Seminars

of the department of physical and macromolecular chemistry

Departmental Seminars

The Seminars of the Department of Physical and Macromolecular Chemistry are back, and in the upcoming semester they will be organized in the following way: There are going to be guest speakers and PhD students presenting during the semester.

If there will be no covid restrictions, the lectures will take place on Wednesdays in building of Chemical departments (Hlavova 8, Praha 2) at 14:00 in lecture room CH3

All the seminars will be held in a hybrid manner as zoom meetings. To connect use the link

Departmental seminar on 29th March 2023

We would like to invite you to the habilitation  lecture by Prof. Michal Kohout from University of Chemistry and Technology. The topic of his lecture is Design and applications of photosensitive liquid crystals.

Liquid crystals (LCs), a phenomenon that significantly influences our daily lives. We use technologies based on LCs in mobile phones, TV screens and many other optoelectronic devices. Apart from materials science, LCs reach far into the realm of biochemistry since cell walls as well as short fragments of DNA are liquid crystalline. The discovery of liquid crystals dates back to the 19th century, when Friedrich Reinitzer, a professor at  Charles University in Prague observed an interesting behaviour during melting of cholesteryl benzoate, which, with the help of Otto Lehmann, he later described as crystals that flow – liquid crystals.
Contemporary research on LCs in the area of materials chemistry is mainly focused on advanced self-assembling systems that, apart from response to the mechanical stress and electric field, feature a special functionality responsible for their instant response to a magnetic field or light. Among them, photosensitive materials play a prominent role due to broad application potential in non-linear optics and photonics. From the variety of photosensitive units applied in the design of liquid crystals, the azo group stands out for the distinct conditions of photoisomerization of the thermodynamically stable E-(trans-) isomer to the photochemically preferred Z-(cis-) isomer and vice versa.
Recently, we have focused on the design and synthesis of chiral photosensitive materials and their application as chiral photosensitive ligands to stabilize magnetic nanoparticles. The nanomaterial represents the first  example of a multifunctional dopant, which upon mixing with an achiral liquid crystal gives rise to the photosensitive and magnetic nanocomposite showing a chiral mesophase. Moreover, we prepared a series of photosensitive bent-core materials based on a 4-chlororesorcinol central core featuring various linking units in the side arms. Certain combination of the azo group in one elongating side arm and a particular linking unit in the other gave rise to the broad range of a nematic phase. We have utilized these compounds in a prototype of an optical memory device.

The lecture will take place in person, in the hall CH3, Faculty of Science, Hlavova 8, Praha 2.

Departmental seminar on 19th April 2023

The first year PhD students will present their research topics.

 

The seminar will take place in person, in the hall CH3, Faculty of Science, Hlavova 8, Praha 2.

Departmental seminar on 26th April 2023

We would like to invite you to the habilitation  lecture by Prof. David Hoksza from Charles University, Faculty of Mathematics and Physics. The topic of his lecture is Prediction of ligand binding sites from protein structure.

 

The lecture will take place in person, in the hall CH3, Faculty of Science, Hlavova 8, Praha 2.

Departmental seminar on 24th May 2023

We would like to invite you to the habilitation  lecture by Prof. Rita de Sousa Dias from University of Trondheim. The topic of her lecture is DNA condensation and polyelectrolyte complex formation.

 

The lecture will take place in person, in the hall CH3, Faculty of Science, Hlavova 8, Praha 2.

 

Departmental seminar on 15th March 2023

The first and second year master students will present their research topics:

Ondrej Kopilec from the Polymer Synthesis and Biomaterials research group,

Timea Derérová from the Electrophoresis and Chromatography research group,

Magdaléna Nejedlá from the Soft Matter research group,

Adam Škorňa from the Soft Matter research group.

The seminar will take place in person, in the hall CH3, Faculty of Science, Hlavova 8, Praha 2.

Departmental seminar on 1st March 2023

The first year master students will present their research topics:

Kevin Kotalík from BIOCEV ,

Daniel Berdár form BIOCEV,

Petr Eminger from Institute of Organic Chemistry and Biochemistry, Czech Academy of Sciences,

Adam Hašpl from the Soft Matter research group.

The seminar will take place in person, in the hall CH3, Faculty of Science, Hlavova 8, Praha 2.

 

Departmental seminar on 22nd February 2023

The first year master students will present their research topics:

Andrej Tekel and Adam Brzezina from the Biophysical Chemistry of Protein Complexes research group.

The meeting of the staff will take place after the presentations.

The seminar will take place in person, in the hall CH3, Faculty of Science, Hlavova 8, Praha 2.

Departmental seminar on 15th February 2023

We would like to invite you to the habilitation  lecture by Dr. Romana Sokolová from Jaroslav Heyrovský institute, Czech Academy of Sciences. The topic of her lecture is Application of spectroelectrochemistry in determination of oxidation and reduction mechanisms.

