its nanoscale structure. Waikato University has been looking into the nanostructure of charcoal since 2007 using a variety of different instruments, such as mass spectrometers to weigh molecules that are laser ablated from the charcoal’s surface. I began to extend this work at Waikato and then Auckland University, leading me to a 10-year study of the nanostructure of gasification charcoal. I’m now doing a PhD at the University of Cambridge in the field of soot formation, which Doug also introduced me to. </span></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;">
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="border: none; display: inline-block; height: 220px; overflow: hidden; width: 166px;"><img height="220" src="https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/8O-C3dDWwxZVLtymmn296A0pQvitBW4R37ZCY4_gR9qU9Az5U4p_bZSRTLJ8kL66gPDGKnIB5uL9ZXwuu9BV-yquvZOtQiFjADeHDZz7_vjL692ZrlsQM6-byHqllbMdioTRfqV_" style="margin-left: 0px; margin-top: 0px;" width="166" /></span></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="border: none; display: inline-block; height: 222px; overflow: hidden; width: 165px;"><img height="222" src="https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/7nVslIZa7E1pFXKSqXgGJxov_m_dyg1XQ_d2PjyZ_u-g_POcrTuq-DWP4mn4wXFJp6MuocAU1MrHoBv-GJKzV2hydOZ-qymKtn1kWjD1UCnLEFU8gW5JqSwUtq2HPvgv3SkbqkmP" style="margin-left: 0px; margin-top: 0px;" width="165" /></span></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="border: none; display: inline-block; filter: brightness(1.33) contrast(1.09); height: 222px; overflow: hidden; width: 208px;"><img height="222" src="https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/Szueyc85OZhSf3bvlDRja9vb0a6GYiknk-RicGQLm7bb2-5Kh1a7nZqijOcyZXjTlTCE7EzWaHXKbmefi9b8gQ5PYtrJpKWmEbcyxIO-3vkLDbFz36CVIPORNJw1gDoBIDID62D5" style="margin-left: 0px; margin-top: 0px;" width="208" /></span></span></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">(left) Me at Doug’s shed lighting the Pioneer Class gasifier, 2008. (middle) Collecting samples from within the gasifier layer by layer. (right) The laser desorption ionisation time of flight mass spectrometer at Waikato University used to look at charcoal’s nanostructure. </span></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;">
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">This year we published our findings on the nanostructure of charcoal. The knowledge Doug provided was invaluable and allowed us to produce some incredibly high quality charcoal that was free of soot on the surface (secondary char) by carefully choosing the zone from which the charcoal was collected. The low tar content of the charcoal also allowed for the imaging of the nanostructure of the material in an electron microscope, which was not possible for most charcoals prepared in tube furnaces. The graphical abstract for the paper shown below shows a picture from within a Fluidyne gasifier zooming into the nanoscale features of the material (</span><a href="https://nznano.blogspot.com/2019/03/how-are-atoms-arranged-in-charcoal.html" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">read more in my blog post on the paper</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">). </span></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;">
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://nznano.blogspot.com/2019/03/how-are-atoms-arranged-in-charcoal.html" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="border: none; display: inline-block; height: 230px; overflow: hidden; width: 586px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><img height="230" src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/1GEPZCXASNEdVSJqe55tNbcLSeSIoH-1rJlrq2shDw6rIMelEXK23u2aYQEplq6XyhFgO8upIw_gSPjMAW5zV12mgnWPtotsEAf0rBSwdGI6B7zYDITOHwti7i3GOkuVv7QOntRu" style="margin-left: 0px; margin-top: 0px;" width="586" /></span></span></span></a></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://nznano.blogspot.com/2019/03/how-are-atoms-arranged-in-charcoal.html" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Link</span></span></a></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;">
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">On publication of the paper, Doug wrote to me to show his enthusiasm for this work, as he has throughout. </span></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;">
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">“I read it immediately, but failed to reply, mainly due to big distractions at my end. It was so interesting for me to see how the layers form, really like Jim Cousins said years ago when he described the gasifier soot as having graphite like properties. I'm not writing much at the moment, seems like a mind block to be interested at times, then I get all fired up again!” </span></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;">
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">I wanted to end on some more of Doug’s words. One of his famous mantras was</span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span>
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: 14.6667px; font-style: italic; font-weight: 700; text-align: left; text-indent: 48px;">"We are only discovering what other people forgot, or chose not to do!"</span></span></span></div>
</div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;">
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">By this he meant that we are only rediscovering the knowledge about gasification from the first wave of research at the beginning of last century. </span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">His personal motivations and hope for the future of gasification are well summed up in one of his responses on the Gasification mailing list in 2011. </span></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;">
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">“Gasification for me, is a survival technology. We live in a complex world of change, both political and environmentally, where overnight, we can see all we take for granted vanish in an instant. This doesn't motivate me to save anyone, but the lights will never go out in my house, thanks to gasified engine powered generation (but only when the grid goes down). The ability to survive sudden change has cost attached, but if considered as an Insurance Policy, gasified power generation has to be a serious contender for emergency power if nothing else. </span></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;">
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">What then, is there to offer future generations about gasification? Teach them to do it better, faster, and cleaner, cheaper, is that the best on offer for our expertise acquired at such great expense of time and money? As a gas, is it only considered to be chemical building blocks, and the waste char an in-thing, to be seen stuffed in the ground for carbon credits? Can gasification open a pathway to facilitate new sciences? Hmmm.” </span></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;">
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">1 January, 2011</span></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;">
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Doug, you certainly taught me and many others the art and science of gasification that you re/discovered. You also passed on your huge enthusiasm and enjoyment for your work. Your legacy lives on in the many gasification projects still underway, the development of biochar for carbon capture and the ongoing fundamental science looking into charcoal’s nanostructure. While you did not see your vision for a biomass powered world, we will aim to further the technology and make it a future reality. </span></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
</div>
Jacob Martinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13042491185977653368noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6172620873343846436.post-15383914679141598962019-07-26T01:11:00.000-07:002019-08-15T23:02:36.209-07:00Carbon conference 2019: football nanotube, great science and Madame Oberlin<div style="text-align: center;">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhLq8pqY6MUxEqnATku79GxcEqeP5ZBnTS9qXmdsiKLiqP_Esw23U1xsyZstfuun1mhP0VgvBBB26xVZmmOASAmeaxzh8vZBep1qmaMmbKfk3Yx7WP6kzRoJ8LPV3Wfam0uPTUPP0-f5OTI/s1600/Carbon2019.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="685" data-original-width="1024" height="267" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhLq8pqY6MUxEqnATku79GxcEqeP5ZBnTS9qXmdsiKLiqP_Esw23U1xsyZstfuun1mhP0VgvBBB26xVZmmOASAmeaxzh8vZBep1qmaMmbKfk3Yx7WP6kzRoJ8LPV3Wfam0uPTUPP0-f5OTI/s400/Carbon2019.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
