4 THE MACDIARMID INSTITUTE The MacDiarmid Institute FOR ADVANCED MATERIALS AND NANOTECHNOLOGY The...

Profile 2014

© May 2015

The MacDiarmid Institute for Advanced Materials and Nanotechnology

PO Box 600 Wellington New Zealand

Email: [email protected] www.macdiarmid.ac.nz

ISSN 2324-4461 (Print) ISSN 2324-447X (Online)

PROFILE 2014 3

Contents

THEME 1 Nanofabrication and Devices 3

THEME 2 Electronic and Optical Materials 24

THEME 3 Molecular Materials 39

THEME 4 Bionano/Nanobio and Soft Matter 62

Outreach Activities 77

Seminar Series 80

Principal Investigators 81

Emeritus Investigators 117

4 THE MACDIARMID INSTITUTE

The MacDiarmid Institute FOR ADVANCED MATERIALS AND NANOTECHNOLOGY

The MacDiarmid Institute for Advanced Materials and Nanotechnology is a

national network of New Zealand’s leading scientists, leveraging strength

across the country and internationally. We build materials and devices from

atoms and molecules, developing and applying cutting-edge techniques

in physics, chemistry and engineering. We capture our diversity to create

benefit and build strength. We partner with New Zealand businesses to take

our innovative new technologies to export markets in sectors as diverse as

health, electronics, food and fashion. We train entrepreneurial and socially-

aware young scientists, many of whom go on to work in industry or start

their own companies, in a culture of excellence and collaboration. Through

sharing the results of our scientific research with the public and with

Government, we are inspiring researchers and working to generate a

nationwide culture change where science and innovation are celebrated

as the keys to New Zealand’s future prosperity.

Scientific Excellence

Leadership

Inspiration

Advancement of New Zealand

Our Vision

PROFILE 2014 5

To deliver excellent scientific research

and education

Creative, ambitious, innovative research in advanced materials and nanotechnology

To forge New Zealand’s future leaders

Scientifically astute, entrepreneurial and socially aware leaders

To inspire New Zealanders

Engendering passion for science and innovation across society

To advance a new future for New Zealand

Deliver and support responsible economic development

The MacDiarmid Institute is a partnership

between five Universities and two Crown

Research Institutes. Our Investigators are

based in Auckland, Palmerston North,

Wellington, Christchurch and Dunedin.

Our Mission

1

ExExcellence

2

CbCollaboration

3

CrCreativity

4

InIntegrity

5

EnEntrepreneurship

6

CgCollegiality

7

CmCommitment

Our Values


THEME 1

Nanofabrication and Devices

Personnel

University of Auckland

Principal Investigators

Cather Simpson, Shaun Hendy

Postdoctoral Fellows

Bryon Wright, Graham Brodie, Maran Muthiah,

Michel Niewoudt

PhD Students

Julie Kho, Nina Novikova, Sarah Thompson,

Simon Ashforth, Xindi Wang

University of Canterbury


Maan Alkaisi, Martin Allen, Simon Brown

Associate Investigators

Vladimir Golovko, Mark Staiger


Giang Thai Dang*, Isha Mutreja, Shawn Fostner

PhD Students

Alana Hyland, Amalraj Peter Amalthas, Amol

Nande, Arunava Banerjee, Baira Donoeva, Daniil

Ovoshchnikov, David Anderson, David Kim, Dijana

Bogunovic, Farridah Abu Bakar, Hari Murthy, Ishan

Mahajan, Jan Dormanns, Jan-Yves Ruzicka, Jeremias

Schuermann, Leila Rajabi, Matheus Vargas, Max

Lynam, Mokhtar Mat Salleh, Robert Heinhold,

Rodrigo Martinez Gazoni, Rohul Adnan, Salim Elzawi,

Sedigheh Ghadamgahi, Senthuran Sivasubramaniam,

Vivek Poonthiyill

MSc Students

Alex Smith, Jacob Martin, Matthew Whiteside

GNS Science

Principal Investigator

Andreas Markwitz

PhD Student

Prasanth Gupta

University of Otago


Richard Blaikie


Boyang Ding

Sam Lowrey

PhD Students

Levi Bourke

Madhuri Kumari

Noah Hensley

Victoria University of Wellington


Michele Governale, Natalie Plank, Ulrich Zülicke


Christina Pöltl, Thomas Kernreiter

PhD Students

Cameron Dykstra, Conor Burke-Govey, Hani Hatami,

Hanyue Zheng, Nathaniel Lund, Stephanie Droste

MSc Student

Luke Pratley, Cameron Wood

*MacDiarmid Institute funded

PROFILE 2014 7

NANOFABRICATION AND DEVICES

Report Against Objectives

While nanotechnology and the development of

advanced materials are tremendously diverse

topics, fabrication is the key for engineering devices

from new materials. Be it at the macroscale, the

microscale or the nanoscale, the capability to pattern

contacts or add structure to devices must be equally

supported alongside materials developments and

theoretical exploration of new device concepts. There

are two approaches to nanofabrication each with

strengths and weaknesses. Traditional “top down”

methods are critically constrained by resolution

limits, and new approaches are needed. Here we

explore such new approaches in areas of optical

nanolithography and nano-imprint lithography, and

continue to work on atomic- and molecular-scale

self-assembly for nanofabrication. We also apply

more traditional “bottom up” micro- and nano-

fabrication techniques to explore electronic, optical

and magnetic materials and devices. Theory and

simulation is used to inform and stimulate our

experimental investigations, and indeed in many

cases theoretical predictions drive the direction of

the experimental programme.

Infrastructure and capability: The researchers of

the MacDiarmid Institute comprise a large fraction

of New Zealand’s capability in nano-science and

technology and the institute’s fertile environment

acts as an excellent incubator of ideas and

interactions. The nanofabrication, microfabrication

and processing resources include facilities for growth

(PLD, ultra-high vacuum (UHV)-cluster deposition,

nanowire synthesis), for processing (e-beam, optical

and imprint lithography, plasma etching) and finally

characterisation (transmission electron microscopy

(TEM), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), atomic

force microscopy (AFM), scanning tunnelling

microscopy (STM) electrical and optical spectroscopy

and electronic device characterisation). The laser

machining facilities provide access to ‘standard’

nanosecond UV laser pulses as well as state-of-the-

art femtosecond pulses across the UV/Vis spectrum.

Theory and modelling work is supported by access

to high performance computing at NeSI, the National

e-Science Infrastructure. Our capital infrastructure is

of high quality and, very importantly, maintained and

operated by skilled technical support staff.

OBJECTIVE 1.

Sub-wavelength patterning

with evanescent interference

lithography and high-power

femtosecond laser pulses

(Blaikie, Alkaisi, Simpson)

MILESTONES ACHIEVED:

• Development of nano-pyramid structures

for enhanced light harvesting using

Interference Lithography; and

• Determination of the role of Si and

Au nanoparticles in light trapping and

absorption in Si solar cells;

Techniques for manufacturing of nano pyramids on

Silicon solar cells were developed and efficient solar

cells made. A maskless and scalable technique for

fabricating nano-scale inverted pyramid structures

suitable for light management in crystalline silicon

solar cells was developed. The technique utilizes

interference lithography and subsequent combined

dry and KOH wet pattern transfer etching techniques.

The inverted nanopyramid structures suppress

the total reflection at normal incidence to below

10% over the entire visible range. The result is that

the overall efficiency of the solar cell has been

increased by 67% with the inverted nanopyramid

texturing. Figure 1 shows an example of atomic

force microscope (AFM) of the fabricated pyramid

structures.

8 THE MACDIARMID INSTITUTE THEME 1

The work has resulted in both journal publications

and conference presentations. [Senthuran

Sivasubramaniam, Maan M Alkaisi, “Inverted

nanopyramid texturing for silicon solar cells

using interference lithography” 2014/5/1,

Microelectronic Engineering, 119, 146-150, 2014

and Senthuran Sivasubramaniam, Dhiraj Kumar,

Vladimir Golovko, Maan M Alkaisi “Current

Density Enhancement in Inverted Nano-pyramid

Textured Crystalline Silicon Solar Cell using Gold

Nanoparticles” 12/2013; DOI:10.1117/12.2033731 In

proceeding of: Micro/Nano Materials, Devices, and

Systems, At Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, Volume:

Proc. SPIE 89232F]

The role of Si and Au nanoparticles on the

performance of solar cells has also been investigated

and the findings were published [Senthuran

Sivasubramaniam, Angelique Faramus, Richard

Tilley, and Maan M. Alkaisi, “Performance

Enhancement of Inverted Nano-pyramid Silicon

Solar cell with Silicon Quantum Dots”, Journal of

Renewable and Sustainable Energy, 6: http://dx.doi.

org/10.1063/1.4828364., Jan.2014]. We found that

Integration of silicon quantum dot increased the

current density further but causing poor fill factor so

the over all efficiency functionalizes the surface and

subsequent dip-coating could improve the uniform

coverage of quantum dots. The sub-wavelength

FIGURE 1. An AFM image of inverted nanopyramids.

texturing combined with quantum dot coating could

be most promising approach for next generation low

cost, high efficiency solar cells. A method was also

established to fabricate silicon based solar cells

using spin-dopant. A simple but effecient method

enabled us to teach solar cells manufacturing to

undergraduate students, MacDiarmid Discovery

students and Nanocamp participants.


• Design and build a new robust SILMIL

(Solid Immersion Lloyds Mirror

Interference Lithography) system

demonstrate 50-nm scale patterning

though a fibre-based spatially filtered

beam;

• Perform gap-control experiments using a

red-laser based ATR gap control system;

• Characterise image quality and depth as

a function of gap width using the gap-

controlled system;

Continuing his near-field lithography system

development and refinement, Levi Bourke (PhD

student) has investigated, implemented and fully

characterised the fibre-based spatial filter for the

Otago SILMIL system. This is now available to use

alongside the original pinhole-based system, and

lithography at the 50-nm scale can be achieved with

both setups. Prism redesign has been undertaken

by Dr Sam Lowrey (postdoctoral fellow), with new

robust prism cages implemented and a range of

optical glasses identified and now in use. The system

design and characterisation will form part of Levi’s

PhD thesis which is due for submission in early 2016.

PROFILE 2014 9Nanofabrication and Devices

With this robust system Dr Lowrey has implemented

a two-laser gapping (red laser) and exposure (blue

laser) system, and has characterised gap control

via application of controlled pressure to sample

back-plate (milestones 2 and 3). Gap control and

repeatability at sub-10 nm level has been measured,

and characterised at multiple locations across 10

×10 mm2 exposure field. Implications of residual

gap on SILMIL exposures has been modelled and

characterised and the results are to be presented

at 2015 SPIE Advanced Lithography conference in

February 2015 (the major industry conference for

the semiconductor lithography community). Methods

for improving gap-induced exposure variation using

an index-matching layer (IML) currently have been

investigated via computer modelling (Figure 2),

showing greatly improved characteristics.

FIGURE 2. LHS: Reflectance curves vs.

Numerical Aperture (NA) for SILMIL systems

with various prism-resist gaps. RHS: Field

intensity in the resist medium at an NA of 1.81

for a) and b) and an NA of 1.76 for c). a) system

with air gap, b) and c) system with an IML. The

dashed line on the LHS figures correspond to

the exposure NA locating the position on the

reflectance curve with varied prism/sample

interface variation.



• Incorporation and testing of beam

shaping optics, including spatial light

modulator, to push into the nanoscale;

and

• Redesign of the optical train for

easier, more flexible, on-demand use

of the femtosecond laser machining

parameters.

