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

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

Dr.-Ing. Janett Schmelzer "in recognition of her outstanding dissertation written at the 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 a novel approach to the representation of various alloy variants of vanadium-based multiphase materials. By combining mechanical alloying with additive manufacturing in the form of laser cladding and selective laser beam melting in the powder bed, Dr. Schmelzer was able to represent, consolidate and fully characterize unknown vanadium/silicon/boron composites that were previously inaccessible by other means. The work, supported by numerical simulations, represents 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 written at the University of Leipzig entitled "Rare Earth Heteroanionic Hydrides with Secondary O ^{₂ –}, F ^–, and N ^{₃ –} Ions Related to the CaF ₂ and K ₂ NiF ₄ Structure Types". In his dissertation, Dr. Zapp describes the synthesis of complex heteroanionic compounds of the rare earth elements. The hydride ion plays a crucial role here, which can be substituted by the similarly sized oxide, nitride and fluoride ions. He develops suitable synthesis routes and, by combining analytical methods, succeeds in accurately determining the positions of the anions in the solids. 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. The derivation of structure-property relationships through knowledge of the exact The design is supported by high-level theoretical investigations. It is expected that the results will inspire further work on this class of substances, leading to novel materials with previously unforeseeable properties."

The HC Starck Tungsten PhD Award, donated by HC Starck Tungsten GmbH, for solid-state chemistry and materials research was awarded to Dr. Lukas Mai and Dr. Philip Netzsch on the occasion of the GDCh Science Forum Chemistry 2021.

Dr. Lukas Mai in recognition of his outstanding dissertation 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” 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, in particular aluminum oxide, at low temperatures. The dissertation was written in the working group of Prof. Dr. Anjana Devi at the Ruhr University Bochum.

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