New publication and a heads up for the spring

Newest publication from the metal-organic part of our group can be found below.

In addition to the publications, for this spring we have two incoming dissertations. Emilia has her dissertation in April and Isabella in May, so don’t miss out!

Salonen, P., Peuronen, A., Sinkkonen, J., and Lehtonen, A. “Oxidovanadium(v) complexes with L-proline-based amino acid phenolates” Inorg. Chim. Acta 489 (2019) 108-114.
Read online: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ica.2019.02.011

New publications

Some new publications added into the year 2019! You can choose to read about oxovanadium complexes or if you’re more interested in luminescent materals you can choose between clays and glass materials.

Ojha, N., Tuomisto, M., Lastusaari, M., and Petit, L. “Phosphate glasses with blue persistent luminescence prepared using the direct doping methods” Opt. Mater. 87 (2019) 151-156.
Read online: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.optmat.2018.03.063

Santos, H.S., Laihinen, T., Rodrigues, L.C.V., Sinkkonen, J., Mäkilä, E., Damlin, P., Nakamura, L.K.O., Brito, H.F., Hölsä, J., and Lastusaari, M., “Red- and green-emitting nano-clay materials doped with Eu3+ and/or Tb3+Luminescence 1 (2019) 23-38.
Read online: http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/bio.3561

Sobhanadhas, L.S., Kesavan, L., Lastusaari, M., and Fardim, P., “Layered Double Hydroxide-Cellulose Hybrid Beads: A Novel Catalyst for Topochemical Grafting of Pulp Fibers” ACS Omega 4 (2019) 320-330.
Read online: http://dx.doi.org/10.1021/acsomega.8b03061

Hossain, M.K., Haukka, M., Lisensky, G.C., Lehtonen, A., and Nordlander, E. “Oxovanadium(V) complexes with tripodal bisphenolate and monophenolate ligands: Syntheses, structures and catalytic activities” Inorg. Chim. Acta 487 (2019) 112-119.
Read online: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ica.2018.11.049

Bachelor of Science students 2018

During the months of November and December we have had the privilege to host students for their Bachelor of Science laboratory work. We hope you have enjoyed the laboratory work and its ups and downs and continue with us further in your studies. There is lots of interesting research ahead!

From left to right: Matti, Teppo, Roosa, Otto and Herkko. Veera is unfortunately missing from the picture.

New publication about restraining fluoride loss from upconverting fluoride nanoparticles

Check out the latest publication about the surface modifications of upconversion nanoparticles using polyelectrolyte multilayers and how we aim to prevent the nanoparticle disintegration in aqueous environments.

Palo, E., Salomäki, M., and Lastusaari, M., “Restraining fluoride loss from NaYF4:Yb3+,Er3+ upconverting nanoparticles in aqueous environments using crosslinked poly(acrylic acid)/poly(allylamine hydrochloride) multilayers” J Colloid Interface Sci. 538 (2019) 320-326.
Read online: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jcis.2018.11.094

Congratulations, Mika!

Adj. Prof. Mika Lastusaari succesfully defended his 2nd thesis in the Department of the Education on Saturday 10th of November 2018.


Congratulations to our double Dr, we are proud of you!


The opponent, Dr. Anna Parpala (University of Helsinki), Adj. Prof. Mika Lastusaari and the custos Adj. Prof Mari Murtonen (University of Turku)


The double Dr. and a collection of his current and previous doctoral students

Mika defends his 2nd thesis on Saturday!

Dr. Mika Lastusaari defends his thesis from the Faculty of Education, Department of Teacher Education on Saturday 10th of November at 12 o´clock noon in the lecture hall Educarium 1. His thesis is titled “Persistence in major in relation to learning approaches – Development of a questionnaire for university chemistry students”.

Amazing job and well done, Mika! We are thrilled that we’re going to have a two-times Dr. (or maybe Dr.Dr.) in our research group soon!

“Historiallinen väitöstutkimus yliopistopedagogiikasta” News at UTU Intranet (only with UTU login) in Finnish
“Uusi työkalu auttaa tunnistamaan opiskelijat joiden opinnot ovat vaarassa keskeytyä” Bulletin at UTU (www) in Finnish.
Thesis (in UTUpub)

New face around: Anssi

We gained new addition as Anssi Peuronen joined us for his three-year post doctoral project (tutkijatohtori) from the Academy of Finland.

His current research is focused on developing metal-organic coordination cages that would be able to selectively bind anions. Anssi will be working closely with our other metal-organic chemists Ari Lehtonen, Pasi Salonen and Esko Salojärvi.

We hope that you have settled well and enjoy your stay with us.