In 2014, we focused upon incorporating the spatial

light modulator into our ultrafast laser system,

gaining control over the beam profile it could

generate, and evaluating the effect of different beam

shapes upon laser micromachining efficiencies. We

also established our ability to machine with a variety

of wavelengths using femtosecond pulses. The most

useful of laser micromachining efficiency is the laser

ablation threshold. We continue to build our laser

ablation threshold database for a wide variety of

dielectric materials, from polymers and transparent

glasses to bone and ceramics. We determined the

most effective way(s) to measure the laser ablation

threshold for different materials, and trialled them

successfully on a wide range of materials.

The methods reported in the literature thus far

assume a Gaussian beam profile, so we derived

new relationships for our Bessel and vortex beam

shapes, and are now working on a detailed model of

femtosecond laser ablation that takes in to account

the nonlinear processes and provides for testing of

our theoretical models by altering (or optimizing) the

beam profile.

The fluence distributions for Bessel and vortex

beams are given by:

and ,

respectively. Intensity maps for these types of beams

are in the Figure 3.

)()()()(),(2

1

2

21

22

21

0

0rkJFFrkJFF

kEzrF

rnrn

r

2

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)(

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0

21

)(!

2),(

z

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FIGURE 3: Intensity distributions for several Bessel

beams (left) and vortex beams (right).


We have derived a method for measuring the ablation

threshold using both the Bessel and the vortex beam

profiles, and will accomplish those measurements

in early 2015. The preliminary results indicate that

Bessel beams are significantly more efficient than

Gaussian beams, by a factor of 10 or more. This work

is an active project with Finisar/Southern Photonics.

A full report will be published in the peer reviewed

literature.

At the end of 2014, we were successful in competing

for strategic capital investment from the University

of Auckland’s Faculty of Science to obtain a state-

of-the-art interference optical profilometer (Contour

GT-K). The images of our ablated materials that this

instrument provides are excellent; we will be able

to accelerate our data analysis and improve our

precision in 2015 (Figure 4). This instrument is part of

the multiuser Photon Factory facility, and is available

to MacDiarmid Institute researchers.

FIGURE 4: Optical profilometer images using the new

Contour GT-K system in the Photon Factory: laser

ablation trenches (D-scan method) micromachined

in silicon with 600 nm, 100 fs laser pulses (top left);

laser ablation features in graphene oxide film (volume

regression method) micromachined with 243 nm, ns

laser pulses (top right); the fern on a NZ one-dollar

coin (bottom)



• Develop detailed understanding of

the resistance observed in nanoscale

superconducting devices;

Superconducting devices with an enormous range of

normal state resistances have been fabricated and

characterised. The main result is that we have been

able to identify several different regimes in which

the resistance is dominated by vortex unbinding,

quantum phase slips and tunnelling corresponding

approximately to ground states that are

superconducting, metallic and insulating. This has

allowed us to map phase diagrams for the various

observed phenomena. Figure 5 shows a simulation

representing a percolating network of super

conducting particles. This work was the focus of an

invited presentation at the most important cluster

conference of the year: 17th International Symposium

on Small Particles and Inorganic Clusters (ISSPIC-

XVII), September 7-12, 2014 in Fukuoka, Japan.

We have published significant papers identifying the

effects of tunnelling in percolating devices and the

proximity coupling in nanocomposites. [S. Fostner,

R. Brown, J. Carr, and S. A. Brown, ‘Continuum

Percolation with Tunneling’, Phys. Rev. B 89, 075402

(2014) and H. Wang, T. Picot, K. Houben, T. Moorkens,

J. Grigg, C. Van Haesendonck, E. Biermans, S. Bals,

S. A. Brown, A. Vantomme, K. Temst and M. J. Van

Bael, ‘Superconducting Proximity Effect in Epitaxial

Al/Pb Nanocomposites’, Superconductor Science and

Technology 27, 015008 (2014)]

Our main collaboration on this work is with Prof K.

Temst and M. J. Van Bael, KU Leuven, with a year

long visit to UC by a Leuven-funded postdoc (Couet)

2013-14, but a visit by Prof K. Arutyunov (Moscow) in

2014 was also important in progressing this project.

OBJECTIVE 2.

Nano-scale self assembly for

future nanodevices

(S. Brown, Hendy)

FIGURE 5: Simulated percolating network of

superconducting particles with coverage p =

0.69. (a) The ‘backbone’ (or ‘spanning cluster’) of

nanoparticles that provides a current path between

the contacts (left and right sides of the system)

is shown in black, with other groups of connected

particles in other colours. (b) Low applied currents

(I < Ic): superconducting weak links in the backbone

are shown in black and the ‘dead ends’ (that

do not carry current) are shown in grey. (c) I =

Ic: the critical weak links on the backbone have

transitioned to the normal state (red). (d) I >> Ic: all

connections are in the normal state, except for the

dead ends. Similar behaviour is observed for all

p > pc, although as the coverage is increased the

number of parallel current paths increases.


Additionally we have completed simulations

(MSc thesis, Smith) of our devices allowing us

to understand the detail of the superconducting

transition in a continuum percolating device for the

first time.

We have presented posters on our work at several

international conferences:

K. Houben, S. Couet, J. Jochum, D. Pérez, M. Bisht,

M.Trekels, T. Picot, R. Rüffer,M.Y. Hu, S.A. Brown, F.M.

Peeters, P. Lievens, A. Vantomme, K. Temst, M.J.

Van Bael, ‘Probing the phonon density of states and

its effect on superconductivity in Sn nanoparticles,

nano-islands, and cluster-assembled films’, 17th

International Symposium on Small Particles and

Inorganic Clusters (ISSPIC-XVII), September 7-12,

2014 in Fukuoka, Japan. (poster presentation by M.J.

Van Bael)

T. Picot, H. Wang, K. Houben, A. Hillion, S. Bals, S.A.

Brown, E. Janssens, P. Lievens, A. Vantomme, K.

Temst, M.J. Van Bael ‘Superconducting properties of

nanoparticles and small clusters’, 17th International

Symposium on Small Particles and Inorganic

Clusters (ISSPIC-XVII), September 7-12, 2014 in

Fukuoka, Japan. (poster presentation by T. Picot)

S. A. Brown, A. Nande, S. Fostner, A. Smith,

A. Sattar, S. Couet, M.J. Van Bael, K. Temst,

‘Tunneling, Dissipation, and Superconductivity in

Percolating Cluster Films’, International workshop

on Strongly disordered superconductors and the

Superconductor-insulator transition, Villard De

Lans , Vercors, France, 9-14 February 2014. (poster

presentation by S. Brown)


• Conduct simulations of the self-assembly

of cluster structures on surfaces.

We have used coarse-grained molecular dynamics

simulations to simulate cluster self-assembly during

the drying of polymer brushes tethered to a surface.

As the brushes dry, solute is trapped in micelles

formed by the brushes on the surface. The solute

eventually reaches its saturation concentration

and precipitates to form clusters, Figure 6. The

arrangement of clusters on the surfaces follows the

pattern of the dried micelles.

A simple mathematical model was developed to

describe this process and a paper has been written

and has been submitted to Nanoscale [T. Lee, S.

C. Hendy, and C. Neto, “Control of nanoparticle

formation using the constrained dewetting of

polymer brushes” Nanoscale, submitted (2014)].

FIGURE 6: A: a polymer brush (blue lines) swollen by

a thin film containing a dissolved solute (red circles).

B: the surface after the evaporation of the solvent, the

precipitation of the solute having been confined by

the pinned micelles.



• Molecular beam epitaxial growth and

characterization of device quality zinc

oxide and zinc magnesium oxide thin films

with compositionally tuned band gaps;

• Room temperature growth

and characterization of device

quality amorphous indium gallium zinc

oxide thin films on glass and plastic

substrates;

• Establishment of a protocol for isolating

single hydrothermally grown high aspect

ratio ZnO nanowires in device relevant

geometries;

• Establishment of a device fabrication

protocol for hydrothermal ZnO nanowires

on flexible substrates;

OBJECTIVE 3.

Next generation semi-

conductor materials and

devices

(Allen, Markwitz, Plank, Zuelicke, Blaikie)

Device quality ZnO growth via ultra-high-vacuum

molecular beam epitaxy (MBE) has been established

at the University of Canterbury (UC) with results

presented at the 8th International Workshop on

ZnO and Related Materials, September 2014 by

PhD student Adam Hyndman. This work has then

led to an invited talk at the 2015 SPIE Photonics

West Conference, February 2015. High quality

MBE ZnO thin films of root-mean-squared surface

roughness less than 2.5 nm were grown (Figure

7) with triangular atomic level terracing and high

electron mobilities (> 20 cm2/Vs). UV Schottky

Photodiodes fabricated on these films showed strong

environmental responses, which are now being

explored for sensor applications. Zinc magnesium

oxide thin films grown via compositionally tuned

pulsed laser deposition in collaboration with the

University of Leipzig (Germany), to complement MBE

growth of zinc magnesium oxide at UC which is now

underway.

FIGURE 7. (a) UC Molecular Beam Expitaxy chamber with

atomic zinc source (shutter open in bottom of picture) and (b)

atomic force microscopy image of resulting ZnO thin films

showing atomic level terracing.


Room temperature indium gallium zinc oxide

(IGZO) growth has been established at UC and

benchmarked against complementary material

from collaborators at Arizona State University

(USA) and Kochi University of Technology (Japan).

Device-grade IGZO material was successfully

used to fabricate prototype transparent thin film

transistors with improved switching stability targeted

at next-generation electronic display applications

using recently patented (US 8,508,015 B2) Schottky

contact fabrication technology (Figure 8). This now

forms part of a commercialization project funded by

the Kiwi Innovation Network.

FIGURE 8. (a) On-Off switching characteristics of

transparent IGZO MESFET transistors of different

channel thicknesses using patented Schottky contact

gates, and (b) scanning electron micrograph of

MESFET transistor topology.

Single high aspect ratio ZnO nanowires have been

isolated (Figure 9) and electrically characterized

using electron beam lithography nanofabrication

processes. Prototype nanowire photodetector and

nanotransistor devices were successfully fabricated.

New collaborations were established with Simon

Fraser University, Vancouver and University of

Swansea, Wales to share growth techniques and

characterization capability. The results have been

presented (oral conference contribution) by PhD

student Max Lynam at 8th International Workshop on

ZnO and Related Materials, September 2014.

Hydrothermal ZnO nanowires have also been

investigated with a polymer assisted high aspect

ratio growth process, using ZnO thin films as the

nanowire seed at Victoria University of Wellington

(VUW). Single hydrothermally grown ZnO nanowires

have been isolated and electrically characterised in

collaboration with the Australian Nanofabrication

facility, via collaboration with Associate Professor

Adam Micolich at the University of New South Wales

(UNSW). PhD student Conor Burke-Govey spent 6

weeks at UNSW to fabricate single ZnO nanowire

transistors. Work is continuing to determine surface

effects on nanowire electrical performance with

collaboration via Burke-Govey and Plank (VUW) and

Lyman and Allen (UC) using the nanofabrication

facilities at UC.

