2023 has been the best year for IMC: we have the best scientific impact ever in publications, both individually and in total. Many new, enthusiastic students joined our group and we also received new research funding. Big thanks also goes to our stakeholders and partners, with whom the fruitful cooperation will continue in the future. Thank you everyone and a very happy new year 2024!
Tag Archives: publications
Hannah’s article in Advanced Functional Materials
Dr. Hannah Byron‘s latest article “Highly Tuneable Photochromic Sodalites for Dosimetry, Security Marking and Imaging” was published in the prestigious journal Advanced Functional Materials with a whopping impact factor of 19.924! The article discusses e.g. about how modifying the structure of synthetic hackmanite enables the adjustment of its absorption maxima throughout the whole visible range, which leads to different colored, wonderful hackmanites.
The article can be read at https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/adfm.202303398
Anssi and Ari get article accepted in Angewandte Chemie International Edition
Yesterday was a glorious day for IMC, because Anssi and Ari’s article “Charge-assisted halogen bonding in an ionic cavity of a coordination cage based on a copper(I) iodide cluster” was just accepted in Angewandte Chemie International Edition, which has a staggering impact factor of 16.823, topping the current highest one (Materials Horizons, 15.717) in IMC’s history. Anssi celebrated this by offering cake and cognac. Congratulations!
Hackmanites & gamma radiation article makes the back cover of Materials Horizons
Our article “Reusable radiochromic hackmanite with gamma exposure memory” published in the Materials Horizons journal got a place in the journal’s back cover. Based on Mika’s idea, Sami took a picture of a pile of hackmanite on top of a glass plate, which he partially colored with UV light to achieve a difference between the non-colored and colored. Big thanks also go to Kari Loikas, whose sturdy construction light he borrowed helped create a dramatic contrast in the picture.
The back cover is downloadable here: https://pubs.rsc.org/en/content/articlelanding/2022/mh/d2mh90072f
Newest hackmanite article published in Materials Horizons
Our newest hackmanite article is out! Sami’s second article concerning gamma radiation effects on hackmanite was published in Materials Horizons (impact factor 15.717) last week, Professor Mika Lastusaari being the corresponding author.
The article shows that gamma radiation induces hackmanite’s typical pink coloration and thus the material can be used to quantify radiation doses, but also that the high-energy radiation deforms the color center so that the reflectance spectrum shows additional signals, meaning that hackmanite can be used to identify the radiation quality. And last but not least: hackmanite also remembers exposure to gamma radiation even if it has been totally bleached to its original white color. This was a very nice and unexpected finding.
The article was an international cooperation of several institutions: University of Turku, University of Lyon (France), Tampere University, Swedish Defence Research Agency FOI, University of Jyväskylä, Turku PET Centre, and Mineralogical Society of Antwerp (Belgium).
The article can be found here:
Photochromism paper published in PNAS!
Our paper about photochromism in natural minerals was just published in the prestigeous PNAS journal! Big credit is due to the computational wizards from Lyon as well as our collaborators in Antwerp and UTU Physics.
Read online:
Sami & Mika make the back cover of Advanced Optical Materials
Our back cover picture has been published in the Advanced Optical Materials journal! The image depicts hackmanite crystal’s coloration mechanism upon X-ray exposure where electron and hole cascades create a color center. The original idea and graphics, which was accepted by the journal, was made by Adj. Prof. Mika Lastusaari:
PhD student Sami Vuori then refined it a bit with Gimp by creating the final version. The picture is related to our article Detection of X-Ray Doses with Color-Changing Hackmanites: Mechanism and Application, which was published in this journal: https://doi.org/10.1002/adom.202100762
Sami’s article receives attention in newspapers and magazines
IMC group and our whole chemistry department has received attention from various newspapers and magazines with PhD student Sami Vuori‘s article (corresponding author Adjunct Professor Mika Lastusaari) that was recently published in Advanced Optical Materials: “Detection of X-Ray Doses with Color-Changing Hackmanites: Mechanism and Application“. In addition to showing a practical application, the article also reveals the mechanism of hackmanite’s coloration upon X-ray exposure, which has never been researched thoroughly before.
In the article, Sami imaged a dead body of an ant using a film with hackmanite powder on it. When the X-rays hit the film, the hackmanite colors from natural white to pink, and since the ant’s body attenuates X-rays, some photons are absorbed in it and won’t color the film. This is a simple method, which does not require any expensive analyzers since one can see the result directly.
The article was an international joint effort consisting of researchers from the University of Turku (PhD student Sami Vuori, Adjunct Professor Mika Lastusaari, Dr. Isabella Norrbo, Professor Petriina Paturi, Professor Timo Saarinen and University Teacher Heikki Palonen), University of São Paulo in Brazil (Dr. Lucas C. V. Rodrigues), Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (Dr. Jörg Göttlicher and Dr. Ralph Steininger) and University of Lyon (PhD student Pauline Colinet, Assistant Professor Tangui Le Bahers).
Pasi and Anssi make the cover picture for Dalton Transactions!
Several years’ worth of active efforts to understand vanadium-catalyzed catechol oxidase mimetic chemistry have finally paid off in full. In our most recent paper, entitled “Vanadium aminophenolates in catechol oxidation: conformity with Finke’s common catalyst hypothesis“, published in the RSC journal Dalton Transactions, and representing the pinnacle of these studies, we have been able to link vanadium-catalyzed catechol oxidase and catechol dioxygenase mimetic studies for the first time. The paper will make a great addition to Pasi’s PhD thesis, especially since the following study gives a nice closure to work already started at the MSc level!
The article, which can be found at doi: 10.1039/d1dt00419k, was so well received by the reviewers and editors, that it was not only added to the HOT article collection at Dalton Transactions, but also granted a place at the Front Cover of the current issue!
Cover art: Pasi Salonen & Anssi Peuronen
Press release: scientists (Ari, Anssi, Pasi) discover new information about the function of enzymes
Ari, Anssi, Pasi and Åbo Akademi’s project researcher Risto Savela discovered new information about the functionality of vanadium aminophenolates in cathecol oxidation. The article is published in Dalton Transactions and was selected to their HOT article collection. Good job!
Press release (in Finnish):
Tutkijat löysivät uutta tietoa entsyymien toiminnasta
Article:
Vanadium aminophenolates in catechol oxidation: conformity with Finke’s common catalyst hypothesis