ChemCafé

Hi, I’m back on ChemCafé after a long, moreless justified, interruption.* I’m now reporting almost live from Nürnberg (Germany) where the 3rd edition of EuCheMS (unpronounceable acronym for European Association for Chemical and Molecular Sciences) chemistry congress takes place this week. I’ll try to send regularly short posts reflecting the atmosphere of this event.

Today was the opening day, and thousands (really!) of chemists gathered in the huge congress center. The first -and only- talk I attended (due to a somewhat late arrival) was given by Prof. Klaus Müllen (from the Max Planck Institute for Polymer Research in Mainz). He quite impressively demonstrated how perfect graphene ribbons can be generated by bottom-up synthesis and subsequent reactions of benzene dendrimers (contrary to the method involving the peeling of graphite with tape). A very motivated and passionate speaker, he captivated his audience by showing amazing results, obtained by a careful design of a ‘core’ molecule, followed by its self-assembly into more complex structures.

This lecture was definitely a good start, and I’m looking forward to the next ones.

For more details:

Nature 2010, 466, 470-473 doi: 10.1038/nature09211

Advanced Materials, 2010. doi: 10.1002/adma.201001275

*I had to deal with my thesis writing & exam and some funding application stuff recently… and was close to an overdose of chemistry, hence my absence from the web.