FIGURE 9. Single 10 µm long nanowire MESFET

transistor (note: human hair thickness is ~70 µm)


Transmission electron microscopy investigations

in collaboration with Jérôme Majimel of Institut de

Chimie de la Matière Condensée de Bordeaux at the

Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)

France, have shown that the ZnO nanowires grown

by polymer assisted hydrothermal synthesis have

distinct microstructure depending on the growth

recipe. We are able to produce high quality single

crystalline ZnO nanowires with low defect densities,

or nanowires formed due to an agglomeration of

ZnO nanoparticles (also with axial preference). The

novel discovery has resulted in a more complicated

yet fuller understanding of the growth mechanism

and electrical characterization to date. We are

currently preparing manuscripts and N. Plank has

been invited to speak on the topic at the international

conference on the Frontiers in Materials Processing,

Applications, Research and Technology (FiMPART

15), June 2015.

ZnO nanowire hydrothermal growth process has

been achieved on flexible substrates using polyimide

films as the substrate. We have shown that these

devices can be operated at low voltages using liquids

such as water, or the biologically relevant phosphate

buffer solution (PBS). These are important liquids for

environment sensors, or applications in health care,

as PBS can be tuned to have the same ionic strength

as body fluids including blood.

FIGURE 10: The transfer

characteristics of a ZnO

nanowire array field effect

transistor (FET) fabricated

on a flexible substrate. The

curve shows the hysteretic

performance of the device

operation in a liquid gate

environment at low voltages.

The right hand image shows

an example of electrode

structures produces on

polyimide films for device

applications.


• Development of a protocol for diamond-

like carbon nanostructured surface

layers (DLC) produced by low-energy ion

beam deposition;

• Identification of the surface properties

and bonding structure of DLC layers; and

• Designing and building an independent

ion beam deposition prototype system

for DLC coatings for industry.

The Coating division of Page Macrae Ltd in Tauranga

has installed an ion beam system from GNS Science

that is capable of cleaning metal surfaces with argon

ion beams, providing shallow nitride layers and is in

principle capable of depositing high quality DLC films

in the plasma vapour deposition chamber that is used

on a daily basis for coating industrial products with

TiN and other compounds. Two detailed GNS Science

client reports have been written that outline the

functionality of the ion beam system and applications

of this system in conjunction with the PVD coating.

The functionality of the ion source system has been

extensively tested at GNS Science.


Three papers have been published in 2014 that

demonstrate the ability of the ion source system to

produce micrometre thick DLC films. [A. Markwitz,

B. Mohr and J. Leveneur, “Room temperature

diamond-like carbon coatings produced by low

energy ion implantation”, ECAART-2013, Namur,

Belgium, September 2013, Nuclear Instruments and

Methods in Physics Research B331 (2014) 144 – 148,

A. Markwitz, B. Mohr, D. F. Carpeño and R. Hübner,

“Ultra-smooth diamond-like carbon coatings with

high elasticity deposited at room temperature by

direct ion beam deposition”, Surface and Coatings

Technology, 10.1016/j.surfcoat.2014.07.049 and

Peter Paul Murmu, Konrad Suschke, John Futter,

Andreas Markwitz, “A novel radial anode layer ion

source for inner wall pipe coating and materials

modification - hydrogenated diamond-like carbon

coatings from Butane gas”, Review of Scientific

Instruments 85, 085118 (2014)].

Figure 11 shows an exciting example which

demonstrates that even nano-diamonds can

be produced in the DLC films under some very

specific conditions.

A student, Prasanth Gupta has joined the

project in March 2014 and is exploring direct ion

beam deposition using various ion species and

implantation energy. He won a best poster award

at the recent MacDiarmid Institute student and

investigator meeting in Auckland.

FIGURE 11: A transmission electron microscope

image of a diamond film cross section.



• Elucidate interaction effects in strongly

spin-orbit-coupled low-dimensional

conductors, with special emphasis on

spin response;

• Consider superconducting proximity

effect in valence-band heterostructures

and pursue study of unconventional

(Majorana, fractional-electron)

excitations; and

• Study the finite-time full counting

statistics in hybrid normal-

superconducting nanoscale devices with

quantum dots.

We have obtained analytical expressions for the

q-dependent static spin susceptibility of monolayer

transition metal dichalcogenides, considering

both the electron-doped and hole-doped cases.

Our results are applied to calculate spin-related

physical observables of monolayer MoS2, focusing

especially on in-plane/out-of-plane anisotropies.

These results have been published in Phys. Rev. B

90, 045412 (2014). The spin-susceptibility is then

used to calculate the in-plane and out-of plane RKKY

interaction and to define a collective g-factor for

hole-doped MoS2 systems. Intriguingly the anisotropy

of the g-factor depends on the charge carrier density.

We have developed a general theory of the

superconducting proximity effect for bulk and low-

dimensional hole systems. The interplay of inter-

band coupling and quantum confinement is found to

result in unusual wave-vector dependencies of the

induced superconducting gap parameters.

OBJECTIVE 4.

Theory and modelling of

unconventional materials and

functional nanostructures

(Governale, Hendy, Zuelicke)0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.50

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FIGURE 12: Effective superconducting pair potentials

of quasi-2D holes. The result for the lowest (first

excited) sub-band, is shown as the blue solid (red

dashed) curve. Band-structure parameters have been

absorbed into the definition of .

One particularly appealing consequence is the density

tunability of the proximity effect in hole quantum

wells and nanowires, which creates new possibilities

for manipulating the transition to nontrivial topological

phases in these systems. These results have been

published in Phys. Rev. B 89, 184507 (2014).

We have completed the calculations of the finite

frequency noise through a hybrid normal/quantum-

dot /superconductor structure. The finite frequency

noise spectrum provides information on the coherent

exchange of Cooper pairs between the dot and the

superconductor. These results have been submitted

for publication in Physical Review B and a preprint

is available from http://arxiv.org/abs/1410.6694.

Furthermore, we have calculated the finite-time full

counting statistics for the same system. The full

counting statistics provides all the finite-frequency

higher-order current cumulants. The results on the

finite-time full counting statistics will constitute one

chapter of the PhD thesis of Ms S. Droste and will be

submitted as an article to Physical Review B.

The work has resulted in collaborartion on the

magnetic properties of low-dimensional hole

systems with the groups of Prof Alex Hamilton and

Prof Michelle Simmons at the University of South

Wales and a high-quality publication in a leading

international multi-disciplinary physics journal. [L. A.

Yeoh, A. Srinivasan, O. Klochan, R. Winkler, U. Zülicke,

M. Y. Simmons, D. A. Ritchie, M. Pepper, and A. R.

Hamilton, Phys. Rev. Lett. 113, 236401 (2014).]


NANOFABRICATION AND DEVICES

Outputs

SCIENCE EXCELLENCE

PUBLICATIONS

B. Sothmann, S. Weiss, M. Governale, and J. König, Unconventional superconductivity in double quantum dots, Phys. Rev. B, 90, 220501(R) (2014)

T. Ancelet, P. K. Davy, W. J. Trompetter and A. Markwitz, Sources of Particulate Matter Pollution in a Small New Zealand City, Atmospheric Pollution

Research, 5(4), 572-580, (2014)

T. Ancelet, P. K. Davy, W. J. Trompetter, A. Markwitz and D. C. Weatherburn, Particulate Matter Sources on an Hourly Timescale in a Rural Community During the Winter, Journal of the Air and Waste

Management Association, 64(5), 501-508, (2014)

T. Ancelet, P. K. Davy, W. J. Trompetter, A. Markwitz and D. C. Weatherburn, Sources and Transport of Particulate Matter on an Hourly Time-Scale During the Winter in a New Zealand Urban Valley, Urban

Climate, (2014)

G. Bian, X. Wang, T. Miller, T. C. Chiang, P. J. Kowalczyk, O. Mahapatra and S. A. Brown, First-Principles and Spectroscopic Studies of Bi(110) Films: Thickness-Dependent Dirac Modes and Property Oscillations, Physical Review B - Condensed

Matter and Materials Physics, 90(19) (2014)

B. Ding, M. Qiu and R. J. Blaikie, Manipulating Light Absorption in Dye-Doped Dielectric Films on Reflecting Surfaces, Optics Express, 22(21), 25965-25975, (2014)

O. Fialko, J. Brand and U. Zülicke, Fragility of the Fractional Quantum Spin Hall Effect in Quantum Gases, New Journal of Physics, 16, (2014)

S. Fostner, R. Brown, J. Carr and S. A. Brown, Continuum Percolation with Tunneling, Physical

Review B - Condensed Matter and Materials Physics, 89(7), (2014)

H. Hatami, T. Kernreiter and U. Zülicke, Spin Susceptibility of Two-Dimensional Transition-Metal Dichalcogenides, Physical Review B - Condensed

Matter and Materials Physics, 90(4), (2014)

R. Heinhold, S. P. Cooil, D. A. Evans and M. W. Allen, Stability of the Surface Electron Accumulation Layers on the Nonpolar (1010) and (1120) Faces of ZnO, Journal of Physical Chemistry C, 118(42), 24575-24582, (2014)

J. Kennedy, J. Leveneur, F. Fang and A. Markwitz, Enhanced Reduction of Silicon Oxide Thin Films on Silicon under Electron Beam Annealing, Nuclear

Instruments and Methods in Physics Research,

Section B: Beam Interactions with Materials and

Atoms, (2014)

P.J. Kowalczyk, O. Mahapatra, S. A. Brown, G. Bian and T. C. Chiang, STM Driven Modification of Bismuth Nanostructures, Surface Science, 621, 140-145, (2014)

L. Lee, H. Ma, P. A. Brooksby, S. A. Brown, Y. R. Leroux, P. Hapiot and A. J. Downard, Covalently Anchored Carboxyphenyl Monolayer Via Aryldiazonium Ion Grafting: A Well-Defined Reactive Tether Layer for on-Surface Chemistry, Langmuir, 30(24), 7104-7111, (2014)

J. Leveneur, J. Kennedy, G. V. M. Williams, M. Sasase, J. B. Metson and A. Markwitz, Structural and Chemical Changes During the Growth of Fe Nanoparticles in SiO

2 under Low Energy

Ion Implantation, International Journal of

Nanotechnology, 11(5-8) 466-476, (2014)

H. Ma, L. Lee, P. A. Brooksby, S. A. Brown, S. J. Fraser, K. C. Gordon, Y. R. Leroux, P. Hapiot and A. J. Downard, Scanning Tunneling and Atomic Force Microscopy Evidence for Covalent and Noncovalent Interactions between Aryl Films and Highly Ordered Pyrolytic Graphite, Journal of Physical Chemistry C, 118(11) 5820-5826, (2014)

O. Mahapatra, P.J. Kowalczyk and S.A. Brown, Growth and Electronic Properties of Nacl on Hopg, Surface Science, 620, 45-50, (2014)

A. Markwitz, Mohr, D. F. Carpeño and R. Hübner, Ultra-Smooth Diamond-Like Carbon Coatings with High Elasticity Deposited at Low Temperature by Direct Ion Beam Deposition, Surface and Coatings

Technology, (2014)


A. Markwitz, B. Mohr and J. Leveneur, Room Temperature Diamond-Like Carbon Coatings Produced by Low Energy Ion Implantation, Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research,

Section B: Beam Interactions with Materials and

Atoms, (2014)

A.G. Moghaddam, T. Kernreiter, M. Governale and U. Zülicke, Exporting Superconductivity across the Gap: Proximity Effect for Semiconductor Valence-Band States Due to Contact with a Simple-Metal Superconductor, Physical Review B - Condensed

Matter and Materials Physics, 89(18), (2014)

S, Müller, H. Von Wenckstern, F. Schmidt, D. Splith, R. Heinhold, M. Allen and M. Grundmann, Method of Choice for Fabrication of High-Quality ZnO-Based Schottky Diodes, Journal of Applied Physics, 116(19), (2014)

