Last week we were hosting a great scientist of materials chemistry and the chemistry of silsesquioxanes – Prof. Rick Laine from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor (USA). He is the author of 328 research papers (h-index = 64) with more than 14500 citations. The Doctoral School of Exact Sciences invited him to deliver a lecture series titled ‘Sustainable Materials from Agricultural Waste‘, funded by the ID-UB initiative. This course was primarily intended for PhD students specialising in chemistry and materials engineering. It focused on inorganic and materials chemistry research, with particular emphasis on organosilicon compounds and their applications in nanotechnology and materials engineering. He also delivered a lecture for CAT employees. It was scheduled for Thursday, April 24th, 2025, at 10:00 AM, with an intriguing title, “Left Handed Chemistry”.

The Laine group focuses on two major research areas: the synthesis and processing of inorganic and organometallic hybrid polymers and the development of nano-oxide powders.

In the hybrid polymer area, the group’s work centers on synthesising and characterising nanobuilding blocks based on polyfunctional silsesquioxanes — specifically, dodecahedral POSS structures. These nanobuilding blocks are used to create nanocomposites in which the periodicity and spatial arrangement of inorganic and organic components are precisely defined at the nanometer scale.
In the nano-oxide powder area, the group’s research emphasises the direct synthesis of single- and mixed-metal oxide nanopowders via flame spray pyrolysis of mixed-metal metallo-organic precursors. These nanopowders are studied for their structural characteristics and potential in catalytic, particularly energy conversion, and photonic applications.