The lecture deals with determination of oxidation and reduction mechanisms of bioactive compounds. Since electron transfer reactions occur in biological processes, understanding the relationship between the chemical structure of a bioactive compound and its electrochemical properties may provide fundamental information on its antioxidant and pharmaceutical efficiency. These processes involve an electron transfer and coupled chemical reactions. Electrochemical and spectroelectrochemical methods can effectively explain the fundamental reaction schemes. The presentation will be focused on the importance and application of in situ UV-Vis and IR spectroelectrochemistry in the determination of electroactive site in molecule and in identification of short living intermediates and products formed during reaction. Significant contribution of  spectroelectrochemical techniques in the research of complex reaction schemes will be shown on examples of important biologically active compounds.

The lecture will take place in person, in the hall CH3, Faculty of Science, Hlavova 8, Praha 2.

 

Departmental seminar on 14th December 2022

The second year master students will present t he results of their research:

Mikuláš Klenor from the Institute of organic chemistry and biochemistry, Czech academy of Sciences,

Svetlana Kurucová from the group of Heterogenous catalysis and advanced materials,

Pavla Trembulaková from the Institute of organic chemistry and biochemistry, Czech academy of Sciences.

The seminar will take place in person, in the hall CH3, Faculty of Science, Hlavova 8, Praha 2.

Paul Diddams lecture

Group of Heterogeneous Catalysis and Advanced Materials together with the Department of Physical and Macromolecular Chemistry invite you for a lecture Catalysts in Action by Dr. Paul Diddams, Technology Director of Oil and Gas, Johnson Matthey.

Biography:
Paul Diddams completed his PhD in Physical Chemistry at the University of Cambridge in 1985. During his carrier he worked as R&D specialist and consultant for many companies incl. Johnson Matthey, Total, BP, Intercat Inc., and Grace. Currently, Paul is a Technology Director of Oil and Gas at Johnson Matthey. In January, 2023 Paul will become our colleague here at the Faculty of Science. Paul will be involved in design and optimization of catalysts, evaluation of catalytic data in the group of Heterogeneous Catalysis and Advanced Materials. Paul is top-tier industrial specialist in application of zeolites, with focus on Fluid Catalytic Cracking (FCC) units. He was senior refining consultant for the FCC units all over the World.

The lecture will take place in the hall CH2, Faculty of Science, Hlavova 8, Praha 2.

The lecture complements the courses “Principles of Catalysis” and “Chemical Principles of Industrial Processes”.

 

Departmental seminar on 7th December 2022

This week we have a guest, Ing. Pavel Izák, Ph.D., DSc., from the Institute of Chemical Process Fundamentals, Czech Academy of Sciences. His talk is called The potential of membrane separation processes in gas and liquid mixture separation.

The talk will summarize results and also the potential of separation of gas and liquids through nonporous membranes. Two membranes separation techniques are involved, namely the pervaporation and the gas separation. Special attention is focused on ionic liquids, which have a growing potential in both previously mentioned techniques. Nowadays the separation of various gaseous and also enantiomers from racemic mixtures have been within the gradually growing interest of many companies and research teams. Furthermore, the new kind of membranes can help improve separation and permeation properties. The scale up of purification of raw biogas to CNG from laboratory to pilot plant will be discussed.

The lecture will take place in person, in the hall CH3, Faculty of Science, Hlavova 8, Praha 2.

Departmental seminar on 30th November 2022

The second year master students will present the results of their research:

Gabriela Chytrá from the Laboratory of structural biochemistry of immune recognition,

Jakub Nierostek from the Soft matter theory group,

Andrej Šmelko from the Laboratory of NMR spectroscopy,

Matouš Tulpa from the Laboratory of structural biochemistry of immune recognition.

The seminar will take place in person, in the hall CH3, Faculty of Science, Hlavova 8, Praha 2.

Departmental seminar on 23rd November 2022

Two second year master students will present the results of their research:

Filip Steiner and Martin Orságh from the Soft matter group.

Two new PhD students, Emadeldin Hussein Shamma from the group of Heterogenous catalysis and advanced materials, and Tuba Ayca Tunca from the group of Polymer synthesis and biomaterials will present the topics of their research.

The seminar will take place in person, in the hall CH3, Faculty of Science, Hlavova 8, Praha 2.

Departmental seminar on 16th November 2022

New PhD students will present the topics of their theses:

Tereza Benešová from the Nanomaterials modeling group,

Soňa Mesíková from the Soft matter group,

Emad Eldin Hussein Abdel Halim Shamma from the group of Heterogenous catalysis and advanced materials,

Tuba Ayca Tunca and Michaela Vaňková from the group of Polymer synthesis and biomaterials,

Ali Zeraatkar from the Soft matter group.

The seminar will take place in person, in the hall CH3, Faculty of Science, Hlavova 8, Praha 2.