L. Pratley and U. Zülicke, Valley Filter from Magneto-Tunneling between Single and Bi-Layer Graphene, Applied Physics Letters, 104(8), (2014)

S. Rojek, M. Governale and J. König, Spin Pumping through Quantum Dots, Physica Status Solidi (B)

Basic Research, 251(9), 1912-1923, (2014)

D. Schebarchov, T. P. Schulze and S. C. Hendy, Degenerate Ising Model for Atomistic Simulation of Crystal-Melt Interfaces, Journal of Chemical Physics, 140(7), (2014)

F. Schmidt, P. Schlupp, S. Müller, C. P. Dietrich, H. Von Wenckstern, M. Grundmann, R. Heinhold, H. S. Kim and M. W. Allen, A Dlts Study of a ZnO Microwire, a Thin Film and Bulk Material, Journal of British

Studies, 1633(3), (2014)

S. Sivasubramaniam and M. M. Alkaisi, Inverted Nanopyramid Texturing for Silicon Solar Cells Using Interference Lithography, Microelectronic

Engineering, 119, 146-150, (2014)

S. Sivasubramaniam, A. Faramus, R. D. Tilley and M. M. Alkaisi, Performance Enhancement in Silicon Solar Cell by Inverted Nanopyramid Texturing and Silicon Quantum Dots Coating, Journal of Renewable

and Sustainable Energy, 6(1), (2014)

R.P. Tiwari, U. Zülicke and C. Bruder, Signatures of Tunable Majorana-Fermion Edge States, New Journal

of Physics, 16, (2014)

R.P. Tiwari, U. Zülicke, C. Bruder and V. M. Stojanović, Neutral Edge Modes in a Superconductor-Topological-Insulator Hybrid Structure in a Perpendicular Magnetic Field, EPL, 108(1), (2014)

H. Wang, T. Picot, K. Houben, T. Moorkens, J. Grigg, C. Van Haesendonck, E. Biermans, S. Bals, S. A. Brown, A. Vantomme, K. Temst and M. J. Van Bael, The Superconducting Proximity Effect in Epitaxial Al/Pb Nanocomposites, Superconductor Science and

Technology, 27(1), (2014)

L.A. Yeoh, A. Srinivasan, O. Klochan, R. Winkler, U. Zülicke, M. Y. Simmons, D. A. Ritchie, M. Pepper and A. R. Hamilton, Noncollinear Paramagnetism of a Gaas Two-Dimensional Hole System, Physical Review

Letters, 113(23), (2014)

PUBLISHED CONFERENCE PAPERS

F. Schmidt, P. Schlupp, S. Müller, C. P. Dietrich, H. Von Wenckstern, M. Grundmann, R. Heinhold, H. S. Kim and M. W. Allen, A DLTS study of a ZnO microwire, a thin film and bulk material, 2013 MRS Fall Meeting, 1633, Boston, MA; United States, (2014)

G. Medina, P. A. Stampe, R. J. Kennedy, R. J. Reeves, G. T. Dang, A. Hyland, M. W. Allen, M. J. Wahila, L. F. J. Piper and S. M. Durbin, Characterization of tin oxide grown by molecular beam epitaxy, 2013 MRS

Fall Meeting, 1633, Boston, MA; United States, (2014)

J. S. Hamel, R. Alison and R. Blaikie, Experimental method to extract A.C. collector-base resistance from SiGe HBT's, European Solid-State Device

Research Conference, 78, 2823-2829, (2014)

P. K. Davy, T. Ancelet, W. J. Trompetter and A. Markwitz, Arsenic and air pollution in New Zealand, Proceedings of the 5th International Congress on

Arsenic in the Environment, 15 (3-4), 249-255, Buenos Aires, (2014)

INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE

INVITATIONS

PLENARY SPEAKER

S.C. Hendy, Slippery issues in nano- and microscale fluid flows, ANZIAM 2014, Rotorua, New Zealand, 2-6 February 2014

S.C. Hendy, Preservation, Innovation and Collaboration, iPres 2014, Melbourne, Australia, 8-10 October 2014


INVITED SPEAKER

M. W. Allen, Zinc Oxide UV Photodetetors for use in Melanoma and Vitamin D Studies, 41st International

Conference on Metallurgical Coatings and Thin Films, San Diego, USA, 28 April – 2 May 2014

M. W. Allen, Unipolar Devices in ZnO and Related Materials, TCO2014 Transparent Conductive Oxides

- Fundamentals and Applications Conference, Universität Leipzig, Leipzig, Germany, 29 September - 2 October 2014

M. W. Allen, Zinc Oxide “See-Through’ Electronic Devices: Transparent Schottky Contacts, UV Photodiodes and Thin Film Transistors, Department

of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Western

Michigan University, Kalamazoo, Michigan, USA, 12 September 2014

R.J. Blaikie, Resonant reflections to enhance depth of field in evanescent-wave lithography, Nikon

LithoVision 2014 Conference, Center for Performing Arts in San Jose, California, 23 February 23 2014

S.C. Hendy, Degenerate Ising model for atomistic simulation of crystal-melt interface, CMMSE 2014, Rota, Spain 2-7 July 2014

S.A. Brown, 4th International Conference on Nanotek

and Expo, San Francisco, USA, 1-3 December 2014 (did not attend)

S.A. Brown, Cross fertilising Inter-CoREs Symposium, University of Auckland, Auckland, Tuesday 25th November 2014

S.A. Brown, 3rd International Conference and

Exhibition on Materials Science & Engineering

(Materials Science-2014), San Antonio, USA, October 6-8, 2014 (did not attend)

S.A. Brown, 17th International Symposium on Small

Particles and Inorganic Clusters (ISSPIC-XVII), Fukuoka, Japan, 7-12 September 2014

S.A. Brown, 3rd Annual World Congress of Advanced

Materials-2014 (WCAM-2014), Chongqing, China, 6-9 June 2014 (did not attend)

S.A. Brown, 1st International Symposium on

Nanoparticles-Nanomaterials and Applications:

ISN2A 2014 (http://www.isn2a2014.com), Caparica, Lisbon, Portugal, 20-22 January 2014 (did not attend)

S.A. Brown, XIXth Symposium on Atomic, Cluster

and Surface Physics 2014, Obergurgl, Austria, 9-14

February 2014 (did not attend)

N.O.V. Plank, accepted an invitation to speak at Frontiers in Materials Processing, Applications Research and Technology, Hyderabad, India, 2015.

U. Zülicke, Valleytronics and

pseudospintronics with chiral charge

carriers in two-dimensional atomic crystals, 2014 Conference on Optoelectronics and Microelectronic Materials and Devices, Perth, Australia, 14 – 17 December 2014

U. Zülicke, Emergent electromagnetism in

materials, 2014 Australasian Workshop on Emergent Quantum Matter, Dunwich (North Stradbroke Island, Queensland), Australia, 24 – 28 November 2014

M.M. Alkaisi, Bioimprinted substrates: an approach for understanding and controlling cell response”, 3rd International Conference

and Exhibition on Materials Science &

Engineering, San Antonio, USA, October 2014

M.M. Alkaisi, Morphology and differentiation in bioimprinted cells, LAAS, Toulouse, France, 12 September 2014

NEW GRANT FUNDS

S.C. Hendy (PI), TEC, Te Pūnaha Matatini, $13,161,000, 1 January 2015 – 31 December 2020, with Michele Governale & Ulrich Zuelicke, VUW.

N.O.V. Plank (PI), Victoria University of

Wellington, Random nanowire networks for

artificial neural networks, $24,488, March 2015 for five months.

M.C. Simpson (PI), Ministry of Business,

Innovation and Employment / MSI

High Value Manufacturing Sector

and Services Fund, Targeted Research:

Tailored Beam Shapes for Fast, Efficient, and

Precise Femtosecond Laser Micromachining,

$1,426,099, 1 October 2014 – 30 September 2016, with John Harvey, University of Auckland and Southern Photonics (AI) and Neil Broderick, University of Auckland (AI)


M.C. Simpson (AI), Ministry of Business,

Innovation and Employment / MSI High Value

Manufacturing Sector and Services Fund,

Targeted Research: Food Safe Devices for Real Time

Bacterial Count, $3,111,932, 1 Oct 2014 – 30 Sept 2018, with Frederique Vanholsbeek, University of Auckland (PI), Simon Swift, University of Auckland (AI) and Evgeny Bogomolny, University of Auckland (AI)

LONG TERM RESEARCH STAYS AT

OVERSEAS FACILITIES (>1 MONTH)

M. Governale, Research & Study leave at Scuola Normale Superiore, Pisa, Italy (from 1 November 2014 to 15 December 2014). Collaboration with Prof Rosario Fazio and Dr Fabio Taddei on current fluctuations in topological materials.

M.M. Alkaisi, two weeks at the Laboratory for Analysis and Architecture of System(LAAS), Toulouse, France working on the role of physical forces on cancer development , hosted by Professor Christophe Vieu and his team. During my visit, I have also acted as external examiner to one PhD thesis on cancer and mechanical forces submitted by Laurene Auon, 8-18 September 2014

M.C. Simpson, sabbatical leave for all of 2014: April 5 – May 20: Visited the USA (New York University, University of Pennsylvania, Pennsylvania State University, University of Virginia, Vanderbilt University, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Michigan State University, Ohio State University, Case Western Reserve University) 1 – 8 September, Visited Colorado State University and a company that we collaborate with. 8-23 December, Visited collaborator at Case Western Reserve University and a company that we collaborate with.

VISITORS

Dr Colm Carraher, Plant and Food Research, functionalizing nanomaterial devices with biosensor receptors, 19-21 November 2014 (N.O.V. Plank)

Yi Wang, University of Auckland, Chip fabrication for neural network devices. 3-18 December 2014 (N.O.V. Plank)

Prof Reza Asgari, IPM Teheran, Iran; Collaboration on transition metal dichalcogenides, 2-21 February 2014 (M. Governale)

Prof. Ali G. Moghaddam, Institute for Advanced Studies in Basic Sciences, Zanjan, Iran; Collaboration on superconductivity in Rare-earth nitrides, 4 September - 4 October 2014 (M. Governale & U. Zülicke)

Prof Konstantin Arutunov, University of Jyvaskyla (Finland), research, 11 July - 15 August 2014 (S.A. Brown)

Dr Sebastien Couet, KU Leuven (Belgium), research, 1 April 2013 to 31 April 2014 (S.A. Brown)

Prof Reza Asgari, Institute for Research in Fundamental Sciences (IPM), Tehran, Iran, visited for collaborative research, gave one group seminar & an SCPS physics seminar, 2 – 21 February 2014 (U. Zülicke)

Dr. Catherine Mohr, Stanford U. & Intuitive Surgical (USA), Hood Fellow (sponsored by me), 13 – 24 October 2014 (M.C. Simpson)

STUDENTS & POSTDOCTORAL

FELLOWS AT OVERSEAS FACILITIES

Conor Burke-Govey, PhD student, Australian Nanofabrication Facility at University of New South Wales, visited Associate Professor Adam Micolich’s Nanoelectronics Group to fabricate single nanowire ZnO field effect transistors. The trip allowed Conor to learn vital techniques in depositing nanowires onto device substrates and electron beam lithography, 18 August – 26 September 2014 (N.O.V. Plank)

