On 23 June, the European Chemical Society (EuChemS) held another successful online event in celebration of the 2019 EuChemS Lecture Awardee. More than 150 attendees from 23 different countries attended this webinar to learn more about the research conducted by David Portehault, who gave a talk on “From water to molten salts: geoinspired syntheses and reactivity of nanomaterials.”  

In his talk, David Portehault explained original nanomaterials synthetisation from the perspective of geology: he presented geo-inspired synthesis conditions, from low temperature chimie douce in water, to liquid-phase synthesis in inorganic molten salts and to high pressures. In addition, two students under the supervision of David Portehault, Yang Song and Fernando Igoa, complemented his presentation, illustrating the cross-disciplinary approach of the group (i.e. nano chemistry, solid-state chemistry, materials science, and high-pressure physics). Their presentations were titled “Design of metal silicide nanoparticles in molten salts for electrocatalytic water oxidation” and “The soft chemistry of extended covalent systems towards boron-based nanomaterials” respectively.  

During the webinar, Floris Rutjes, EuChemS President, handed out the 2019 EuChemS Lecture Awardee to David Portehault virtually, after giving the laudation. David Portehault was selected as the 2019 Prize winner by the EuChemS Executive Board, following the advice of the International Award Committee for the EuChemS Lecture Award (IACL), in recognition of his major achievements in chemistry as a junior scientist.  

“This event was a nice opportunity for some PhD students to speak in front of a wide audience. I think it was important in this context of social distancing.” 

-David Portehault, EuChemS 2019 Lecture Awardee
Closing remarks of the 2019 EuChemS Lecture Awardee webinar 

You are invited to watch the recording of this webinar on the EuChemS YouTube channel.