George Serghiou in the School of Engineering together with colleagues from the School of Geoscience and seven other leading Universities and Research Institutions in France, Germany and the US used a new synthetic approach which can be likened to mathematical applications in game theory (Nash equilibrium), to make unreactive starting materials reactive.

This novel approach was used to make a new nitride which is simultaneously of technological (light and strong materials, spintronics) and planetary science (core composition and structure) importance. The approach opens up new synthetic possibilities across the periodic table involving combinations of materials and biomaterials that normally would not be considered.

The work published in December 2015 in Angewandte Chemie Int. Ed. is a spotlight in science by (i) CNRS, the French National Centre for Scientific Research which is the largest fundamental science agency in Europe, (ii) ESRF, the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility a joint research facility supported by 21 countries and (iii) Chemistry: A European Journal one of the leading international chemistry journals.

Spotlights

• The European Synchrotron
• Creating reactivity using unstable endmembers
• The European Synchrotron Facebook
• CNRS, the French National Centre for Scientific Research
• Comment faire réagir des composés inertes? CNRS news article (in French)
• Chemistry, A European Journal, Spotlight on Solid Phase Synthesis
• Unité Matériaux et Transformations, in the spotlight

Further information

• Dr George Serghiou's University of Edinburgh homepages
• Research in a Nutshell: George Serghiou
• Creating Reactivity with Unstable Endmembers using Pressure and Temperature: Synthesis of Bulk Cubic Mg0.4Fe0.6N
• School of GeoSciences, University of Edinburgh