Dr Giang Dang, Postdoc, Kochi University of Technology, Center for Nanotechnology, Kochi, Japan, Growth of transparent metal oxide semiconductors using new solution processed mist-chemical vapour deposition technique developed at Kochi, with subsequent equipment and knowledge transfer to New Zealand. Collaborating PI Prof. Mamoru Furuta. 1

November – 23 December 2014 (M.W. Allen)

Dr Boyang Ding, Postdoc, two research visits to: Prof. Min Qiu, Department of Optical Engineering, Zhejiang University Yuquan Campus, Hangzhou 310027, China, March 2014 and October 2014 (R.J. Blaikie)

Dr. Isha Mitraja postdoc, Visited University of South Australia, Mawson Lakes Campus in January 2014 (27th Jan-31st Jan 2014) to work in collaboration with Dr. Krasimir Vasilev. The purpose of visit was to use plasma polymerization approach to chemically modify bioimprinted polystyrene surfaces to achieve different chemical functionalities. The idea was to see response of muscle cells on positive and negative bioimprints with different surface chemistries (M.M Alkaisi)


LINKS WITH OTHER CORE’S

M. Governale, Principal Investigator in Te Pūnaha Matatini

S.C. Hendy, Director, Te Pūnaha Matatini

U. Zülicke, Principal Investigator in Te Pūnaha Matatini

U. Zülicke, Associate Investigator, Dodd-Walls Centre for Photonic and Quantum Technologies

R.J. Blaikie, Gravida (CoRE) Board

R.J. Blaikie, Dodd-Walls (CoRE) Board

R.J. Blaikie, Brain Research New Zealand, Rangahau Roro Aotearoa (CoRE) Board

M.C. Simpson, Principal Investigator and member of Executive Committee, Dodd-Walls Centre for Photonic and Quantum Technologies

M.M. Alkaisi, Delivered a talk on “Bioimprint: A new cell culture platform” at the cross CoRE meeting on Nov 25 2014, MacDiarmid Institute, Medical Device Technology, Brain Research Institute and Maurice Wilkins Centre. This has led to the submission of joint proposal with Dr.Vickie Shim, Auckland Bioengineering Institute, Med Tech CoRE titled: Nanoscale imaging of cell scaffold adherence under mechanical stimulation with bioimprining and atomic force microscopy.

NEW COLLABORATIONS

N.O.V. Plank, new collaboration with Dr Jerome Majimel of the Institut de Chimie de la Matière Condensée de Bordeaux, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS) to perform Transmission Electron Microscopy on our novel ZnO nanowires since mid 2014. The collaboration has been instigated through meeting at a conference in December 2013, and directly links to MacDiarmid funded PhD student Conor Burke-Govey’s PhD project.

M. W. Allen, with Dr Alex M. Lord, Centre for Nanohealth, University of Swansea, Wales – collaboration aimed at an improved understanding of the surface electronic properties of ZnO nanowires.

M. W. Allen, with Professor Simon Watkins, Department of Physics, Simon Frazer University, Burnaby, B.C., Canada – collaboration concerning the electronic properties of ZnO nanowires using samples grown via MOCVD.

M.M. Alkaisi, Visited the Laboratory for Analysis and Architecture of System (LAAS), Toulouse, France 8 Sept to 18 Sept working on the role of physical forces on cancer development , hosted by Professor Christophe Vieu. A joint Marsden fund will be a submitted for this year round.

LEADERSHIP

RESEARCH STUDENTS AND

POSTDOCTORAL FELLOWS TALKS

Conor Burke-Govey, Physics PhD first year talk (internal assessment), “ZnO nanowires for field-effect transistors” 10 June 2014 (N.O.V. Plank)

Stephanie Droste, Poster presentation at LT27, 27th International Conference on Low Temperature

Physics. Poster title: “Finite-frequency full counting statistics for transport through a hybrid superconducting-normal structure with a quantum dot”. This was one of the most prestigious conference on low-temperature Physics held in 2014. Buenos Aires, Argentina, 6-13 August (M. Governale)

Senthuran Sivasubramaniam , Maan M. Alkaisi, “fabrication of low-cost uv nanoimprint master mold by interference lithography”, International Conference on Nanoscience and Nanotechnology 12th-13thAugust2014, Colombo, Sri Lanka.(Oral) (M.M Alkaisi)

Steven Banerjee, Maan Alkaisi and Stefanie Gutschmidt, “fabrication of 3D microrobotic parallel actuator architecture”, 11th Annual International Wafer-Level Packaging Conference IWLPC2014, November 11-13, 2014, San Jose, CA, USA (Oral). (M.M Alkaisi)

Li Hui Tan, John Evans, Maan Alkaisi, Peter Sykes, ”Cancer Cell Response to Culture Substrate Topography”, 5th Annual Symposium “Physics of Cancer”,University of Leipzig, Stauffenbergallee 2, 01099 Dresden, Germany, 2-5 October 2014(Oral). (M.M Alkaisi)

Cellular Response to Positive and Negative bioimprinted Polystyrene Surfaces, I Mutreja, MM Alkaisi, JJ Evans, MNE 2014, Lausanne. (Poster) (M.M Alkaisi)


NATIONAL OR INTERNATIONAL

COMMITTEE, BOARD OR PANEL

MEMBERSHIPS AND EDITORSHIPS

N.O.V. Plank, New Zealand Association of Scientists – council member

N.O.V. Plank, AWIS conference committee, conference held 10th-11th July 2014, Wellington

N.O.V. Plank, Programme committee for EIPBN (2013-present).

N.O.V. Plank, Nanoelectronics program committee for ICONN 2016

N.O.V. Plank, International year of light New Zealand committee member 2014/15

M. W. Allen, Program Committee and Organizing Committee, 8th International Workshop on Zinc Oxide and Related Materials (September 7-11, 2014), Niagara Falls, Ontario, Canada.

M. W. Allen, Technical Symposium Organizing Committee (Contacts to Semiconductor Epilayers, Nanowires, Nanotubes and Organic Films), 56th Electronic Materials Conference (June 25-27, 2014), University of Santa Barbara, CA, USA.

R.J. Blaikie, Universities New Zealand Research Committee

S.C. Hendy, Member of the Advisory Board for the Dragonfly Science 2013-

S.C. Hendy, Member of the Royal Society of New Zealand’s Science System Review Panel, 2014-2015

U. Zülicke, Member, International Union of Pure and Applied Physics (IUPAP) Commission on Semiconductors (see http://iupap.org/commissions/c8-semiconductors/members/ for details)

M.M. Alkaisi, Member of Editorial board of Micro Engineering.

M.M. Alkaisi, Member of the Editorial Board of Austin Journal of Nanomedicine & Nanotechnology.

M.M. Alkaisi, Member of the Editorial board of Nano materials & Molecular Nanotechnology.

M.M. Alkaisi, Member of the Royal Society of New Zealand (MRSNZ).

M.M. Alkaisi, International Program committee, MNE 2014, 39th International Conference on Micro- and Nano-Engineering, 17-20 September 2014, Lausanne Switzerland.

M.C. Simpson, co-Chair, NZ National Committee on the International Year of Light

M.C. Simpson, President, NZ Institute of Physics

M.C. Simpson, Immediate Past President & Vice President, NZ Institute of Physics

M.C. Simpson, Organizing committee, 13th International Conference on Laser Ablation (COLA-2015) (to be held in 2015)

M.C. Simpson, Organizing committee, AMN-7 (held in

2015)

M.C. Simpson, Smart Ideas Panel Member, Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment

M.C. Simpson, Member, Awards committee for major international award in my research discipline (current, and therefore confidential)

INSPIRATION

CONTRIBUTIONS TO GOVERNMENT

POLICY

N.O.V. Plank, Contributed to the NZAS submission on the NSSI

N.O.V. Plank, Contributed to a written submission title” Bioelectronic detection platforms” for the National Science Challenges sandpit meeting in March 2014. I could not attend the sandpit due to teaching commitments at VUW.

R.J. Blaikie, Deep South (National Science Challenge) Interim Governance Group

R.J. Blaikie, Science for Technological Innovation (NSC) Board

R.J. Blaikie, Sustainable Seas (NSC) Interim Governance Group

R.J. Blaikie, Resilience to Natures Challenge (NSC)Interim Governance Group

R.J. Blaikie, 3× Health and Wellbeing NSCs (Better Start, Healthier Lives, Ageing Well) Establishment Oversight Group (co-chair)


S.C. Hendy, Member of the Department of Internal Affairs Digital Preservation as a Service Advisory Board, 2014-15

S.C. Hendy, Member of the Ministry of Social Development’s Data Management and Analytics Advisory Group, 2014-15

S.C. Hendy, Steering Group for National Science Challenge 10: Science for technological Innovation

S.C. Hendy, Invited article: “Point of View: Science and its privilege in the policy arena”, Public Sector 37:2, 24 (2014).

S.A. Brown, Member of Steering Group for National Science Challenge 10, Science for Technological Innovation ($116.5 million over 10 years).

M.C. Simpson, Panel Member, Research Platform 2, National Science Challenge 10 (Science for Technological Innovation)

MEDIA PUBLICATIONS

S.C. Hendy, More than two dozen media appearances, interviews or articles (Radio New Zealand, Unlimited Magazine, the NZ Herald, the Dominion Post, Radio Live).

S.C. Hendy, Finalist for 2014 Best Columnist BUSINESS & TRADE, Magazine Publishers Association Awards

ADVANCEMENT OF NEW ZEALAND

INVENTION DISCLOSURES

M.W. Allen, Japanese patent application 2010-508329 ‘Contact and method of fabrication’ for Schottky-like contacts to zinc oxide based materials: Response to second office action - instructions filed 18 December 2014.

R.J. Blaikie, Provisional Patent Application, “Anti-reflection arrangement for photolithography”, United States provisional patent application, with Levi Earl Bourke, United States patent application 61/994001, Filing date: 15 May 2014

START-UP COMPANY

M.C. Simpson, Engender Technologies

SEED INVESTMENTS IN START-UP OR

SUCCESSFUL PSAF APPLICATIONS

M.C. Simpson, PSAF Novel Method of Skin Engineering: $20,000 subcontract on this grant

INDUSTRY CONSULTING

M.C. Simpson, Science Advisory Board Member, Footfalls & Heartbeats (NZ company)

M.C. Simpson, Chief Science Officer (founding), Engender Technologies

INDUSTRY LINKED PROJECT

M.C. Simpson, Engender Technologies: $600,000 contract

M.C. Simpson, Large Artificial Insemination company (identity confidential): $250,000 in-kind funding through collaboration

M.C. Simpson, Fonterra: $540,000 contract

OTHER SIGNIFICANT INDUSTRY

INTERACTION

A. Markwitz, The Coating division of Page Macrae Ltd in Tauranga has installed an ion beam system from GNS Science that is capable of cleaning metal surfaces with argon ion beams, providing shallow nitride layers and is in principle capable of depositing high quality DLC films in the plasma vapour deposition chamber that is used on a daily basis for coating industrial products with TiN and other compounds. This is the first ion beam system that has been installed by New Zealand Industry.

