26 Oct 2010
Rideal Travel Bursar Juan Zhou reports on the 24th conference of the European Colloid and Interface Society
The 24th conference of the European Colloid and Interface Society was held in Prague, Czech Republic from 5 September 2010. This was a five day conference, which covered an array of subjects, including colloids, polymers, polyelectrolyte solutions, concentrated systems, gels, phase transitions, wetting phenomena, functional materials, biologically important and bio-inspired systems, and pharmaceutical applications.
The conference had some exceptional speakers, including Walter Richtering from Aachen University, Germany; Alexander Kabanov from the University of Nebraska, USA; Jan Vermant from University of Leuven, Belgium; Veronique Trappe from University of Fribourg, Switzerland, and Brian Vincent from Bristol University, UK, to name just a few. The presentations given by these highly respected members from the world of colloid and surface science provided me with invaluable information that I have been able to share with my research group.
The poster I presented at the conference ‘Phase Behaviour of Colloidal Spheres and Polymer Mixtures’, aims to investigate the phase behaviour of colloid-polymer mixtures using a novel system of silica in DMF, with 0.04M LiCl, and polystyrene as a non-adsorbing polymer. The effect of particle size and polymer concentration on the phase behaviour has been investigated and the ternary system with two different sizes of silica particles is still being studied.
I found the conference to be a very well organised event with an interesting and diverse programme, and I left with a better understanding of the importance and relevance of colloids. I am very pleased that I had the opportunity to attend; not only did I benefit from the conference itself, but I also met some notable people that were interested in my research and have discussed the possibilities of job opportunities within their organisations in the future.
I would like to thank SCI for awarding me the Rideal Travel Bursary which made my attendance possible.
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