<br /></div>
Last month I visited the United States to attend the Carbon conference 2019 in Lexington, Kentucky with 400+ attendees. It was a great week of talks and discussions. I have briefly outlined some of the exciting findings in the field and some fun aspects of the week.<br />
<br />
One of the conference jokes was that it was the most memorable carbon conference yet. Due to the fire at the conference venue and hotel on the night before the conference, flooding on the first day of the conference and a small earthquake on the second day. Many thanks to the conference organisers who did a heroic job!<br />
<br />
<h2 style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
The football nanotube</h2>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
Carbon scientists have famously used the football to describe the geometry of the buckminsterfullerene molecule C60 since it was discovered as the seams describe the geometry of the bonds in the molecule, shown below.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<img height="200" src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/0c/Fussball.jpg" width="190" /><img alt="Buckminsterfullerene.svg" height="196" src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/b/bf/Buckminsterfullerene.svg/1280px-Buckminsterfullerene.svg.png" width="200" /></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
While at the Carbon conference 2019 Dr Fiona Smail spotted and photographed a carbon nanotube football in an art gallery by Brazilian artist Felipe Barbosa.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhfLQlHFpC9utKJ35rs8_XeRozc2i9R4t5lpleJi2eknCPE6y4oLf4eWg7d_4xyDI5SZYQyE6gDYqkRJimys7C4ZRnpp6hD0JTDT0Rv_IQpSc5eaDYI1ft7OmmZLJ4E6WUJS_GyZDFH7vjN/s1600/IMG_20190715_130051732.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhfLQlHFpC9utKJ35rs8_XeRozc2i9R4t5lpleJi2eknCPE6y4oLf4eWg7d_4xyDI5SZYQyE6gDYqkRJimys7C4ZRnpp6hD0JTDT0Rv_IQpSc5eaDYI1ft7OmmZLJ4E6WUJS_GyZDFH7vjN/s400/IMG_20190715_130051732.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh2XW3Effd0nYXu25wBeTH-fcTdhyphenhyphennIAirCcDEanv8ya8gKTpRN2eKw5IsCHfk_JGjxVsWv8sFyiDnveoMN7hGR2wFcrgjT5o74PocHFazPqR31XVqKAE7qaDlM3L57nnZdlmz-L3xEKYbZ/s1600/IMG_20190715_130113378_BURST000_COVER_TOP.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh2XW3Effd0nYXu25wBeTH-fcTdhyphenhyphennIAirCcDEanv8ya8gKTpRN2eKw5IsCHfk_JGjxVsWv8sFyiDnveoMN7hGR2wFcrgjT5o74PocHFazPqR31XVqKAE7qaDlM3L57nnZdlmz-L3xEKYbZ/s320/IMG_20190715_130113378_BURST000_COVER_TOP.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
This represents an elongated fullerene or a carbon nanotube, which I have drawn below for comparison.</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiH1T8D24llLKqQ_CB-4qE7zjxzaTWQZXoCQt41VUV4ou7dGNCowtiv82jEYpfDAbFEwyfnqCPetdyDFbbWI7hdDNkDOffZTl3fdVgcA_1PQ_pqql3cGBGjES46pPqOlqzzC3UXBxQ7CBJN/s1600/IMG_20190715_130150274.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiH1T8D24llLKqQ_CB-4qE7zjxzaTWQZXoCQt41VUV4ou7dGNCowtiv82jEYpfDAbFEwyfnqCPetdyDFbbWI7hdDNkDOffZTl3fdVgcA_1PQ_pqql3cGBGjES46pPqOlqzzC3UXBxQ7CBJN/s400/IMG_20190715_130150274.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiiu9Rd7oqgtqDy9Om9ZTubx3cWTKakLTQB_kliZh-kViyiao2RZ-GgMcXUCeFSqCQzNXfegUbJEdjT8-VIkEt8JTdP4FtH1NTcXLhqiXWSHfs_xne7dNDvealHfaZKlN-qhvmgHGX5CCb0/s1600/football+nanotibe3.PNG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="597" data-original-width="1567" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiiu9Rd7oqgtqDy9Om9ZTubx3cWTKakLTQB_kliZh-kViyiao2RZ-GgMcXUCeFSqCQzNXfegUbJEdjT8-VIkEt8JTdP4FtH1NTcXLhqiXWSHfs_xne7dNDvealHfaZKlN-qhvmgHGX5CCb0/s400/football+nanotibe3.PNG" width="400" /></a></div>
<div class="" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjE2IPCEEWs4AX8UZxHoHffYrxetdgJWyUc5TmWd-Y_FCtCtzUE_6Q5XbJ5bvPvUeO5EH6nDRAniqileIfVtI9hILLo4RLoc4hcEF3p-SzKCJfrl2qoZiZwScijudPdYZHfWJpQA9pXB3Wf/s1600/football+nanotibe5.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1454" data-original-width="1600" height="181" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjE2IPCEEWs4AX8UZxHoHffYrxetdgJWyUc5TmWd-Y_FCtCtzUE_6Q5XbJ5bvPvUeO5EH6nDRAniqileIfVtI9hILLo4RLoc4hcEF3p-SzKCJfrl2qoZiZwScijudPdYZHfWJpQA9pXB3Wf/s200/football+nanotibe5.png" width="200" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEihuQr8A6HBReIWY3uq9DS4OHmPpDojec8oJSvrGxPY4lKkf0kLI0C5VA7Df34k9bHZ4VsVQK9iWOXfEJ1BlSadGlUycAr8uABP8zQwBWB6zIDpzYvK8iutbngeHfk0ywGTBb7GKr0yaI03/s1600/football+nanotibe4.PNG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="691" data-original-width="832" height="165" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEihuQr8A6HBReIWY3uq9DS4OHmPpDojec8oJSvrGxPY4lKkf0kLI0C5VA7Df34k9bHZ4VsVQK9iWOXfEJ1BlSadGlUycAr8uABP8zQwBWB6zIDpzYvK8iutbngeHfk0ywGTBb7GKr0yaI03/s200/football+nanotibe4.PNG" width="200" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<h2 style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
What exciting research was presented?</h2>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
I cannot detail all of the interesting talks I attended but I will just highlight some exciting results that caught my attention.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
Prof. Deborah Chung presented her results showing that isotropic carbons and carbon fibres possess conductive electrets. Electets are domains with permanent dipole moments within materials that orient within an electric field and retain their electric polarisation after the electric field is removed. What makes electrets unique in carbon materials is that they are embedded within a conductive material allowing for DC current to flow through the material allowing them to act as sensors or even generate power. More can be read <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0008622319300442">here</a> and <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0008622319305093#fig1">here</a>. A link was made during the conference to my recent work on the flexoelectric effect, which shows that bowl-shaped regions give rise to a permanent dipole moment in carbon materials.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
Prof. Marc Monthioux presented work on developing thin layer diamond-like films and showed Raman spectroscopy evidence for these diamonoids structures. <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S000862231930017X">Some preliminary work can be read here</a> and <a href="https://arxiv.org/abs/1907.09033">a preprint is also available</a>. </div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
Dr Phillipe Ouzilleau (with Prof. Monthioux) presented work on a model for the process of graphitising carbons. The critical aspect of the work was distinguishing annealable and non-annealable defects. The later leading to non-graphitising carbons. These non-annealable defects are considered to arise due to curvature integration. <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0008622319303410">More can be read here</a>. This ties into the work I presented on how negative Gaussian curvature provides connected layered 3D graphene structures. </div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
Prof. Vander Wal showed the use of laser heating to distinguish different soot nanostructures. More amorphous soot can be distinguished by the formation of single shell structures or multiple shell, flower-like structure. <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0008622398001699">More can be read here</a> and <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0008622317308758">here</a>.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
Dr Joseph Abrahamson (with Prof. Vander Wal) presented on the laser heating of carbon materials to explore their graphitisation finding a transformation to fullerene-like nanostructures before further transformation to a ribbon-like nanostructure. <a href="https://www.mdpi.com/2311-5629/4/2/36">More can be read here</a>. Dr Abrahamson also showed how the integration of curvature into carbon materials due to oxygen loss providing a pentagon gives rise to non-graphitising carbons while the loss of oxygen that provides hexagons leads to a graphitising carbon. <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0008622318304160">More can be read here</a>.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
Prof. Murray Thomson presented a detailed particle model simulation for carbon black synthesis. <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0010218019302573">More can be read here</a>.<br />
<br />
Dr. Adam Boies and Dr. Fiona Smail presented their work on understanding the fundamental aspects of carbon nanotube aerogels formation. <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0008622319300946">Their recent review article is worth a read.</a><br />
