IMC is looking for a postdoctoral researcher/project researcher in the project ”JÄMOMAT – From waste to next-generation molecular materials” funded by Jane and Aatos Erkko Foundation and Technology Industries of Finland Centennial Foundation. The fixed term position starts at the earliest on 1st of August 2023 (or upon mutual agreement) and lasts until the end of August 2025.
Read the whole job description at
Today, doctoral researcher Hannah Byron organized a small party to celebrate her latest article “New shades of photochromism – yellow sodalites for the detection of blue light“, for which she had baked cupcakes herself. Standing next to Hannah is MSc Teppo Kreivilä, who was also one of the authors of the article. It was published in the Journal of Materials Chemistry C (impact factor 8.067), and can be found at: https://doi.org/10.1039/D3TC00116D
Congratulations Hannah!
Today was the Demo Day of the universities of Turku, which was organized for the 1st year students of local high schools. IMC got two groups, to whom Professor Mika showed the always so fascinating synthesis of luminescent materials by combustion reaction.
We had the first meeting of the Soda-Lights project. With Sami and Mika from IMC, we have expert collaborators Prof. Mark Weller (Cardiff, UK), Prof. Henrik Friis (Oslo, Norway), Dr. Ludo van Goethem (Antwerp, Belgium), Prof. Tangui Le Bahers (Lyon, France), Dr. Miradije Rama (Espoo, Finland) and Prof. Esa Heilimo (Turku, Finland). The project is now well on the way with interesting results to be expected.
IMC received funding from the Foundation for Research of Natural Resources in Finland for a three-year project called Soda-Lights, which is a pun on “sodalites”: as many already know, hackmanite, a wonder material belonging to the group of sodalite minerals, shines visible light under UV radiation. In this project, the aim is to produce these luminescent sodalites using Finland’s national mineral resources, and its main purpose is to produce white light in LEDs. Sodalites contain elements that are not endangered or rare, in contrast to cerium-doped yttrium aluminum garnet (YAG:Ce), which contains non-sustainable elements and is used in LEDs today.
Meet Madara Tomele, an international student from Latvia. She is doing her project work at IMC, focusing on hackmanite research. You can run into Madara in the big lab in Aurum.
Hackmanite’s popularity expanded again when Tomi Kangasniemi, an experienced journalist from the Keskisuomalainen Group, visited Aurum to interview Mika, Isabella and Sami about hackmanite research and the uses of the material. The story was published on Dec 28 and ended up in at least 18 different newspapers: Keskisuomalainen, Karjalainen, Aamuposti, Itä-Savo, Etelä-Suomen Sanomat, Kymen Sanomat, Länsi-Savo, Uusimaa, Etelä-Saimaa, Itä-Häme, Länsi-Uusimaa, Savon Sanomat, Hämeen Sanomat , Keski-Uusimaa, Iisalmen Sanomat, Forssan Lehti, Kouvolan Sanomat and Warkauden Lehti. Read the article (€) at https://www.ksml.fi/uutissuomalainen/5619263
Anssi and Sami visited the University of Jyväskylä on Tuesday and Wednesday to get a single-crystal X-ray diffractometer, which we don’t have at our chemistry department. After arriving in Jyväskylä on Tuesday afternoon, all the peripherals were removed from the device and it was strapped, and on Wednesday morning Martela’s movers came to move it with a safe dolly to the van.
In Turku, Muuttohaukat’s men wheeled the device into our X-ray lab. Everything went successfully and according to plans, and right at the beginning of the year we will get it up and running.
With the device, it is possible to acquire information about substances made into crystalline form in such a way that their three-dimensional structure can be resolved with the help of the diffraction pattern of the sample. The method is especially used to determine the structures of IMC’s organometallic compounds, but the new device is expected to be used by synthetic chemists in the entire Department of Chemistry, as well as more widely by researchers at the University of Turku and Åbo Akademi University. Special thanks to JYU’s Kari Rissanen, Heikki Tuononen, Manu Lahtinen, and Samu Forsblom!
The 1st Annual Science Day of the Faculty of Science was on last week’s Thursday. Prof. Mika gave a lecture on hackmanites and their applications.