M.C. Simpson, Through our MBIE funded research, we work with Izon, Aeroqual, Intuitive Surgical (USA), Engender Technologies, Finisar (Australia), Southern Photonics, Pacific Channel, Line-5


THEME 2

Electronic and Optical Materials

Personnel


Emeritus Investigator

Jim Metson


Geoff Waterhouse, Kevin E. Smith

PhD Students

Akihiro Shimamura, Gordon Abenyegah, Hasini

Wijayaratne, Jingjing Liu, Vedran Jovic, Wan-ting

Chen, Zakiya Al-Azri



Roger Reeves

Associate Investigator

Aaron Marshall, Mike Reid

Postdoctoral Fellow

Ian Farrell

PhD Students

Alexander Salkeld, Alex Neiman, Chrissy Emeny,

Adam Hyndman, Calvin Lim, Diandree Padayachee,

Jared Steven, Mohammad Zeidan, Rosa Hughes-

Currie, Sebastian Horvath, Sophie Koster, Sophia

Mellsop

Callaghan Innovation Limited


Damian Carder, Bridget Ingham, Tim Kemmitt

PhD Students

Campbell McNicoll

GNS Science


John Kennedy

Postdoctoral Fellow

Peter Murmu

PhD Student

Pierre Couture

Macquarie University,

NSW, Australia


James Downes



Alan Kaiser


Ben Ruck, Eric Le Ru, Grant Williams, Jeff Tallon, Joe

Trodahl, Nicola Gaston


Bob Buckley, Chris Bumby, Franck Natali, Ruth

Knibbe, Shen Chong, Simon Granville, Suresh

Narayanswamy, Stuart Wimbush


Eva Anton*, Doreen Mollenhauer*, Stefan Meyer,

Suresh Narayanswamy*

PhD Students

Anne-Helene Puichaud, Brendan Darby, Camille

Arthur, Christin Gaedtke, Chang-Min Lee, Chun

Cheah, Haissam Dernaika, Harry Warring, James

McNulty, Jay Chan, Jethro Donaldson, Jibu

Stephens, Julia Schacht, Luis Figueras, Sebastian

Sambale, Shrividya Ravi, Tanmay Maity, Thomas

Minnee, Tushara Prakash, Udbhav Ojha, Walter

Somerville, Wayne Crump

* MacDiarmid Institute funded

PROFILE 2014 27

ELECTRONIC AND OPTICAL MATERIALS


The cutting edge of solid-state materials science is

dominated by problems and possibilities associated

with nano-scale inhomogeneity or electron-electron

interactions. Conventional theories of the optical and

electronic properties of materials assume electrons

propagating independently in 3D crystals with a

periodic array of atoms and uniform propagation of

light. Many materials displaying novel or exploitable

properties do not fit within these bounds. Examples

include the optical properties of nanoparticles or

nanoparticle assemblies, where light both scatters

from the particles and induces excitations within

them. Similarly, electrical conduction within low-

dimensional conductors such as graphene, a single

layer of carbon atoms, is far more sensitive to

disorder than more typical conductors. Conventional

models of material properties also ignore the

strong repulsion between the constituent electrons,

but for some materials these are crucial to

understanding their properties. Examples include

all superconductors and magnetic materials,

both of which are of substantial technological and

fundamental relevance.

The Electronic and Optical Materials science

theme includes strong activity encompassing both

experimental and theoretical work in these areas.

Most of the work is collaborative in nature, with

strong links between theme members and across

the MacDiarmid Institute’s science themes, and also

with many international collaborators. Theory and

simulation are used to inform and stimulate our

experimental investigations, and indeed in many

cases theoretical predictions can drive the direction

of the experimental programme.

2014 MILESTONES AND REPORT

• Characterization of the dose history

dependence and radiation damage in bulk

and nanoparticle fluoroperovskites;

We developed a set of 1st order linear differential

equations to account for gradual radiation damage

and dose history.

We showed that part of the decrease in the

radioluminescence with increasing dose is due to a

radiation induced change in the transmittance. We

have shown that we can create 2D images using our

near tissue-equivalent materials. This work is for

2D dosimetry for dose verification and validation for

radiotherapy applications.

We are preparing a patent on 2D dosimeter readout

methods.

Support for this work by the MacDiarmid Institute has

assisted us in obtaining four year MBIE funding on

dosimeters and radiation imaging devices.

OBJECTIVE 1.

Understanding structural,

electronic and optical

properties of nanoparticles

and nanostructures

(Gaston, Kaiser, Kennedy, Le Ru, Reeves,

G. Williams, AI-Chong)


• Completion of investigations into the

validity of the Rayleigh Hypothesis (RH),

which is a crucial assumption for the

applicability of the T-matrix method to

calculate the near field enhancements on

metallic nanoparticles.

Investigations into the validity of the Rayleigh

Hypothesis (RH) were completed in the important

case of spheroidal particles (for which we developed

the necessary new tools for accurate calculations).

These investigations have led us to carry out a

detailed study of the convergence properties of

series arising in electromagnetic theory. A paper

presenting our results has recently been published

and a second one will be submitted before the end of

the year:

• “Convergence of Mie theory series: criteria

for far-field and near-field properties” J. R.

Allardice and E. C. Le Ru, Appl. Optics 53,

7224-7229 (2014).

• “Accurate and convergent T-matrix

calculations of light scattering by spheroids”,

W. R. C. Somerville, B. Auguie, and E. C. Le

Ru, submitted to J. Quant. Spectrosc. Rad.

Transf.

To overcome the problems in the region where the

RH is invalid, we have developed an alternative

method to compute the near-fields based on

integrals rather than series, which, albeit slower,

produces highly accurate results.

• Development of analysis techniques for

molecular dynamics simulations that

distinguish between homotops in the

case of nano-alloy clusters;

In addition, as part of work towards our 2015

objectives, we have developed our studies of AuPd

clusters to investigate which of the numerous isomers

are of most interest for specific catalytic reactions,

in collaboration with researchers in Japan.[1] A

second paper discussing the effect of the metal-

ligand interaction on the preferred structure of

these bimetallic catalysts, which shows that the

attachment of the ligands can be predicted based on

simple model systems, is also in preparation.

• Completion of investigation of how

disorder and morphology affect the

electronic transport properties of

graphene (single and multiple layers)

and other carbon materials.

We continued our collaboration with Seoul National

University on the electronic conduction in multi-

layered graphene oxide and in doped co-polymers,

showing the importance of hopping conduction in

each material [K.H. Kim, S.J. Baek, A. B. Kaiser, Y. W.

Park et al., Synthetic Metals, 2014,188, pp 30-34 and

2014, 191, pp 1-5].

We co-edited a book “Graphene: Properties,

preparation, characterisation and devices”

(Woodhead Publishing/Elsevier, edited by Viera

Skakalova and Alan B. Kaiser, 2014, pp 400).

OBJECTIVE 2.

Magnetism, electronics and

magneto-electronics of nano-

structured ferromagnetic

semiconductors

(Ruck, Trodahl, Reeves, AI-Natali, AI-Granville)


• Establish appropriate insulating and

metallic exchange blocking layers in GdN/

blocking layer/SmN heterostructures, and

investigate their efficacy in memory and

sensing applications;

[1] C Cl Bond Activation on Au/Pd Bimetallic Nanocatalysts Studied by Density Functional Theory and Genetic Algorithm Calculations/ Bundet Boekfa, Elke Pahl, Nicola Gaston, Hidehiro Sakurai, Jumras Limtrakul, and Masahiro Ehara, J. Phys. Chem. C, 2014, 118 (38), pp 22188 22196

PROFILE 2014 29Electronic and Optical Materials


• Collection of a full set of measurements

on a film containing transition metal

nanoclusters on SiO2 with different

electrode geometries and gaps sizes;

We have developed the detailed understanding of the

origin of magnetoresistance on ion-implanted and

electron-beam-annealed samples. The result have

been published in international journals:

1. Leveneur, J.; Kremer, F.; Kennedy, J.V.; Ridgway,

M.C.; Williams, G.V.M.; Metson, J.B. 2014

Enhancement of the magnetic properties of iron

nanoparticles upon incorporation of samarium.

Materials Research Express, 1(2): article 026110;

doi:10.1088/2053-1591/1/2/026110.

2. Leveneur, J.; Kennedy, J.V.; Williams, G.V.M.;

Sasase, M.; Metson, J.B.; Markwitz, A. 2014.

Structural and chemical changes during the

growth of Fe nanoparticles in SiO2 under low

energy ion implantation. International journal of

nanotechnology, 11(5-8): 466-476.

FIGURE 1: This plot shows how we can control the

carrier concentration, and hence the resistivity, in GdN

over nearly 6 orders of magnitude by doping with Mg.

OBJECTIVE 3.

Superconducting, magnetic,

and spin-dependent properties

of novel materials

(Kennedy, Ruck, Tallon, Trodahl, Williams G.,

AI-Chong)

We have established that LaN forms an excellent

exchange blocking layer between SmN and GdN, and

have investigated its efficacy in a full X-ray magnetic

circular dichroism study. That work is under

consideration for publication in Physical Review

Letters and led earlier this year to a provisional

memory-element patent application.

We have established GaN tunnel junctions between

GdN layers and investigated their current-voltage

characteristics.

• Develop Group II-element hole doping

protocols toward full carrier control;

We have established that Mg dopes GdN to near

zero electron concentration (Figure 1), have another

patent application here, and have submitted the work

to Applied Physics Letters.

• Complete an investigation of the

thermoelectric power of rare-earth

nitrides as an indicator of their electron/

hole balance.

We have measured the thermoelectric power of GdN

and SmN, and see clearly that they are relatively

heavily doped with electrons. An interpretation of the

results is under way.


• Complete temperature dependent

Raman spectra of (Sr,Ba)TiO3 collected

and interpreted by end-2014;

Studies on (Cu0.75

Mo0.25

)Sr2YCu

2O

7+d were commenced

by first synthesising the materials under high oxygen

pressure, this high pressure work requires special

facilities which are currently in business case

development. Due to this delay studies switched

to the compound CaxLa

1-xBa

1.75-xLa

0.25+xCu

3O

y. This

enabled a similar wide doping range and also the

benefit of altering ion size via the parameter x. The

doping was calibrated using thermoelectric power

and the overall phase behaviour mapped out as a

function of doping for each x value. An anomalous

suppression of superconductivity was found

that seems to derive from crossing the van Hove

singularity at rather low doping.

Paper submitted: “On the anomalous behavior of Tc

and pseudogap in the superconductor

CaxLa

1-xBa

1.75-xLa

0.25+xCu

3O

y with respect to doping and

ion size”, J. L. Tallon, Phys. Rev. B (submitted).

• Fully characterised phase behaviour of

MoCuO4-(phenanthroline)

0.5 as a function

of doping including the evolution of

magnetic and superconducting phases.

The specific heat of MoCuO4

(phenanthroline) 0.5

was

investigated and several phase transitions were

confirmed, two of magnetic origin and the third is

possibly superconductivity. These measurements will

be repeated over the summer in combination wiith

SQUID measuremments to firm up the interpretation.

A provisional patent has been filed for this novel

hybrid material (S.V. Chong and J.L. Tallon).

FIGURE 2: From basic to applied superconductivity.

Panel (a) shows the most important superconducting

property, the critical current density calculated

from the superfluid density across the entire doping

phase diagram of the superconductor YBa2Cu3Oy. It

shows a sharp “sweet spot” just at the point where a

competing correlation vanishes at the termination of

the T* line which is shown. Panel (b) shows the scaled

condensation energy which exhibits conventional

behaviour across the heavily doped regime (red) then

collapses abruptly when T* rises from zero. Without

exception, all practical cuprate superconductors

must be tuned to this sweet spot.