<br />
Prof. Mathews and colleagues presented a million atom model for soot reconstructed from HRTEM images. <a href="http://carbon2019.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/343-chang.pdf">More can be read here. </a></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div>
Prof. Mauricio Terrones presented a very nice review plenary on the future of carbon science. <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.carbon.2018.02.058">The full review has recently been published</a>.<br />
<br /></div>
<h2 style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
What did we present?</h2>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
I was fortunate to be given three talks to present at the conference. The first was on my work on soot formation in flames. The second talk was on the lack of fullerenes in fullerene-like carbons. My last talk was on the topology of disordered graphenes. The talk slides are embedded below.<br />
<br />
Angiras my colleague also presented on the optical properties of curved, crosslinked and radical PAH molecules. Between us, we also presented work from our colleagues Laura Pascazio and Kimberly Bowal who were unable to make it to the conference on "Investigating the self-assembly and structure of nanoparticles containing curved carbons" and "Degree of crosslinking in combustion carbons" respectively.<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<iframe allowfullscreen="true" frameborder="0" height="389" mozallowfullscreen="true" src="https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/e/2PACX-1vRB0rpe-pT5XDqYLmb2UDptyNzaWt8zr3GXYS5BHErCVulokU1y2m0h8L0JGsxbGCgGJAL3Q3OmA1Q6/embed?start=false&loop=false&delayms=5000" webkitallowfullscreen="true" width="480"></iframe><br /></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
Link to the papers <a href="https://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/acs.jpcc.8b08264">1</a>, <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1540748918300476">2</a>, <a href="https://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/acs.jpcc.7b09044">3</a></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<iframe allowfullscreen="true" frameborder="0" height="389" mozallowfullscreen="true" src="https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/e/2PACX-1vQ9M2mdcYBEnaFCwKrmoU_RFd1E3VN7QV8o9MubwF9PP2enaNNSc_P0dcA70GL-fMOaIbemUHvmp5gn/embed?start=false&loop=false&delayms=3000" webkitallowfullscreen="true" width="480"></iframe><br />
Link to papers <a href="https://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/acs.est.8b06861">1</a>, <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S000862231730920X">2</a></div>
</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<iframe allowfullscreen="true" frameborder="0" height="389" mozallowfullscreen="true" src="https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/e/2PACX-1vRmsk7BXeQX1xNw_NUyj6v-vRsWSFvHY4VmYCd8jn5Sz-qpzDSXSWlBNc71BsC_cVBUe9-glYJIx1qC/embed?start=false&loop=false&delayms=3000" webkitallowfullscreen="true" width="480"></iframe><br />
Link to papers <a href="https://aip.scitation.org/doi/pdf/10.1063/1.5030136">1</a>, <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0008622316306790">2</a>, <a href="https://journals.aps.org/prl/abstract/10.1103/PhysRevLett.120.215701">3</a>, <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0008622317303615">4</a></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
I was also very fortunate to be given the Mrozowski Award for best oral presentation from a student.<br />
<br /></div>
</div>
<h2>
Madame Oberlin</h2>
<div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<img height="200" src="https://ars.els-cdn.com/content/image/1-s2.0-S0008622319301502-fx1_lrg.jpg" width="151" /></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
Agnès Oberlin (1925 - 2019)</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
On the fourth day of the conference, there was a very moving and comprehensive memorial for Agnès Oberlin (known in the community as Madame Oberlin). Stories were told of her dancing with Rosalind Franklin in Paris. Franklin interested her in carbon materials and the problem of graphitisability. She was provided with the second transmission electron microscopy available in Europe during her PhD and for the rest of her career focused on exploring the nanostructure of carbon materials using this instrument. Some of her remarkable contributions were surrounding the transformations of carbon materials during the process of graphitisation, understanding the formation of alignment during carbonisation - mesophase and the structure of carbon fibres and non-graphitising carbon. The carbon journal has a tribute written from her colleagues and friends, which provides an in-depth look into her many contributions (<a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0008622319301502#undfig3">link</a>).<br />
<br />
<br /></div>
Jacob Martinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13042491185977653368noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6172620873343846436.post-77480224887700123802019-05-29T01:54:00.003-07:002019-05-29T02:17:05.166-07:00Combustion science for Climate Solutions - Pint of ScienceI recently gave a presentation at a Pint of Science event in Singapore entitled "Combustion Science for Climate Solutions". Here are the slides with my transcript added into the slides.<br />
<br />
<iframe allowfullscreen="true" frameborder="0" height="390" mozallowfullscreen="true" src="https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/e/2PACX-1vSRv2dALbpGHGkYCsdiMALeP51BQ5EoIdpQKGlczfztWvAb0IH5Wbn7egYzPzcalPsWw5BZxGrEDZhc/embed?start=true&loop=true&delayms=3000" webkitallowfullscreen="true" width="600"></iframe>Jacob Martinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13042491185977653368noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6172620873343846436.post-25663478674442789972019-03-13T21:12:00.001-07:002019-03-14T01:51:43.631-07:00How are the atoms arranged in charcoal?<div style="text-align: justify;">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgWsjxlV38RF_hJjtXwZQFG36_egx3WC2pgef-VJQ9waMNlr5kMrv5sJyVulzUQvy-sxn4tAiBVeadcJ5I_8wNTDpOcfGkaNgUw8HrjRrxlPB_Y_J0S5pgA5gi1UCBIo6YyRJUMRdFfXg28/s1600/rect4584.png" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgWsjxlV38RF_hJjtXwZQFG36_egx3WC2pgef-VJQ9waMNlr5kMrv5sJyVulzUQvy-sxn4tAiBVeadcJ5I_8wNTDpOcfGkaNgUw8HrjRrxlPB_Y_J0S5pgA5gi1UCBIo6YyRJUMRdFfXg28/s640/rect4584.png" width="550" /></a><br />
<br /></div>
I recently published a paper on the structure of charcoal on the nanoscale with Leonard Nyadong, Caterina Ducati, Merilyn Manley-Harris, Alan G. Marshall, and Markus Kraft. Here is a link to the <a href="http://como.cheng.cam.ac.uk/index.php?Page=Preprints&No=219">preprint</a> and the <a href="https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acs.est.8b06861">published article in the journal Environmental Science & Technology.</a><br />
<br />
<b>In brief</b><br />
<ul>
<li>Charcoal is the black carbon product produced from heating biomass in a low oxygen environment. </li>
</ul>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjm1KRBcyjRNLAsw7_827AP6WoN-SNkAjumv2axYOQoikOqpwWzpTHrxRMqIXtu445sA5fN500IoqyH49N9eHuU9_blmdiOG8UlRM68KfeOjl1Yjy21I5W7_klDIUYqqeaw1NgNWl6zrpCY/s1600/charcoal-1568922.jpg" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjm1KRBcyjRNLAsw7_827AP6WoN-SNkAjumv2axYOQoikOqpwWzpTHrxRMqIXtu445sA5fN500IoqyH49N9eHuU9_blmdiOG8UlRM68KfeOjl1Yjy21I5W7_klDIUYqqeaw1NgNWl6zrpCY/s640/charcoal-1568922.jpg" width="550" /></a></div>
<ul>
<li>Why would we be interested in studying charcoal? It has recently been suggested as a potential carbon dioxide storage method to combat climate change (called biochar in this capacity). Instead of the photosynthetically trapped carbon dioxide being released when waste biomass decomposes it is trapped by carbonisation into stable biochar that will not break down for thousands of years. One advantage is that it can be sold as it can improve soil fertility. We need to understand the nanostructure of charcoal in order to understand how long it is stable in the ground and how best to optimise its properties. Charcoal can also be used in electronic applications and<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/originals/af/8a/f8/af8af8d8fe3e66a71780e3e83e3d57ab.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="421" data-original-width="732" src="https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/originals/af/8a/f8/af8af8d8fe3e66a71780e3e83e3d57ab.jpg" width="550" /></a></div>
</li>
