15 Feb 2011
Michael Warwick, Richardson Travel Bursar, sends his report from Pacifichem 2010, Honolulu, Hawaii, which was held from 15 – 20 December 2010.
I attended Pacifichem 2011 to present my research ‘Hybrid Chemical Vapour and Nanoceramic Aerosol Assisted Deposition for Multifunctional Nanocomposite Thin Films’. The poster I presented shows the production of nanoparticles using a continuous flow hydrothermal synthesis and charaterisation of the nano particles.
The use of hybrid aerosol assisted and atmospheric chemical vapour deposition to produce thin films of vanadium with nanoparticles incorporated within them.
Evidence that the thin films formed of VO2 maintained their thermochromic properties as well as evidence that the incorporated TiO2 and CeO2 nanoparticles afforded an increase in the photocatalytic properties implying that the incorporation of nanoparticles was possible and also that they could be used to ‘multifunctionalise’ the thin films.
The work which I presented was somewhat too wordy, so I have learned that for future work I should minimise the content on the poster and fill in gaps around the main points with verbal explanations to people who are interested.
The conference was very large and covered a wide range of sections although the session which I found most interesting was titled ‘Controlling the structure and properties of Solids’ the main focus of the talks were to wards new and or differently functionalised structures for example one of the talks that I enjoyed was ‘Electrochemical synthesis of electrode materials with controlled architectures for use in clean energy production’ given by Kyoung-Shin Choy.
The main things that I learned were ways in which I could better improve the way that I present my data to audiences in presentations so in future I will be better equipped to attend conferences.
I got to meet a wide range of people from industry and spent quite some time talking to a couple of the representatives from a couple of the publishing companies about what things that they look for in well written papers so that I will be able to get work published in the future in journal with higher impact factors.
I have had informal chats with my group about how the conference went and told them of people that I think they may find interesting to their research so they can make a note to see them speak if they get the chance.
Being the first conference I have attended I believe it will have a significant impact on my career, as it has let me see what it is like to actually work in science. I found it enjoyable and feel it has encouraged me to further my career in the chemistry sector. Overall I believe that I benefited greatly from the experience.
Michael Warwick,
University College London
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