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We’re delighted to announce that the 2012 Materials Today Virtual Conference on Nanotechnology is now open! All of the content will remain online for you to view at your leisure, but if you want to get involved in the live events, then make sure you log on before it’s too late:
At the end of the conference we’ll be announcing two poster winners: one selected by the Materials Today Editorial team – and one selected by the conference delegates: over the course of the 11-13th, we’ll see which poster is viewed the most times, thus deciding the winner of the Delegate award. So make sure you head over to the poster hall before it’s too late. And let your fellow delegates know your favorite by tweeting #MTconference
We have some question and answer sessions still to come – so make sure you view the presentations and submit your questions. The remaining Q&A session times are:
Nanomedicine: From increasing tissue growth to toxicity concerns
Thomas J. Webster - 2pm GMT, 12th December
Heat and noise in graphene: Unique properties and practical applications
Alexander A. Balandin - 5pm GMT, 12th December
Nano-boron-nitrides
Dmitri Golberg - 2pm GMT, 13th December
Meet the Editor (Welcome address)
Stewart Bland - 4pm GMT, 13th December
A series of surveys is running throughout the event, at the end of each presentation. To take part in the survey, make sure you watch the presentation before the Q&A session.
We’d like to thank everyone that took the time to submit a poster: we received hundreds more posters than expected, and so were unable to feature them all. We hope that next time, we’ll be able to offer many, many more.
Yesterday in the conference, Dave Adams and Yugang Sun answered questions about hydrogels and nanoparticles synthesis. Their Q&A sessions included:
Stewart (Materials Today):
Can you tell us a little about the range of applications of hydrogels?
Dave Adams:
Gels like these have been used for a range of applications for example cell culturing, controlled release, energy transfer and conductivity. These applications require specific material and mechanical properties, which is why we’re trying to understand how to control and fine-tune these.
Mike Weir:
Isn't a self-assembled gel less robust than say a polymer hydrogel due to the nature of the rosslinks?
Dave Adams:
Yes, definitely less robust than many polymer covalently-cross-linked gels. They normally break at quite low strains (say <2%). So, for some things, this can be useful. It means that gels that re-heal can be injected easily for example, which can be hard to do with a robust polymer gel. Also, depending on the application, the reversibility of the gel formation can be a benefit.
Mike Weir:
How did you first get in to working on hydrogels?
Dave Adams:
I used to work in Unilever, so spent some time looking at things like gels, self-assembled structures etc. Changed my focus from organic synthesis more to materials chemistry. I think this area is really interesting since it is so difficult to actually link structure to properties and there is a lot or interesting work to be done in terms of working out the importance of formulation on the final gel properties.
Ning-Cheng Lee:
I am trying to synthesize nano-Ag crystal plate. Could you advise about how should I approach it? Including what crystal orientation should I restrict on growth, and how?
Yugang Sun:
The silver nanoplates are mainly bounded by the (111) crystalline facets. You may have to find the capping molecules that can restrict the growth along the (111) directions. There are many papers published for the synthesis of silver nanoplates. If the reaction kinetics is controlled correctly, it is straightforward to synthesize silver nanoplates. If you are interested in some details, we can discuss later.
Mike Weir:
How well do we understand the toxicity of the nanostructures that you synthesize?
Yugang Sun:
Toxicity study of nanoparticles has been a concern to the public in the past several years. As a consequence, research activities have been initiated in these area accordingly. To be honest, we now know very little regarding the toxicity of nanoparticles, in particular, in the living systems. Sometime we need the toxicity of nanoparticles for treatment, for example, antibacterial activity of silver nanoparticles for large-area skin burn. I believe better understanding will be achieved as more research is done.
Stewart (Materials Today):
As part of our survey, we asked delegates how they would describe themselves: most said a physicist or chemist, over materials scientist. How would you describe yourself and your work?
Yugang Sun:
I was trained with electrochemistry background (Ph.D.) and materials chemistry (Postdoc). The training experience shaped me to persist in synthesizing nanoparticles with quality as high as possible. The high-quality of nanoparticles is very important to reveal the novel properties of these nanoparticles. I have shown two examples in the presentation. Understanding these novel properties will in turn help us better design and exploit their applications with improved performance.
See you at the conference! #MTconference
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