ELECTRONIC AND OPTICAL MATERIALS

Outputs

SCIENCE EXCELLENCE

PUBLICATIONS

S.A. Abdul Azis, J. Kennedy, P. P. Murmu, F. Fang and P. Cao, Structural and Compositional Characterization of Ion Beam Sputtered Hydroxyapatite Thin Films on Ti-6a1-4v, Asian

Journal of Applied Sciences, 7(8), 745-752, (2014)

Z. Al-Azri, H. N., V. Jovic, W. T. Chen, D. Sun-Waterhouse, J. B. Metson and G. I. N. Waterhouse, Performance Evaluation of Pd/TiO

2 and Pt/TiO

2

Photocatalysts for Hydrogen Production from Ethanol-Water Mixtures, International Journal of

Nanotechnology, 11(5-8), 695-703, (2014)

S.A.A. Azis, J. Kennedy and P. Cao, Effect of Annealing on Microstructure of Hydroxyapatite Coatings and Their Behaviours in Simulated Body Fluid, Advanced Materials Research, 922, 657-662, (2014)

S.J. Baek, W. G. Hong, M. Park, A. B. Kaiser, H. J. Kim, B. H. Kim and Y. W. Park, The Effect of Oxygen Functional Groups on the Electrical Transport Behavior of a Single Piece Multi-Layered Graphene Oxide, Synthetic Metals, 191, 1-5, (2014)

B. Boekfa, E. Pahl, N. Gaston, H. Sakurai, J. Limtrakul and M. Ehara, C-Cl Bond Activation on Au/Pd Bimetallic Nanocatalysts Studied by Density Functional Theory and Genetic Algorithm Calculations, Journal of Physical Chemistry C, 118(38), 22188-22196, (2014)

J.D. Cabral, M. Roxburgh, Z. Shi, L. Liu, M. McConnell, G. Williams, N. Evans, L. R. Hanton, J. Simpson, S. C. Moratti, B. H. Robinson, P. J. Wormald and S. Robinson, Synthesis, Physiochemical Characterization, and Biocompatibility of a Chitosan/Dextran-Based Hydrogel for Postsurgical Adhesion Prevention, Journal of Materials Science: Materials in

Medicine, (2014)

O.J. Chaudhary, E. Calius, J. V. Kennedy and J. Travas-Sejdic, Polymer Brushes for Improvement of Dry Adhesion in Biomimetic Dry Adhesives, International Journal of Nanotechnolog, 11(5-8), 636-644, (2014)

C.Y. Cheah and A. B. Kaiser, Variable-Range Hopping Transport: Crossovers from Temperature Dependence to Electric Field Dependence in Disordered Carbon Materials, International Journal of

Nanotechnology, 11(5-8), 412-418, (2014)

S.V. Chong, G.V.M. Williams, S. Sambale, J. Kennedy and K. Kadowaki, Magneto-Resistance Study aFe

2As

2(a = Sr, Ba) Iron-based Compounds,

International Journal of Nanotechnology, 11(5-8), 403-411, (2014)

J.R. Cooper , J. W. Loram, I. Kokanović, J. G. Storey and J. L. Tallon, Pseudogap in YBa

2Cu

3 O

6+Δ

Is Not Bounded by a Line of Phase Transitions: Thermodynamic Evidence, Physical Review B -

Condensed Matter and Materials Physics, 89(20), (2014)

B.L. Darby, P. G. Etchegoin and E. C. Le Ru, Single-Molecule Surface-Enhanced Raman Spectroscopy with Nanowatt Excitation, Physical Chemistry

Chemical Physics, 16(43), 23895-23899, (2014)

B.L. Darby and E. C. Le Ru, Competition between Molecular Adsorption and Diffusion: Dramatic Consequences for Sers in Colloidal Solutions, Journal of the American Chemical Society, 136(31), 10965-10973, (2014)

H. Dernaika, S.V. Chong, C.G. Artur and J.L. Tallon, Spectroscopic Identification of Neurotoxin Tetramethylendisulfotetramine (Tets) Captured by Supramolecular Receptor B - Cyclodextrin Immobilized on Nanostructured Gold Surfaces, Journal of Nanomaterials, (2014)

C. Gaedtke and G. V. M. Williams, Photoluminescence and Radioluminescence Study of NaMgF

3:Eu

Nanoparticles, Radiation Measurements, (2014)

C. Gaedtke , G. V. M. Williams and D. Clarke, Thermoluminescence Studies of Nanoparticle and Bulk Namgf3:Mn, International Journal of

Nanotechnology, 11(5-8), 419-424, (2014)

C.M. Galloway, C. Artur, J. Grand and E. C. Le Ru, Photobleaching of Fluorophores on the Surface of Nanoantennas, Journal of Physical Chemistry C, 118(49), 28820-28830, (2014)


R.B. Hughes-Currie, A. J. Salkeld, K. V. Ivanovskikh, M. F. Reid, J. P. R. Wells and R. J. Reeves, Excitons and Interconfigurational Transitions in CaF

2:Yb2+

Crystals, Journal of Luminescence, 158, 197-202, (2014)

M. Jurkutat, D. Rybicki, O. P. Sushkov, G. V. M. Williams, A. Erb and J. Haase, Distribution of Electrons and Holes in Cuprate Superconductors as Determined from 17O and 63Cu Nuclear Magnetic Resonance, Physical Review B - Condensed Matter

and Materials Physics, 90(14), (2014)

K. Kaviyarasu, E. Manikandan, J. Kennedy and M. Jayachandran, Quantum Confinement and Photoluminescence of Well-Aligned Cdo Nanofibers by a Solvothermal Route, Materials Letters, 120, 243-245, (2014)

K. Kaviyarasu, E. Manikandan, P. Paulraj, S. B. Mohamed and J. Kennedy, One Dimensional Well-Aligned Cdo Nanocrystal by Solvothermal Method, Journal of Alloys and Compounds, 593, 67-70, (2014)

J. Kennedy, J. Leveneur, F. Fang and A. Markwitz, Enhanced Reduction of Silicon Oxide Thin Films on Silicon under Electron Beam Annealing, Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research, Section B: Beam Interactions with Materials and

Atoms, (2014)

J. Kennedy, J. Leveneur, P. P. Murmu, P. Anilkumar and A. Iqbal, Fabrication of Gd Nanoparticles in Sio2/Si Substrate by Ion Implantation, International Conference on Materials and Characterization Techniques, ICMCT 2014, 6(6), 3294-3296, (2014)

J. Kennedy, J., P. P. Murmu, E. Manikandan and S. Y. Lee, Investigation of Structural and Photoluminescence Properties of Gas and Metal Ions Doped Zinc Oxide Single Crystals, Journal of Alloys

and Compounds, 616, 614-617, (2014)

K.H. Kim, A. Choi, J. M. Park, S. J. Hong, M. Park, I. H. Lee, E. S. Choi, A. B. Kaiser, T. L. Choi and Y. W. Park, Magnetoresistance of a Copolymer: FeCl

3-Doped

Poly(2,5-Dioctyloxy-P-Phenylene Vinylene-Alt-3,4-Ethylenedioxythiophene Vinylene), Synthetic Metals, 188, 30-34, (2014)

R. Kulmaczewski, J. Olguín, J. A. Kitchen, H. L. C. Feltham, G. N. L. Jameson, J. L. Tallon and S. Brooker, Remarkable Scan Rate Dependence for a Highly Constrained Dinuclear Iron(II) Spin Crossover Complex with a Wide Thermal Hysteresis Loop, Journal of the American Chemical Society, 136(3), 878-881, (2014)

Y. Kutuvantavida, G. V. M. Williams and M. D. H. Bhuiyan, Electrically Modulated Diffraction Gratings in Organic Chromophore Thin Films, Applied Optics, 53(12), 2687-2690, (2014)

J. Leveneur, J. Kennedy, G. V. M. Williams, M. Sasase, J. B. Metson and A. Markwitz, Structural and Chemical Changes During the Growth of Fe Nanoparticles in SiO

2 under Low Energy

Ion Implantation, International Journal of

Nanotechnology, 11(5-8), 466-476, (2014)

E. Manikandan, G. Kavitha and J. Kennedy, Epitaxial Zinc Oxide, Graphene Oxide Composite Thin-Films by Laser Technique for Micro-Raman and Enhanced Field Emission Study, Ceramics International, (2014)

D.M. McCann, G. V. M. Williams, A. Hyndman, J. Stephen and J. Kennedy, Large Magnetoresistance in a Permalloy/Ba2femoo6 Sputtered Film, Physica B:

Condensed Matter, 436, 126-129, (2014)

G.J. McIntosh, J.B. Metson, T. Niesenhaus, T. Reek, T. Perander, Smelter Fluoride Balances, the Interplay between Alumina Phases, Pore Size Distributions and the Impacts of Weather, Journal od the Minerals,

Metals & Materials Society, 66(11), 2272-2281, (2014)

R.G. Miller, S. Narayanaswamy, J. L. Tallon and S. Brooker, Spin Crossover with Thermal Hysteresis in Cobalt(II) Complexes and the Importance of Scan Rate, New Journal of Chemistry, 38(5), 1932-1941, (2014)

D. Mollenhauer and N. Gaston, A Balanced Procedure for the Treatment of Cluster Ligand Interactions on Gold Phosphine Systems in Catalysis, Journal of

Computational Chemistry, (2014)

U. Ojha, K. G. Steenbergen and N. Gaston, How a Single Aluminum Atom Makes a Difference to Gallium: First-Principles Simulations of Bimetallic Cluster Melting, Journal of Chemical Physics, 139(9), (2014)

T. Prakash, G.V.M. Williams, J. Kennedy, P.P. Murumu, J. Leveneur, S.V. Chone and S. Rubanov, Synthesis and Structural, Magnetic and Magnetotransport Properties of Permalloy Powders Containing Nanoparticles Prepared by Arc Discharge, Journal of

alloys and compounds, 608, 153-157, (2014)

K.G. Steenbergen, and N. Gaston, Two Worlds Collide: Image Analysis Methods for Quantifying Structural Variation in Cluster Molecular Dynamics, Journal of

Chemical Physics, 140(6), (2014)


K.G. Steenbergen, N. Gaston, C. Müller and B. Paulus, Method of Increments for the Halogen Molecular Crystals: Cl, Br, and I, Journal of Chemical Physics, 141(12), (2014)

N.M. Strickland, C. Hoffmann, S. C. Wimbush, D. M. Pooke, T. Huang, Z. Lazic, V. Chamritski, E. F. Talantsev, N. J. Long and J. L. Tallon, Cryogen-Free Lka-Class Ic Measurement System Featuring an 8 T Hts Magnet, Journal of Physics: Conference Series, 507(2), (2014)

E.F. Talantsev, N. M. Strickland, S. C. Wimbush, J. G. Storey, J. L. Tallon and N. J. Long, Hole Doping Dependence of Critical Current Density in YBa

2Cu

3O

7-Δ Conductors, Applied Physics Letters,

104(24), (2014)

R. Tonner and N. Gaston, The Dimeric Nature of Bonding in Gallium: From Small Clusters to the A-Gallium Phase, Physical Chemistry Chemical

Physics, 16(44), 24244-24249, (2014)

W.J. Trompetter, P. Davy, B. Barry and J. Kennedy, Influence of Filter Thickness on Pesa Calibration, Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research, Section B: Beam Interactions with

Materials and Atoms, (2014)

J. Wang, J. Trodahl, C. Sandu, I. Gregora and N. Setter, Analysis of Composition Homogeneity and Polarization Orientation of Pzt Submicron Fibers by Micro-Raman Spectroscopy, Journal of the European