<li>The currently understood nanostructure of charcoal is that it is made up sheets of carbon atoms in a "chicken wire" or hexagonal arrangement. These sheet-like molecules then stack into small graphitic disordered crystals. Below is a picture of some of these stacked regions in a char made from resin.</li>
</ul>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjv2ybVAgj_mX8RzwblQZ6MvC1k4kukpFg-idh-rfm_5DvHTh2R6_2JF-5CbQznuCbPYOT5_mPBje6Og9F7h1KvSsw3yqyngy25AOnN4lUtCCLAKp9gJk1bY9t-ShFlLeqF02tHTDmMpy4a/s1600/turbostraticatoms.png" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" height="202" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjv2ybVAgj_mX8RzwblQZ6MvC1k4kukpFg-idh-rfm_5DvHTh2R6_2JF-5CbQznuCbPYOT5_mPBje6Og9F7h1KvSsw3yqyngy25AOnN4lUtCCLAKp9gJk1bY9t-ShFlLeqF02tHTDmMpy4a/s400/turbostraticatoms.png" width="400" /></a><br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg6LXPfzjYaLYnDE_FG02Gos9bQ39Gu5idonGw5W5IARPfNYxsoBI2K5KSQovnTRxU_mSqCEXTmjmsHV2c8xv6rtobWz-GpNymCnza76Kz4y3ElSoDxh03TO6DwUC0V33dhsbDMCbVfqwB9/s1600/Guo2012.PNG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="468" data-original-width="524" height="285" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg6LXPfzjYaLYnDE_FG02Gos9bQ39Gu5idonGw5W5IARPfNYxsoBI2K5KSQovnTRxU_mSqCEXTmjmsHV2c8xv6rtobWz-GpNymCnza76Kz4y3ElSoDxh03TO6DwUC0V33dhsbDMCbVfqwB9/s320/Guo2012.PNG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">(Top) Model of stacked ribbons of carbon (Bottom) Ribbon-like graphene structures imaged in char <a href="http://doi.wiley.com/10.1002/smll.201200894" style="font-size: 12.8px;">[Guo et al. 2012]</a>. Used with permission from Wiley.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<ul>
<li>Some of the highest magnification electron microscopes have found evidence for different nanostructures not planar but curved sheet-like carbon sheets where the curvature arises from non-hexagonal rings that warp the sheets.<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjtfOz_GFodHf0XQxzPH0PHhxQx744jceZR6-ZazvVPB9ReMTOeDyabICev299cVtT6iG41rT55hbnTCuqtrehIF81L6TcqAZ5oUt0KmN1fPyxEHpRvsCoShhQE1rnUkRfVoUk9uljuBAyv/s1600/Screen+Shot+2018-02-07+at+10.12.00+PM.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="502" data-original-width="501" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjtfOz_GFodHf0XQxzPH0PHhxQx744jceZR6-ZazvVPB9ReMTOeDyabICev299cVtT6iG41rT55hbnTCuqtrehIF81L6TcqAZ5oUt0KmN1fPyxEHpRvsCoShhQE1rnUkRfVoUk9uljuBAyv/s320/Screen+Shot+2018-02-07+at+10.12.00+PM.png" width="319" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Non-hexagonal rings imaged in chars indicating curvature <a href="http://doi.wiley.com/10.1002/smll.201200894">[Guo et al. 2012]</a>. Credit permission granted from Wiley </td></tr>
</tbody></table>
</li>
<li>When scientists see curved carbon nanostructures the first thing that comes to our minds is the most famous curved carbon structures - fullerenes which are cages of carbon that form a spherical net. The most well known curved carbon molecule is C<span style="font-size: x-small;">60</span> buckminsterfullerene with atoms arranged in a similar manner to the intersection of seams in a soccer ball with 20 hexagonal rings, and 12 pentagonal rings of carbon. Given the presence of non-hexagonal rings, many suggested the nanostructure should be fullerene-like. </li>
</ul>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/3b/Buckminsterfullerene_animated.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="300" data-original-width="300" height="200" src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/3b/Buckminsterfullerene_animated.gif" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">C60 Buckminsterfullerene <a href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Buckminsterfullerene_animated.gif">Credit</a></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<ul>
<li>If charcoal is fullerene-like many researchers expected to see C<span style="font-size: xx-small;">60</span> as it was thought to be a stable form of carbon as it is readily produced in high-temperature carbon arcs, but none could be found.</li>
<li>We produced some high-quality charcoal in a gasifier, <a href="http://nznano.blogspot.com/2016/12/gasification-and-carbon-capture.html">see my other blog post on gasification for more information</a>. But for this study, it served to produce high-quality charcoal with a well-defined nanostructure so no tar or soot stuck to the surface.<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgjBxBBSmzQ7LpctuLYUVsI3WtDIcYvKw3upi9VEMacckNjlIngU939MYmm7rxbXnOYULRJCep3mGcwvpiMYjdKX_6Cxm6LMB-tZ-bBRye91hZ-4slm0DA5YhGMN5QR4i_bTuIzxz0YDVlT/s1600/microclass.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="499" data-original-width="341" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgjBxBBSmzQ7LpctuLYUVsI3WtDIcYvKw3upi9VEMacckNjlIngU939MYmm7rxbXnOYULRJCep3mGcwvpiMYjdKX_6Cxm6LMB-tZ-bBRye91hZ-4slm0DA5YhGMN5QR4i_bTuIzxz0YDVlT/s320/microclass.png" width="217" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjTNibt7Tcsu-cXHUTtlfN1-VivB0IjceXlcmrFLE069VIuqOKYS4JwpHw5sufDG6NtuNanylIiKFzjPHSEdJnBIkwH-1WFF6KZKzo5ZIogKVt4_uDAgi3_K_KxvXzZJlvRdaMw44TXIER-/s1600/Gasifierschematic.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1487" data-original-width="1600" height="296" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjTNibt7Tcsu-cXHUTtlfN1-VivB0IjceXlcmrFLE069VIuqOKYS4JwpHw5sufDG6NtuNanylIiKFzjPHSEdJnBIkwH-1WFF6KZKzo5ZIogKVt4_uDAgi3_K_KxvXzZJlvRdaMw44TXIER-/s320/Gasifierschematic.png" width="320" /></a></div>
<br /></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Gasifier was based on the Microlab gasifier from Fluidyne Gasification Ltd.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
</li>
<li>We used some of the most precise machines in the world to weigh the molecules in charcoal the Fourier Transform Ion Cyclotron Resonance Mass spectrometer (<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kiwnIMaMBvM">here is a video if you are curious about how it works from one of the authors Prof. Marshall</a>). We did not find any C<span style="font-size: x-small;">60</span> or C<span style="font-size: x-small;">70</span> in gasification charcoal as has been found before. We did however found a common ion in many charcoals (mass to charge ratio of m/z 701) which we previously thought could be part of the nanostructure as it is near to that of C<span style="font-size: x-small;">60</span> (m/z 720), but we found this to be an unstable breakdown product and not a molecule that lasted upon heating. <table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEivvC93ks2DWezbs8q9lSqrw7cU083F9bF-dKHU3xU5RL-FhfRZBK-TJcFHGdJdDGg0KtcT32ohnl53k_QQSyt2GRf54JXJqp1qZgabRYbdz0ASFKlo1OBM80R-qOkxazHd6Unfz5ah5nzo/s1600/9.4_tesla.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="797" data-original-width="1200" height="265" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEivvC93ks2DWezbs8q9lSqrw7cU083F9bF-dKHU3xU5RL-FhfRZBK-TJcFHGdJdDGg0KtcT32ohnl53k_QQSyt2GRf54JXJqp1qZgabRYbdz0ASFKlo1OBM80R-qOkxazHd6Unfz5ah5nzo/s400/9.4_tesla.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Ultra high resolution mass spectrometer</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
</li>
<li>Using a different mass spectrometer that used a laser beam to ablate the sample and create charge molecules we could look at some heavier species and consider the nanostructure. We found a collection of molecules (peaks) that matched what we had found previously in a very curved carbon prepared from C<span style="font-size: x-small;">60</span> arc-carbon that had been heated (<a href="http://nznano.blogspot.com/2017/09/behind-scenes-pt1-giant-fullerene.html">see my previous post on these experiments</a>).<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_47Lq-u2SJgFxQV7wTWsUCvJ_RABgRwEqGwmhhW3bVjoTz_M5b4DbfMOCuy2gw2yT5CUFnIKTQrME4QkxYcqS_qcqbRft5LFxDZhLEdX-DT4KE_NjMZZVbu1rmVVbac2xRb2ziGaewAKV/s1600/Fig2.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1096" data-original-width="1600" height="273" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_47Lq-u2SJgFxQV7wTWsUCvJ_RABgRwEqGwmhhW3bVjoTz_M5b4DbfMOCuy2gw2yT5CUFnIKTQrME4QkxYcqS_qcqbRft5LFxDZhLEdX-DT4KE_NjMZZVbu1rmVVbac2xRb2ziGaewAKV/s400/Fig2.png" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Mass spectrum from charcoal showing oxygenated fragments</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
</li>
