SYMPOSIUM OVERVIEW

The International Symposium on the Reactivity of Solids (ISRS) has a long history. It started in 1948 as a venue to discuss results and developments in the field of the reactivity of solids. Since then it has grown in scope and developed into a platform for discussing various aspects of chemistry and physics of solid compounds and materials, both from the basic and applied points of view. The ISRS takes place every 3–4 years in Europe, USA, and Japan. Russia being one of the leading nations in materials research hosted the ISRS for the first time in history (see Figures 1 and 2).

Figure 1. (Color online) ICDD booth at the ISRS-18. From left to right: Evgeny Antipov, Sergey Kazakov, and Scott Misture.

Figure 2. (Color online) Conference photo of ISRS-18.

Following the trends in modern science, the ISRS-18 covered basic and applied aspects of new materials design, advanced methods of preparation and characterization, mechanisms of reactions involving solids, structure–property relations, and new horizons of the materials application. The aim of the ISRS-18 was to bring together international scientists from academic, industrial, and governmental research institutions to extend current knowledge, discuss future trends and developments, encourage new contacts, stimulate scientific insights, and help promoting young scientists into independent researches in academia or industry.

Presentations ranged from the crystallographic focused plenary talk given by Sergey Krivovichev (Saint Petersburg State University, Russia) on the structural complexity of crystalline solids to the pharmaceutical-driven keynote address to the organic solid state chemistry given by William Jones (University of Cambridge, UK). Classic reactivity of solids topics, such as important synthetic issues of mixed metal oxide-fluorides, presented by Kenneth Poeppelmeier (Northwestern University, USA), were combined with presentations of novel research techniques, such as advanced transmission electron microscopy, presented by Artem Abakumov (EMAT, Antwerp University, Belgium). However, more than half of the discussions were centered on the issue of energy storage and conversion, based on the inspiring plenary lecture by Doron Aurbach (Bar Ilan University, Israel). Energy topics covered the problems of lithium-ion batteries, fuel cells, and even supercapacitors.

To stimulate the young scientists, participating in the Symposium, the Organizing Committee established the best poster award (see Figure 3). During the symposium the expert group, formed from the members of the International Organizing Committee, reviewed all the presented posters and selected the following eight winners:

• • P. Thiel (Laboratory for Solid State Chemistry and Catalysis, Switzerland) for the work “Manganese oxides for thermoelectric power conversion”;

• • S. Fedotov (Lomonosov Moscow State University, Russia) for the poster “A ₂ MPO₄F fluoride-phosphates as high-energy cathode materials for Lithium-ion batteries”;

• • V. Podugolnikov (Institute of Solid State Chemistry and Mechanochemistry, Novosibirsk, Russia) for another energy-focused research “A ₂ MPO₄F (A = Na, Li; M = Mn, Fe, Co, Ni) materials for Li-ion batteries”;

• • K. Fujimoto (Tokyo University of Science, Japan) for “High-throughput materials research under hot isostatic pressing condition”;

• • A. Fedorova (Lomonosov Moscow State University, Russia) for the contribution “New method of metal fluorides synthesis”;

• • M. J. Ramírez-Moreno (Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Mexico) for the poster “Influence of the pressure and temperature on the LDH structural evolution and its effect onto the CO₂ sorption capacity”;

• • N. Samer (Laboratoire des Multimatériaux et Interfaces, France) for the work “Reactive synthesis of aluminium matrix composites reinforced by nanoparticles of TiC”; and

• • Y. Unutulmazsoy (Max Planck Institute Solid State Research, Germany) for a study of “Oxidation kinetics of thin metal films”.

Figure 3. (Color online) Winners of The Best Poster Awards with the Organizing Committee members.

Almost each of the participants of the symposium employed in some way crystallographic methods of investigation, from simple powder diffraction to in-situ synchrotron X-ray spectroscopy. For this reason, support of the meeting by the International Center for Diffraction Data (ICDD) was very important.

CONFERENCE STATISTICS

A total of 137 researchers from 18 countries participated in the conference. Scientific program of the ISRS-18 consisted of 6 plenary lectures, 18 invited talks, 37 oral, and 93 poster presentations. They were devoted to different aspects of solid state, synthetic and physical chemistry, physics of condensed matter, crystallography, nanoscience and nanotechnology, and other subdisciplines. The plenary talks were given by world leading scientists in the field and are listed below:

• • Professor D. Aurbach (Bar Ilan University, Israel) Advanced materials science for energy storage & conversion.

• • Professor A. Tressaud (ICMCB-CNRS, University Bordeaux 1, France) Reactivity between fluorine and various carbonaceous materials: mechanisms, structural changes, and applications.

• • Professor W. Jones (University of Cambridge, UK) Organic solid state chemistry and the delivery of new pharmaceutical materials.

• • Professor K. Poeppelmeier (Northwestern University, USA) Mixed metal oxide-fluorides: synthesis and reactivity.

• • Professor A. M. Abakumov (EMAT, Antwerp University, Belgium) Structure of materials: advanced TEM meets advanced crystallography.

• • Professor S.V. Krivovichev (SPbSU, Russia) Structural complexity of crystalline solids: quantitative measures and application.