Funceramics presents latest results of SERENA TED2021-132779B-I00 project at the LIX National Conference of The Spanish Society of Ceramics and Glass (SECV), held in Zaragoza (ES), from 11 to 14 June 2024.

Our award-collector student, Ana Castellanos Aliaga, achieves a new trophy: 2nd prize in the Confocal Photography Contest 'Arte al Microscopio', organised by the Unidad de Cultura Científica de la Universidad Autónoma de Madrid (UCCUAM) and the Laboratorio de Microscopía Confocal del SidI-UAM. The winning piece was entitled 'Fireworks of zinc oxide'.

Graphical abstract of our last manuscript on the use of graphene oxide-thiosemicarbazone hybrids towards the immobilisation of methylene blue and functional coumarins, a collaboration with the team of Sofia Pascu in UBath (UK), has been selected for Inside Cover in Nanoscale Advances.

A second keynote lecture has been confirmed in the specialised symposium co-organised by Funceramics at the LIX SECV Conference to be held in Zaragoza from 11 to 14 June: Dr Beatriz Julian Lopez from Universitat Jaume I (UJI), will speak on 'Non-conventional solution-processed metal halide perovskite materials for optoelectronic applications'. Check more info here.

Team mate Carlos Gumiel visits the Bernal Institute at the University of Limerick, IRELAND, to deliver a talk on the Sustainable Preparation of Thin Film Electroceramics and establish new cooperation links in the field of sustainable processing of cutting-edge nanomaterials.

Template-free hydrothermal preparation of IR-blue light upconverting NaYF₄:YB,Eu phosphors
C. Ruiz-Santaquiteria, D.G. Calatayud, K. Gutiérrez, M. Villegas, M. Peiteado, T. Jardiel
Boletín de la Sociedad Española de Cerámica y Vidrio (2023).
DOI: 10.1016/j.bsecv.2023.07.004
OPEN ACCESS PUBLICATION

Funceramics is co-organising a specialised symposium at the LIX SECV Conference to be held in Zaragoza from 11 to 14 June. The symposium is devoted to ceramic materials with applications in electronics and energy, and will feature the participation of Dr Blanca Arias Serrano from the Iberian Centre for Research in Energy Storage (CIIAE), who will speak a keynote on 'Advanced electrodes for solid oxide cells'. Check more info here.

The EU H2020 ROADMAP project (grant no. 101004052) with the participation of Funceramics, has been selected by the CORDIS service of the European Commission as a SHOWCASE for its key work in understanding the role of dust and clouds on Mars atmosphere.

Synthesis, characterization, and photocatalytic activity for water remediation and hydrogen evolution of Zn(II) and Ni(II) bis(thiosemicarbazone) complexes
R. Buron, D. Jiménez-Gómez, D.G. Calatayud, A. Iglesias-Juez, F. Fresno, M.A. Mendiola, E. López-Torres
Applied Organometallic Chemistry (2024).
DOI: 10.1002/aoc.7408
OPEN ACCESS PUBLICATION

On the occasion of the IX Festival of Nanoscience and Nanotechnology, our colleague Marco Peiteado visits the IES Alto Jarama (Torrelaguna, Madrid) and the IES Francisco Giner de los Rios (Alcobendas) to learn the youngsters on the impressive possibilities of Ceramic Nanomaterials. Nanoworld comes to school to awaken STEM vocations!!

Team mate Carlos Gumiel collaborates in the organisation of this event at the Escuela Politécnica Superior de la Universidad Nebrija, with the aim of informing the university audience and the general public about the relevance of studying materials in all their complexity. He is also giving a presentation on Sustainable manufacturing of thin-film nanomaterials for the electronics industry. More info here

Shedding light on the use of graphene oxide-thiosemicarbazone hybrids towards the rapid immobilisation of methylene blue and functional coumarins
D. Bradley, S. Sarpaki, V. Mirabello, S.G. Giuffrida, G.I. Kociok-Köhn, D.G. Calatayud, S.I. Pascu
Nanoscale Advances (2024).
DOI: 10.1039/D3NA01042B
OPEN ACCESS PUBLICATION

Experimental phase function and degree of linear polarization of light scattered by hydrogenated amorphous carbon circumstellar dust analogs
J.C. Gómez-Martín, O. Muñoz, J. Martikainen, D. Guirado, I. Tanarro, J.R. Peláez, B. Maté. M. Jiménez-Redondo, V.J. Herrero, M. Peiteado, T. Jardiel
The Astrophysical Journal Supplement Series 270 (1), art. 2 (2024).
DOI: 10.3847/1538-4365/ad0379
OPEN ACCESS PUBLICATION

FPU student Ana Castellanos-Aliaga completes a 1-month stay with Dr Jurij Koruza's group at the Graz University of Technology, Austria. Framed within the activities of the CSIC LINKA20419 Hyena project, the visit focuses on the preparation of porous piezoelectrics by freeze-casting and will have its continuation in Madrid (ICV labs) with the subsequent deposition of semi-conducting TiO₂ nanoparticles.

In a new edition of the Master in Applied Chemistry of the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, team mate Marco Peiteado coordinates the participation of ICV-CSIC professors in the specific subject of Advanced Materials.

Members of Funceramics travel to the Escuela Técnica Superior de Ingenieros Industriales de Ciudad Real, Universidad de Castilla-La Mancha (ETSII-UCLM), to evaluate the possibilities of sintering multiferroic nanoceramics using Concentrated Solar Energy.

The H2020 RoadMap project, its teams and their research are represented in this temporary exhibition at the Spanish National Museum of Science and Technology (MUNCYT) in Alcobendas, Madrid. The exhibition covers various aspects of the research carried out in this project to determine the role of dust in the Martian atmosphere and features several posters, animated videos and a couple of scale models of the ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter probe and the Nomad instrument.