</ul>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjEGObOWLxYW1hzjIp2qWRolD_5OVGcqxFsh72DHuNh88p9B5zW-byllHo-oNbWOtVCA7_nTifKtHVmhUVbnm_Vncqslv_jqbpgwYm6JKWrRoPku_UeOaOKbT189f7qRfiWZho2EUyYu42L/s1600/Screen+Shot+2018-02-07+at+10.35.38+PM.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="550" data-original-width="1195" height="183" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjEGObOWLxYW1hzjIp2qWRolD_5OVGcqxFsh72DHuNh88p9B5zW-byllHo-oNbWOtVCA7_nTifKtHVmhUVbnm_Vncqslv_jqbpgwYm6JKWrRoPku_UeOaOKbT189f7qRfiWZho2EUyYu42L/s400/Screen+Shot+2018-02-07+at+10.35.38+PM.png" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Mass spectrum from heated and oxygenated fullerene arc-carbon showing similar oxygenated species.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<ul>
<li>We found oxygen was present in all of these structures and a very similar set of molecules were found, which we could not reproduce repeating the experiment with graphite. This indicated that charcoal shares a curved oxygenated nanostructure with heat treated arc-carbon.</li>
<li>A model was developed to explore the presence of non-hexagonal rings in a 3D graphene network. </li>
</ul>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhhCuV6I8aOb_gmt5X0yi3WXvmH1zQZTZ6XCiQrz86q_R8rGdS98dWpQA0w76dsf2i5Kf8vGP6BfxNpUpsXVDG2kNKOGfPCee0GeyAkQZVeAclinrZKuj2-8GVB5V1wIphZ8Pcy-pbpRajy/s1600/StructureHRTEM2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1261" data-original-width="1600" height="315" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhhCuV6I8aOb_gmt5X0yi3WXvmH1zQZTZ6XCiQrz86q_R8rGdS98dWpQA0w76dsf2i5Kf8vGP6BfxNpUpsXVDG2kNKOGfPCee0GeyAkQZVeAclinrZKuj2-8GVB5V1wIphZ8Pcy-pbpRajy/s400/StructureHRTEM2.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Stacked fulleroid-like model of the surface of charcoal showing the integration of non-hexagonal rings</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<ul>
<li>We are now working on understanding how this curvature is integrated into the structure and what the topology (shape) of these sheets are. We also want to apply this understanding to improve technologies that rely on these materials such as carbon capture using biochar, water purification with activated carbons and energy storage applications like electrodes in batteries and supercapacitors.</li>
</ul>
<br />
<span style="text-align: justify;"><br /></span>
<br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
This project spanned a decade and involved the help of many others. <span style="text-align: justify;">I want to thank Mr Doug Williams (<a href="http://www.fluidynenz.250x.com/">Fluidyne Gasification Limited</a>) for his advice in designing and building the gasifier and Mr Peter Wilkinson (<a href="http://wtel.co.nz/">Wilkinson Transport Engineers</a>) for allowing me access to the workshop to construct the gasifier. </span>Prof. Brian Nicholson (University of Waikato) for allowing me access to the laboratory space and instruments. <span style="text-align: justify;">I would also like to thank Prof. Robert Curl </span><span style="font-family: "cmr12"; font-size: 16px; text-align: left;">(Rice University)</span><span style="text-align: justify;"> for putting me in contact with the late Prof. Harry Kroto who arranged for the application of the FT-ICR MS experiments with the group at Florida State University. Finally, I would like to thank</span><span style="font-family: "cmr12"; font-size: 16px; text-align: left;"> Assoc. Prof. Nigel Marks, Dr Irene Suarez-Martinez and Dr Carla de Toma ́s (Curtin University) for providing the annealed molecular dynamics models online, which were used and modified to construct the model seen above</span><span style="font-family: "cmr12"; font-size: 16px; text-align: left;">. </span></div>
</div>
<br /></div>
<script async="" defer="" src="//platform.instagram.com/en_US/embeds.js"></script>Jacob Martinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13042491185977653368noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6172620873343846436.post-54429545356040405122018-11-19T17:08:00.001-08:002018-11-20T04:07:04.681-08:00Looking inside soot particlesBy looking into early soot particles using a high magnification electron microscopes and a "computational microscope" we can start to construct a picture of how the molecules are arranged and better understand how to halt soot formation which is bad for human health and for our planet.<br />
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
We have recently published two papers that have approached this question from two different directions; <a href="http://como.cheng.cam.ac.uk/index.php?Page=Preprints&No=210" id="id_608a_87a8_d563_bc16">Kimberly Bowal leading the charge from the computational side</a> and <a href="http://como.cheng.cam.ac.uk/index.php?Page=Preprints&No=209" id="id_d892_40b7_bd6f_d675">Dr Maria Botero from the experimental side</a>. </div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
Together they provide an interesting picture of how mixtures of aromatic molecules are arranged in liquid soot, carbonise as they are heated in the flame and helps us better understand how to stop soot from forming or provides means of destroy them more readily.<br />
<h2>
Computational microscope</h2>
Using accurate mathematical descriptions of the interactions between atoms we can simulate the way molecules self-assemble and see inside a small soot particle. Previously our group has focused only on clusters composed of a single type of molecule. An example of a cluster of coronene is shown below.<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiUeTfH5zGGpXzbtiRyFVJUewGTgebQW8HgAOYb2JBiOCcLtj9vq2o1hI4MIVsyLBF7YIA-PTUpsS2k4hXY6qXdZqFbsXIuRgOcyjQQLI8XML8IJ3Ov094PM-UIoU1SQ8H_FdIQtrobr-b6/s1600/Screen+Shot+2018-11-17+at+12.00.17+PM.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="351" data-original-width="385" height="291" id="id_5650_4fd5_9a9b_3e85" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiUeTfH5zGGpXzbtiRyFVJUewGTgebQW8HgAOYb2JBiOCcLtj9vq2o1hI4MIVsyLBF7YIA-PTUpsS2k4hXY6qXdZqFbsXIuRgOcyjQQLI8XML8IJ3Ov094PM-UIoU1SQ8H_FdIQtrobr-b6/s320/Screen+Shot+2018-11-17+at+12.00.17+PM.png" style="height: auto; width: 320px;" width="320" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
Soot is not made up of a single molecule but many hundreds of different sized aromatic molecules. So in this paper, we wanted to study how mixtures of different sized aromatic molecules arrange themselves. There are quite a few challenges simulating such as system;</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
</div>
<ol>
<li>We can only simulate small isolated clusters otherwise the simulations will take years to compute</li>
<li>We can only simulate for a short duration of simulation time (nanoseconds) but we want to figure out what the most stable arrangement of molecules is over the timescale of soot formation (milliseconds).</li>
</ol>
The first challenge is problematic as clusters in the flame will be exchanging molecules with the gas phase. This would be too challenging to attempt with such large clusters. Instead we apply a rubber band to molecules that leave the cluster so they always rebound back to the cluster. </div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
The second challenge is overcome by simulating hundreds of each cluster in parallel all at slightly different temperatures we then exchange clusters that are more ordered with lower temperature clusters. In this way low energy orientations get cooled and quenched providing the most stable arrangement. This method is called replica exchange molecular dynamics and has been used to simulate transformation of cellulose into coals on geological timescales so it is able to really accelerate the whole simulation to flame timescales.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
The low temperature structure is also not influenced by the rubber band (as it is a solid so no evaporation occurs on simulation timescales) and therefore we are able to find out given an initial configuration of different sized aromatic molecules what is the most stable cluster geometry. </div>
<div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
Here are the results from two of the low temperature clusters (below). You can see the large aromatics on the inside and the small aromatics on the outside. We found this pattern in all of our clusters studied. Big molecules in the middle small molecules on the outside. </div>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhd43jJvoVW296h0r8FPNkYE7tsbSuWNgiQJeE-5KX4P9KtAf8gsUEh6fKIo73Gi9WUNtj4wN0gmMsZbMjX0k6KydnEFpGX_Xu_bxRKdLEsvJ8ZuJdcngsU4FLdSJ4CDx6ex5N6MjCs3Z_d/s1600/Screen+Shot+2018-11-17+at+12.42.54+PM.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="278" data-original-width="507" height="175" id="id_d06a_1c87_eca8_6d55" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhd43jJvoVW296h0r8FPNkYE7tsbSuWNgiQJeE-5KX4P9KtAf8gsUEh6fKIo73Gi9WUNtj4wN0gmMsZbMjX0k6KydnEFpGX_Xu_bxRKdLEsvJ8ZuJdcngsU4FLdSJ4CDx6ex5N6MjCs3Z_d/s320/Screen+Shot+2018-11-17+at+12.42.54+PM.png" style="height: auto; width: 422px;" width="320" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
