SIRE hosts Electrochemistry North West 2022
On Thursday 14th July 2022, Electrochemistry North West was held in the Stephenson Institute for Renewable Energy with some 85 participants. It was brought about through the hard work and organisation of Hardwick Group’s Dr Alex Neale along with Dr Mangayarkarasi Nagarathinam (Lancaster University) and Dr Hussain Al Nasser (University of Manchester).
The day kicked off with refreshments and a morning full of interesting and thoughtful talks chaired by Professor Laurence Hardwick. Dr Nuria Garcia-Araez (University of Southampton) started this session as the invited speaker and gave a great in-depth and eye-opening talk about ‘Fundamental Developments of Next Generation of Batteries and Lithium Production Methods’.
During lunch, the poster session, which featured over 20 posters, was in full swing. There were many discussions challenging the minds of each poster presenter, in addition to sharing ideas and knowledge. Group member Rory Powell took second place in the poster competition for his poster ‘Atomic Layer vs. Sol-Gel Deposited Coatings for Long Cycle-life Li-ion Cathodes’ which was judged by the exhibitors Alvatek, BioLogic Science Instruments, Cellerate, Hiden Analytical, and Metrohm; who also put on marvellous displays of their products and services as well as providing sponsorship and prizes for the day. Support was also received by the Royal Society of Chemistry’s (RSC) Applied Materials Chemistry Group and by the RSC Electrochemistry Interest Group.
In the afternoon, Dr Alex Neale chaired the second talks session where invited speaker Dr Kathryn Toghill (Lancaster University) gave an insightful talk into ‘The challenge of electrocatalytic CO2 reduction’. During this session, Group member Julia Fernandez-Vidal gave a talk on ‘Investigating the Presence of Adsorbed Species on Pt Steps at Low Potentials’ and won first place in the afternoon talks competition which was judged by fellow academics in attendance.
Overall, a great day was had by all. There was an amazing and varied turnout of poster presentations and 11 interesting and thought-provoking talks, along with great attendance from those across the North West and beyond.
