PhD Award of the GDCh Division of Solid-State Chemistry & Materials Research

The TANIOBIS PhD Award for solid-state chemistry and materials research was presented to Dr.-Ing Janett Schmelzer and Dr. Nicolas Zapp on 28 September 2022 in Marburg on the occasion of the 21st Conference on Inorganic Chemistry.

Dr.-Ing. Janett Schmelzer "in recognition of her outstanding dissertation, completed at Otto von Guericke University Magdeburg, entitled „Microstructure and properties of powder metallurgical manufactured V-rich V-Si-B alloys for high-temperature application“. In her dissertation, Dr. Schmelzer describes an innovative approach to producing various alloy variants of vanadium-based multiphase materials. By combining mechanical alloying with additive manufacturing in the form of laser metal deposition and selective laser beam melting in a powder bed, Dr. Schmelzer was able to produce, consolidate and fully characterise previously unknown vanadium/silicon/boron composites that had not previously been accessible by other means. The work, supported by numerical simulations, makes an outstanding contribution to the development of new high-temperature materials and to improving the thermodynamic efficiency of gas turbines, and opens up possibilities that go beyond those of nickel-based superalloys."

Dr. Nicolas Zapp "in recognition of his outstanding dissertation, completed at Leipzig University, entitled „Rare Earth Heteroanionic Hydrides with Secondary O^₂– , F^– , and N^₃– Ions Related to the CaF₂ and K₂NiF₄ Structure Types“. In his dissertation, Dr. Zapp describes the synthesis of complex heteroanionic compounds of the rare earth elements. The hydride ion plays a decisive role, as it can be substituted by the similarly sized oxide, nitride and fluoride ions. He develops suitable synthesis routes and succeeds in accurately determining the positions of the anions in the solids by combining analytical methods. In particular, the combination of X-ray and neutron diffraction leads to high-quality structure determinations. Dr. Zapp thus makes a significant contribution to our understanding of a very new class of substances. Deriving structure–property relationships from knowledge of the precise structure is supported by high-level theoretical investigations. The results are expected to inspire further work on this class of substances, leading to novel materials with previously unforeseeable properties."

The H.C. Starck Tungsten PhD Award, endowed by H.C. Starck Tungsten GmbH, for solid-state chemistry and materials research was presented to Dr. Lukas Mai and Dr. Philip Netzsch at the GDCh Science Forum Chemistry 2021.

Dr. Lukas Mai was honoured for his outstanding doctoral thesis entitled: “Investigation of Amino-Alkyl Coordinated Complexes as New Precursor Class for Atomic Layer Deposition of Aluminum, Tin and Zinc Oxide Thin Films and their Application” and for the pioneering contributions described therein to the development of a new class of precursors for the deposition of atomic layers of binary metal oxides, particularly aluminium oxide, at low temperatures. The thesis was completed in the working group of Prof. Dr. Anjana Devi at Ruhr University Bochum.

Dr. Philip Netzsch was honoured for his outstanding doctoral thesis entitled: “On Silicate-Analogous Materials – Synthesis and Characterisation of Novel Borosulfates” for the pioneering contributions described therein to the systematic exploration of a large number of new borosulfates, the rationalisation of synthetic access and the investigation of fascinating structure–property relationships. The thesis was completed in the working group of Prof. Dr. Henning A. Höppe at the University of Augsburg.

The H.C. Starck Tungsten PhD Award 2019 for solid-state chemistry and materials research was awarded in equal parts to Dr. Heidi Schwartz and Dr. Simon Kloß on the occasion of the 2019 GDCh Science Forum in Aachen.

Dr. Heidi Annemarie Schwartz received the award for her outstanding dissertation entitled “Metal-Organic Frameworks as Crystalline Porous Hosts for Photoactive Molecules” and for the pioneering work described therein on structure–property relationships in metal-organic framework compounds as crystalline, porous host structures for photoactive molecules.

Dr. Simon David Kloß was honoured for his outstanding dissertation entitled “The High-Pressure Metathesis Route for the Preparation of Rare-Earth and Transition Metal Nitridophosphates” and for the pioneering discoveries described therein in the field of rare-earth and transition-metal nitridophosphates, as well as for the development of a groundbreaking new high-pressure metathesis method for opening up new areas in nitridophosphate chemistry.