This is also consistent with theory which suggests that the molecules with the greatest interactions would reside in the centre. But what do we see experimentally?<br />
<h2>
Electron microscope</h2>
<div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
We used an electron microscope which is able to see the aromatic molecules. In order to convert the images into numbers we used a custom program Maria wrote to convert the dark fringes seen in the image below (a) into lines (b) we can then split these lines up and measure how long they are and how curved they are.</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj5NtSUrGb0h1CwS7T4oZ6HtFkEg3kuoxS0srdeH6mjsIUGxLLXMtyfRYhVkSgo9P89Gmv9XmCWXgtAMPH9CFrzgBajV7b0k-J2k49E40E4yX8RZaGRLx2et29tbIp_bfutQhzo4GU0klc4/s1600/Screen+Shot+2018-11-17+at+12.35.56+PM.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="256" data-original-width="1111" height="90" id="id_56a4_ff16_8883_771e" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj5NtSUrGb0h1CwS7T4oZ6HtFkEg3kuoxS0srdeH6mjsIUGxLLXMtyfRYhVkSgo9P89Gmv9XmCWXgtAMPH9CFrzgBajV7b0k-J2k49E40E4yX8RZaGRLx2et29tbIp_bfutQhzo4GU0klc4/s400/Screen+Shot+2018-11-17+at+12.35.56+PM.png" style="height: auto; margin: 4px; width: 471px;" width="400" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
Here are some of the many images that Maria collected at each of these heights with the images already converting into lines. Just looking at these fingerprints you can start to see some patterns. The early soot particle contains short fringes (indicating small molecules) while the particles further downstream have long fringes around the outside and smaller fringes inside.</div>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhSAeMkHGYsqpWkuDcDHPOfFkR9YZDYZuW0brjLGnBdkOWKJx72RBUf4vtymtLUXfOGaFgTB6BAi8O2v-VyQqtT2npMucg20QPAu7d43J9nJ6CeC8YkOCexO5kLIsVQvZhWptG1GHhbRsVB/s1600/Screen+Shot+2018-11-17+at+12.36.19+PM.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="571" data-original-width="446" height="640" id="id_4a5d_e393_210c_36f4" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhSAeMkHGYsqpWkuDcDHPOfFkR9YZDYZuW0brjLGnBdkOWKJx72RBUf4vtymtLUXfOGaFgTB6BAi8O2v-VyQqtT2npMucg20QPAu7d43J9nJ6CeC8YkOCexO5kLIsVQvZhWptG1GHhbRsVB/s640/Screen+Shot+2018-11-17+at+12.36.19+PM.png" style="height: auto; width: 497px;" width="497" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
We also found that the fringes in the smallest particles are really quite curved. The fringes suggest that over 60% of the aroamtics at the lowest height above the burner contain pentagonal rings indicating curvature. You can look at a blog post on the impact of these curved aromatic which we published earlier this year.</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
We also found that at the lowest height you have longer fringes in the middle of the particle compared with the outside. From the computational studies this indicates these early soot cluster are liquid. </div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
But as you go through the flame this pattern inverts with long fringes around the outside and smaller molecules molecules in the middle. This suggests they are no longer liquid clusters but are now starting to chemically react in the high temperatures (carbonising) and forming longer aromatics when two fuse to become one. This makes sense of recent nanoindentation studies that show that soot that has gone through the entire flame is actually quite hard when you isolate a single soot sphere almost the same hardness as charcoal.</div>
</div>
<h2>
Hypotheses to test</h2>
<div>
What are planning to do next and how are we going to extend this work</div>
<div>
<ul>
<li>We have been talking with other collaborators on using nanoindentation to study early soot particles to confirm if they are indeed liquid. </li>
<li>If we can understand how the carbonisation process occurs we can limit this process. From imaging of soot as they are broken down it was found that the outer shell is the last part to burn away making it important to reduce this can be achieved by lowering the temperature and inhibiting the particles grow too large.</li>
<li>We have also been considering clusters of curved molecules and seeing if the same trends of partitioning hold. They certainly look quite different (see below).</li>
</ul>
</div>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgUyhdiL2VOUhY7pXaTiMPpiKjroBXNOZyvj6NPu3GBYLox96Kra-Yp-hsqDcrZezGH6YzkpBqbX6cKUiZKkkMIDQwxhnmqR-ogeOWCmN9l8vfSvwnreaQoqFLsYLt7FuskIBElRpzeXHE-/s1600/Screen+Shot+2018-11-17+at+12.00.22+PM.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="365" data-original-width="415" height="281" id="id_8bab_7cd_a769_73c5" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgUyhdiL2VOUhY7pXaTiMPpiKjroBXNOZyvj6NPu3GBYLox96Kra-Yp-hsqDcrZezGH6YzkpBqbX6cKUiZKkkMIDQwxhnmqR-ogeOWCmN9l8vfSvwnreaQoqFLsYLt7FuskIBElRpzeXHE-/s320/Screen+Shot+2018-11-17+at+12.00.22+PM.png" style="height: auto; width: 320px;" width="320" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
So through a combination of computational and experimental studies we have been able to understand how different sized aromatics partition inside soot particles with the arrangement of longer aromatic molecules switching from the inside to the outside of the soot spheres <span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">indicating that early on liquid clusters give way to carbonised clusters.</span></div>
<br /></div>
Jacob Martinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13042491185977653368noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6172620873343846436.post-43977999383922239992018-10-01T21:40:00.002-07:002018-10-01T21:44:28.788-07:00Nanotechnology demo using augmented reality<div style="text-align: left;">
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEicEsRpDKMWc27osq5MbUH8qWBnlD_LLUjIkhoUUgZvEpd5Z2h06XGvcePsZcNdalthbx5QJE019PLRGn01zS4A7MtwQjYzYM0Q6ujoHyelrzvi_Uby_FeKf-9o3uEFDCxtxkSBH8e-v_7J/s1600/IMG_0921.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEicEsRpDKMWc27osq5MbUH8qWBnlD_LLUjIkhoUUgZvEpd5Z2h06XGvcePsZcNdalthbx5QJE019PLRGn01zS4A7MtwQjYzYM0Q6ujoHyelrzvi_Uby_FeKf-9o3uEFDCxtxkSBH8e-v_7J/s640/IMG_0921.JPG" width="550" /></a></div>
<br />
We recently went to the SWITCH technology conference to showcase the different nanomaterials that the chemists in the program make, but how do you show them to people if they are only a few tens of nanometres across. We came up with an augmented reality demo which uses the nyar4psg library in processing allowing for the 3D models of the nanostructures to be picked up and observed in a webcam. </div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<iframe allow="autoplay; encrypted-media" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/yUQd8lsSPeM" width="560"></iframe>
</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
The business cards on which we printed the visual barcodes for the AR had the material description and link to the academic manuscript printed on the other side of the card. We also had a petri dish with the powder showing the actual material at the macroscale.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjo0QW6G3mJWs2YiaRn4-pKosNSul3gb1mvWd0q4GTwZg9_PBwSFa99Cb9mS9FGixWMwGIMkPx1DZJIXT5FH5PbKbmu53JMRGY4IrFshGQgOua1TMa3-ejGKYyp6vX-8zA2lScWF7qS-Nir/s1600/IMG_6748.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjo0QW6G3mJWs2YiaRn4-pKosNSul3gb1mvWd0q4GTwZg9_PBwSFa99Cb9mS9FGixWMwGIMkPx1DZJIXT5FH5PbKbmu53JMRGY4IrFshGQgOua1TMa3-ejGKYyp6vX-8zA2lScWF7qS-Nir/s640/IMG_6748.JPG" width="550" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<a href="https://github.com/nzjakemartin/ARNano">I have uploaded the sketch with the 3D models if you want to replicate the demo. You will need to install the video and nyar4psg library which does all of the grunt work.</a> Thanks to Nick Jose, Kwok Mingyao Kelvin, Wang Jingjing and Louise Martin for helping put it all together.</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
By clicking any button on the keyboard it would take a selfie allowing people to take selfies with the nanomaterials which was a lot of fun. Here are some of my favourites.</div>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en" style="text-align: center;">
<div dir="ltr" lang="en">
<div style="text-align: center;">
Photos from <a href="https://twitter.com/SwitchSingapore?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@SwitchSingapore</a> of visitors enjoying the photo booth. Come and join us tomorrow to learn more about <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/CambridgeCARESnanotech?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#CambridgeCARESnanotech</a> <a href="https://t.co/1GlwJpV56N">pic.twitter.com/1GlwJpV56N</a></div>
</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
— Cambridge CARES (@cambridge_cares) <a href="https://twitter.com/cambridge_cares/status/1041702189251457024?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">September 17, 2018</a></div>
</blockquote>
<script async="" charset="utf-8" src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script>
Jacob Martinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13042491185977653368noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6172620873343846436.post-71527821449511843602018-09-03T22:29:00.002-07:002018-09-04T00:09:44.007-07:00Fingerprinting soot: finding curved aromatics in soot<div style="text-align: center;">
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjsoL1Zgauk7iGTN73sZ3YAR4Vp9JIPZ9VCWegL1LAUnkXbdc6f8EGABxBQNqCMW6aIHoSvcJFtzF539IPpWG2_WvJXUhHcPkUSuyqqfcJ6B8k9n3nQpvUOvSbCDFkOmMwGrOMnJcBzHlni/s1600/g7261.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjsoL1Zgauk7iGTN73sZ3YAR4Vp9JIPZ9VCWegL1LAUnkXbdc6f8EGABxBQNqCMW6aIHoSvcJFtzF539IPpWG2_WvJXUhHcPkUSuyqqfcJ6B8k9n3nQpvUOvSbCDFkOmMwGrOMnJcBzHlni/s640/g7261.png" width="550" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Fingerprints of molecules in soot particles imaged in an electron microscope showing curved species in the early flame. </td></tr>
</tbody></table>
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Fingerprinting is a unique way of identifying people by reading off the ridges found on a person's fingers. In a new paper, I and some colleagues used an electron microscope to image the fingerprint of aromatic molecules in early soot particles, finding evidence for a large number of curved molecules, which could be important for reducing soot pollution. Here is a <a href="https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acs.jpcc.8b08264">link to the paper</a> or to the open access <a href="http://como.cheng.cam.ac.uk/index.php?Page=Preprints&No=207">preprint</a>, "Flexoelectricity and the Formation of Carbon Nanoparticles in Flames". Here is a short video explaining the findings.<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<iframe allow="autoplay; encrypted-media" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="305" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/7q86zEEI3jc?rel=0" width="550"></iframe></div>
</div>
<br />
Soot emissions cause many deaths around the world while also contributing to global warming, but scientists are still at a loss to explain how soot is formed. <a href="http://nznano.blogspot.com/2018/06/can-curved-molecules-help-reduce-soot.html">We have previously suggested a new mechanism where aromatic molecules curve via pentagon integration and become electrically polarised, interacting strongly with charged species produced in the flame.</a> However, as of yet, no one had measured just how curved (and therefore polar) the molecules are in the early soot particles.<br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<img alt="Image result for soot from a ship" height="358" src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/24/Ship_Maneuvering_out_of_Port_S.Louis_du_Rhone%2C_near_Marseille.jpg" width="400" /></div>
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
To answer this question we imaged the molecules in soot on the nanoscale. To collect some soot we injected a small copper grid covered in amorphous carbon into a flame very similar to a candle. Soot stuck to the amorphous carbon and using an electron microscope we were able to image the molecules in the soot particles sticking to the grid. As you can see in the first image of this post we could convert the dark regions of the image, corresponding to aromatic molecules on their side, into lines. We could determine how many molecules that we imaged indicate pentagonal ring integration and we found this value to be greater than 62.5% of the fringes. This high amount suggests that they are important for soot formation.</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;">
We found even in the earliest soot particles sampled at the lowest height, which give us the most insight into soot formation, long fringes 0.9-1.0 nm in length are present (around 15 aromatic rings). We then simulated three curved aromatic molecules of the same length with one, two and three pentagonal rings, providing different amounts of curvature, and computed the tortuosity/curvature. From this analysis, we could conclude that early soot particles (at 10 mm above the flame) have a tortuosity/curvature indicating that two pentagons rings are integrated. Below is a figure of the molecule which corresponds to the average species around 1 nm in width with two pentagonal carbon rings. </div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<div style="text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjM8SIH9iyUG30kFCTJcvvI4q6K5Auhg2PXOcO0AAACZm4eZu4oJWk3q9ZZflSIxYwXDMjNYtg8Y8NL4tfWH4twTOCikaTlsanH6evSTtM1p0l9i53hqsZC0241KzVY21WoQvPxaNQuPE-G/s1600/structure2.PNG" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjM8SIH9iyUG30kFCTJcvvI4q6K5Auhg2PXOcO0AAACZm4eZu4oJWk3q9ZZflSIxYwXDMjNYtg8Y8NL4tfWH4twTOCikaTlsanH6evSTtM1p0l9i53hqsZC0241KzVY21WoQvPxaNQuPE-G/s200/structure2.PNG" width="185" /></a> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjTBdGPL-Zp4faaV_RTPX0mLLzAnyQKnWCjrvGzjDHkxWdctUJgWDfxHsU95YuEMrUtNUMc3IM5B0iD9qW54DyRoSyBB7ii5Rb8LWHXakZk64Lgjkyso33MK8EDYGSJJ9So-G0Gwg0jd8Ua/s1600/15rings2pent6.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="512" data-original-width="512" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjTBdGPL-Zp4faaV_RTPX0mLLzAnyQKnWCjrvGzjDHkxWdctUJgWDfxHsU95YuEMrUtNUMc3IM5B0iD9qW54DyRoSyBB7ii5Rb8LWHXakZk64Lgjkyso33MK8EDYGSJJ9So-G0Gwg0jd8Ua/s200/15rings2pent6.gif" width="200" /></a></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Computing the electric polarisation due to the curved structure, we found a large value of 5.32 debye - around three times that of water, which is substantial. Below is a plot of the electric potential around the molecules introduced earlier.<br />
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhdNcqxIPYWb5sS7iRmQSGaf1q3c9cFu8q_AU3XxBK9PdhA6quUieiqmWBBSYPIwWWwPCl6dQCzLHRAnReBqFpo55hktQQx1CL8tN_oUGh0u8ZySKhi62d5bGjj8ApgxUH7-2D8kgjtiXem/s1600/ESP15rings2pent.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" height="232" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhdNcqxIPYWb5sS7iRmQSGaf1q3c9cFu8q_AU3XxBK9PdhA6quUieiqmWBBSYPIwWWwPCl6dQCzLHRAnReBqFpo55hktQQx1CL8tN_oUGh0u8ZySKhi62d5bGjj8ApgxUH7-2D8kgjtiXem/s320/ESP15rings2pent.png" width="320" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;">
We found this molecule bound very strongly to charged chemi-ions which are produced in abundance in the flame, using computer simulations. </div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhfVWA5vxJ1U6biM1mL8lqKvPx6wCMjEl8o9VxhX5PJzrvhPX6JhoLS2B58xNn-sJ6qgG9zs4FB6KmyYQ-P21yktcrysSahzOS6lPsDn5MwXlq9PyU2YYqP9r2IxxTkc3oAfp4cNWlyOjoo/s1600/TOC8.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhfVWA5vxJ1U6biM1mL8lqKvPx6wCMjEl8o9VxhX5PJzrvhPX6JhoLS2B58xNn-sJ6qgG9zs4FB6KmyYQ-P21yktcrysSahzOS6lPsDn5MwXlq9PyU2YYqP9r2IxxTkc3oAfp4cNWlyOjoo/s640/TOC8.jpg" width="550" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;">
The strong interactions of these polar aromatic with chemi-ions need to be explored in more detail as it might help explain many of the electrical effects that have been seen, such as the ability of an electric field to stop soot formation in certain circumstances.</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
</div>
Jacob Martinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13042491185977653368noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6172620873343846436.post-79695831231474031362018-08-13T07:55:00.000-07:002018-09-08T03:13:39.804-07:0037th International Symposium on Combustion<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhI7R2JXn4enegnZrr7Swd4nRcyL0DpK5DDLeVnx1fikPDMSia3brHOaNJWS5tJv-dpi7JTplMk5vZ1TnPCHjGkwjLLEEvUahNK4tppJG4kAiS-DSTHSOP3UYZOrXu6YGdbsr6p4ZGGmghl/s1600/home.9c13e9e.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="544" data-original-width="1220" height="177" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhI7R2JXn4enegnZrr7Swd4nRcyL0DpK5DDLeVnx1fikPDMSia3brHOaNJWS5tJv-dpi7JTplMk5vZ1TnPCHjGkwjLLEEvUahNK4tppJG4kAiS-DSTHSOP3UYZOrXu6YGdbsr6p4ZGGmghl/s400/home.9c13e9e.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;">
tl;dr >1800 combustion scientists descended on Dublin last week to clean up combustion and pave the way for low carbon fuels. I gave my first talk at an international conference, where we suggested a new mechanism for soot formation based on curved aromatic molecules. </div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjzX8fjL2JzfNdKXjUMhrzyk7wDLDwx9L_KPApw_KTaj3MIMgQH6iCDGjliDBq-9C9Z445Q3f_J0NrZc9N-drShNaIcdQ5ooYUh10uCcSaHJ4dJPJnhNrQ0m-1BjHI7W6ZiRRhjQBj2Uh13/s1600/IMG_6441.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjzX8fjL2JzfNdKXjUMhrzyk7wDLDwx9L_KPApw_KTaj3MIMgQH6iCDGjliDBq-9C9Z445Q3f_J0NrZc9N-drShNaIcdQ5ooYUh10uCcSaHJ4dJPJnhNrQ0m-1BjHI7W6ZiRRhjQBj2Uh13/s400/IMG_6441.JPG" width="400" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;">
Over the last week, I have been in Dublin joining with a group of scientists from around the world to better understand combustion. This biannual conference has been going on since 1928 and has a strong community of scientists from universities and industry. </div>
<h2 style="clear: both; text-align: justify;">
Why study combustion?</h2>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
You might be fooled into thinking combustion is a dying field with the world transitioning from fossil fuels to electric transportation. However, this would be too small a view of the field of combustion. In the near future we need to be transitioning our current combustion engines to use low-carbon fuels such as biofuels, hydrogen and perhaps ammonia. This was a large part of the discussion at the conference. Carbon soot, or particulates from combustion, contribute substantially to global warming and by understanding the formation of soot many hope we will be able to quickly remove this contribution from combustion.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Combustion research doesn't just focus on combustion for transport and heating - surprisingly, many common materials are produced in flames. Car tires are full of very stable carbon particles which are formed in a furnace. These carbon blacks also hold onto the lithium in our batteries allowing us to store electricity in our laptop or cellphone. Practically all of the white titania (titanium dioxide) powder in paint is formed in a flame. The optical fibres that provide us with high-speed internet are made from very pure silica, which can only be produced in a flame. A large part of the symposium was focused on these materials and making new novel materials in flames. </div>
<div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
<h2>
What happens if we put the flame in there?</h2>
</div>
<div>
<span style="text-align: justify;">I saw talks from people who have put flames in space, super high pressure, vacuum chambers, synchrotrons, high magnetic fields, high voltage electric fields. In this section, I want to show some of the amazing experimental setups and instruments that were presented in talks and posters that are working on understanding soot formation.</span></div>
<div>
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<img alt="Image result for international space station" height="255" src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/04/International_Space_Station_after_undocking_of_STS-132.jpg" width="400" /></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><img alt="Image result for Electric-Field Effects on Laminar Diffusion Flames" height="212" src="https://gipoc.grc.nasa.gov/wp/fcf-cir/wp-content/uploads/sites/14/2016/09/20110706-iss.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" width="400" /></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Flame experiments in space</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><img height="170" src="https://ccws.kaust.edu.sa/PublishingImages/flames.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" width="400" /></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Flame spray burners using biofuels imaged with lasers [<a href="https://ccws.kaust.edu.sa/">Image Creidt: Kaust</a>]</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><img height="266" src="https://microscopy-analysis.com/sites/default/files/Image3-IBMteam.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" width="400" /><br />
<img alt="Atomic force microscopy images of molecules found in soot" height="224" src="https://media.nature.com/w700/magazine-assets/d41586-018-05598-9/d41586-018-05598-9_15899046.jpg" width="400" /></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Imaging of single soot molecules using atomic force microscopes.<br />
[<a href="https://microscopy-analysis.com/editorials/editorial-listings/profile-leo-gross-playing-atoms">Image credit:IBM Research-Zurich</a> and <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-018-05598-9">F. Schulz et al./Proc. Combust. Inst.</a>]</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<img alt="Image result for soleil synchrotron" height="266" src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/6e/VueAerienneSynchrotronSOLEIL.jpg" width="400" /></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><img height="133" src="https://www.synchrotron-soleil.fr/sites/default/files/actualites/041204-desirs-1.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" width="400" /></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Flame probed with an intense beam of x-rays from a stadium-sized instrument [<a href="https://www.synchrotron-soleil.fr/en/news/novel-flame-experiment-based-upon-coincidence-spectroscopy-demonstrates-multiplex-detection">Image Credit: Soilel</a>]</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
These new experimental setups are helping us to make leaps and bounds in our understanding of soot formation. Pentagonal rings and radicals were found to be prevalent in aromatic molecules in soot, which were previously thought to contain mainly hexagonal arrangements of carbons and could change the way these molecules self-assemble and react. However, we are still lacking some critical mechanistic understandings of soot formation. </div>
</div>
<h2>
Soot formation and curved aromatics </h2>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
I presented a talk on the mechanism for soot formation and the impact of polar aromatic molecules. I have embedded a copy of the slides below.</div>
</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="390" marginheight="0" marginwidth="0" scrolling="no" src="//www.slideshare.net/slideshow/embed_code/key/uu7BoDKeQy79Ll" style="border-width: 1px; border: 1px solid #ccc; margin-bottom: 5px; max-width: 100%;" width="595"> </iframe> <br />
<div style="margin-bottom: 5px;">
<strong> <a href="https://www.slideshare.net/JakeMartin14/polar-curved-polycyclic-aromatic-hydrocarbons-in-soot-formation" target="_blank" title="Polar curved polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in soot formation">Polar curved polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in soot formation</a> </strong> from <strong><a href="https://www.slideshare.net/JakeMartin14" target="_blank">Jacob Martin</a></strong> </div>
</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
We received some excellent questions and suggestions from the community on how to extend these preliminary suggestions in order to test this hypothesis.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
An exciting presentation from Francesco Carbone showed evidence that positive ions and not negative ions continue to grow into the soot particles (<a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0010218017300688">some of the early work is found in a paper last year</a>), which is what you would expect from the soot nucleation mechanism we are suggesting. </div>
</div>
<div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
</div>
<div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
The great fun of this conference was meeting all of the other researchers from around the world and picking each other's brains over meals and pints of Guinness. Below is a picture of the Kraft research group which was the most numerous we have sent to a combustion symposium so far. Hopefully next symposium two years from now we will be closer to understanding how soot forms and whether these curved molecules contribute.</div>
</div>
</div>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEieZv3_5E1H-AZuyGQTbfuT2Pm8ed-G9MwYpiAdTknEykSnfGTrCWvcse2sJ12dw0M8EayImqwFIUQOJajKCCBgktjeAfWph36ZMP_LPuIwvl_ykyLUsKznNHUMnIuSPY1rz2W54Pc-8PD-/s1600/37thISOCgroupphoto.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEieZv3_5E1H-AZuyGQTbfuT2Pm8ed-G9MwYpiAdTknEykSnfGTrCWvcse2sJ12dw0M8EayImqwFIUQOJajKCCBgktjeAfWph36ZMP_LPuIwvl_ykyLUsKznNHUMnIuSPY1rz2W54Pc-8PD-/s400/37thISOCgroupphoto.jpeg" width="400" /></a></div>
Jacob Martinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13042491185977653368noreply@blogger.com0