Ceramic Society, 34(10), 2311-2316, (2014)

H. Warring, B.J. Ruck, J.F. McNulty, E.M. Anton, S. Granville, A. Koo, B. Cowie and H.J. Trodahl, YbN: An Intrinsic Semiconductor with Antiferromagnetic Exchange, Physical Review B, 90, 245206, (2014)

T. Yabutani, G. I. N. Waterhouse, D. Sun-Waterhouse, J. B. Metson, A. Iinuma, L. T. X. Thuy, Y. Yamada, T. Takayanagi and J. Motonaka, Facile Synthesis of Platinum Nanoparticle-Containing Porous Carbons, and Their Application to Amperometric Glucose Biosensing, Microchimica Acta, (2014)

S. Zhang, H. Liu, G. V. Amarsingh, C. C. H. Cheung, S. Hogl, U. Narayanan, L. Zhang, S. McHarg, J. Xu, D. Gong, J.V. Kennedy, B. Barry, Y. S. Choong, A. R. J. Phillips and G. J. S. Cooper, Diabetic Cardiomyopathy Is Associated with Defective Myocellular Copper Regulation and Both Defects Are Rectified by Divalent Copper Chelation, Cardiovascular

Diabetology, 13(1) (2014)


J. Kennedy, J. Leveneur, J. Turner, J. Futter and G. V. M. Williams, Applications of Nanoparticle-Based Fluxgate Magnetometers for Positioning and Location, 2014 9th IEEE Sensors Applications

Symposium, SAS 2014, Queenstown: IEEE Computer Society, 228-232, (2014)

S. Arulkumaran, G. I. Ng, K. Ranjan, G. Z. Saw, P. P. Murmu and J. Kennedy, Improved device isolation in AlGaN/GaN HEMTs on Si by heavy Kr+ Ion implantation, Device Research Conference –

Conference Digest, DRC, 115-116, Santa Barbara, CA, (2014)

A.J. Bubendorfer, B. Ingham, J.V. Kennedy, and W.M. Arnold, Origin of Electrokinetic Variability in Microfluidic Devices Case on SU-8 Epoxy, Proceedings Annual Conference of the Electrostatics Society of America, Illinois, USA, (2014)


INVITATIONS

KEYNOTE SPEAKER

J B. Metson, Alumina Quality and Specifications for Smelting – What is Possible and what is beneficial, 11th Australasian Aluminium Smelting Technology

Conference, Dubai, UAE, December 2014

PLENARY SPEAKER

J.L. Tallon, High-Tc superconductors: from

fundamental physics to bio-applications, International Conference From Solid-state to bio-physics, Dubrovnik, Croatia, 9-13 June 2014

INVITED SPEAKER

E.C. Le Ru, National Workshop on Fluorescence and

Raman Techniques - FCS 2014, Pune, India. (Did not attend)

E.C. Le Ru, 24th International conference on Raman

spectroscopy (ICORS), Jena, Germany, August 2014 (Did not attend)

E.C. Le Ru, International Conference on Small

Science (ICSS 2014), Hong Kong, December 2014, (Did not attend)


G.V.M. Williams, Second International Conference

on Nanostructured Materials and Nanocomposites

(ICNM 2014) at Mahatma Gandhi University, Kottayam, Kerala, India, 19-21 December 2014 (Did not attend)

G.V.M. Williams, 4th Annual World Congress of

Nanoscience & Technology (NanoS&T-2014), in Qingdao, China, 29-31 October 2014 (Did not attend)

N. Gaston, Melting simulations of gallium clusters: transitions between the low temperature bulk phases, International Conference on Computational

and Mathematical Methods in Science and

Engineering, Cadiz, Spain, 3-7 July 2014

H.J. Trodahl, 4th Annual World Congress of

Advanced Materials-2015, as an invited speaker and Symposium Chair, China, April 2015.

J.L. Tallon, The thermodynamics of high-Tc

superconductors, Waggawagga Condensed Matter

Physics Conference, Waiheke Island, 4-7 February 2014.

J.L. Tallon, Physics, Free-will and Cancer, Symposium

on Cancer, Theology and Spirituality, Auckland University, 20-21 February 2014.

J.L. Tallon, Physics and applications of High-Tc

superconductors, CIMTEC 2014 (International

Ceramics Congress) Forum on New Materials, Montecatini Terme, Italy, 16-20 June 2014.

J.L. Tallon, Powering the future, Royal Society of

New Zealand Ten by Ten series, Auckland Museum, 24 July 2014

J.L. Tallon, Thermodynamics and critical current density in high-T

c superconductors, Applied

Superconductivity Conference, Charlotte, North Carolina, USA, 10-15 August 2014.

J.L. Tallon, New superconductor materials - from drawing board to reality, NZ/Japan Workshop

on Superconductivity, Martinborough, NZ, 3-8 December 2014

J.L. Tallon, The key role of thermodynamics in high-Tc

superconductors, University of Paris, 3 June 2014

J.L. Tallon, Thermodynamics and critical current density in HTS superconductors and beyond, Cavendish

Laboratory, Cambridge University, 25 June 2014.

J.L. Tallon, Getting to grips with high-Tc

superconductors, Canterbury University, 18 July 2014.

J.L. Tallon, The complex phase behavior of HTS cuprates – insights from thermodynamics, University

of Colorado, Boulder, USA, 15 August 2014

J.L. Tallon, The complex phase behavior of HTS cuprates – relating thermodynamics to physical properties, Stanford University, USA, 18 August 2014

J.V. Kennedy, Preparation and characterisation of ion beam sputtered BiFeO3 thin films), 11th Asia-

Pacific Conference on Materials Processing

(www.APCMP2014.org), Auckland, New Zealand, July 6-11, 2014

J.V. Kennedy, Applications of nanoparticle-based fluxgate magnetometers for positioning and location, IEEE 2014 Sensors Applications Symposium, Queenstown, New Zealand, 18-20 February 2014

AWARDS, MEDALS AND FELLOWSHIPS

E.C. Le Ru, Rutherford Discovery Fellowship (2010-2014)

G.V.M. Williams, Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit (MNZM) awarded for services to science in the New Zealand Queens birthday honours list.

J.L. Tallon, 2014/15 IEEE Distinguished Lecturer

J.V. Kennedy, KiwiNet AJ Park Commercialisation Collaboration Award for Titanium Technologies New Zealand (TiTeNZ) (2014)

NEW GRANT FUNDS

G.V.M. Williams (PI/Science Leader), MBIE,

Dosimeters and radiation imaging devices for medical

and non-destructive testing applications, $598.533 pa over 4 years from September 2014.

G.V.M. Williams (PI), MBIE, Magneto-electric nano-

composites for next generation nano-electronics, $500,000 pa over 2 years from September 2014 with John Kennedy, GNS Science.

J.V. Kennedy (PI), MBIE, TiTeNZ-Titanium

Technologies New Zealand, $14,490,000 from October 2014 – September 2020 with Dr. Ian Brown, Callaghan Innovation, Dr. Andreas Markwitz, GNS Science, Prof. Brian Gabbitas, University of Waikato, Mr. Warwick Downing, TIDA


RESEARCH AT OVERSEAS FACILITIES

H.J. Trodahl, Lead investigator for a week on beam line 39XU in Spring-8, the large Japan synchrotron. Attended with James McNulty, PhD student and Eva Anton, postdoctoral fellow during late November 2014.


OVERSEAS FACILITIES (>1 MONTH)

H.J. Trodahl, One month visit to Ecole Polytechnique Fédéral de Lausanne, 19 July – 20 August 2014

VISITORS

Asaf Gosz, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, magnetic sensor discussion, 25 February 2014 (G.V.M. Williams)

Jérôme Damet, CERN dosimetry group, dosimeter collaboration discussion, 7 March 2014 (G.V.M. Williams)

Dr Tamsyn Hilder, ANU (DACRA fellow); collaboration on molecular dynamics for large nanomaterials systems. 24 November 2014 till end 2015 (N. Gaston)

Prof Neil Ashcroft, Cornell University, 31 January to 28 February 2014 (J.L. Tallon)



Brendan Darby, PhD student, visit to the group of Prof. Luis Liz-Marzan in San Sebastian Spin for the synthesis of gold nanorods for single molecule detection on single nanoparticles. One month in August-September 2014 (E.C. Le Ru)

James McNulty, PhD student, went to the SPRING-8 synchrotron in Japan in to conduct X-ray magnetic circular dichroism measurements on novel magnetic thin films, 24-28 November 2014 (B.J. Ruck)

James McNulty, visited Ecole Polytechnique Fédéral de Lausanne to perform ferromagnetic resonance on SmN. 5-16 May 2014 (B.J. Ruck)

Sebastian Sambale, PhD student, NMR Lab, Leipzig University, undertaking NMR measurements on superconductors. 14 July to 17 September 2014 (G.V.M. Williams)

Tushara Prakash, Melbourne University, undertaking TEM measurements. 11- 14 December 2014 (G.V.M. Williams)

Eva Anton, postdoc, visited the U. Zürich to perform ultra-low temperature measurements on superconducting SmN. 5-9 May 2014 (H.J. Trodahl)

Eva Anton, SPRING-8 synchrotron in Japan in to conduct X-ray magnetic circular dichroism measurements on novel magnetic thin films, 24-28 November 2014 (H.J. Trodahl)

LINKS WITH OTHER CORES OR

RESEARCH CONSORTIA

H.J. Trodahl, Laboratoire Ceramique, France

H.J. Trodahl, Ecole Polytechnique Fédéral de Lausanne, Switzerland

H.J. Trodahl, Nagoya University, Japan

H.J. Trodahl, Shenzhen University, China

H.J. Trodahl, Case-Western Reserve University, USA

H.J. Trodahl, University of Zürich, Switzerland

NEW COLLABORATIONS

B.J. Ruck, Collaboration with PIs Michele Governale and Uli Zuelicke investigating the superconducting properties of SmN. Superconductivity was discovered in SmN by PIs Ruck and Trodahl and postdoc Eva Anton as part of MacDiarmid supported research into the properties of rare-earth nitrides. Theoretical work to understand the origin of the superconductivity has been carried out by Governale and Zuelicke, and a paper has been drafted in anticipation of submission to a top international journal.

G.V.M. Williams, Dosimeters and radiation imaging devices for medical and non-destructive testing applications, MBIE. Funding leveraged from MI funding that included funding for RA’s.

G.V.M. Williams, Nano-thermoelectric generators, Marsden. Funding leveraged from access to MI PPMS at RRI.


LEADERSHIP



Brendan Darby, talk at conference ICORS2014 (Jena, Germany) entitled: “Dramatic effects of dilution and sample preparation for SERS in colloidal solutions” (E.C. Le Ru)




E.C. Le Ru, Editorial Advisory Board member for journal “Nanospectroscopy” (de Gruyter)

E.C. Le Ru, Editorial Board member of “Springer Concise Physics Introductions” (Springer)

B.J. Ruck, Associate Editor of the Journal of Materials Science: Materials in Electronics.

B.J. Ruck, Member of review panel for applications to the 2014 Japan Society for the Promotion of Science Programme Reviews, administered by the Royal Society of New Zealand (38 applications total).

N. Gaston, President, NZ Association of Scientists

J.B. Metson, Science Advisory Committee, Australian Synchrotron

J.B. Metson, Australasian Aluminium Smelting Technology Conference, Dubai, UAE December 2014, Organising Committee

J.B. Metson, Australian Institute of Nuclear Science and Engineering, Councillor.

R.J. Reeves, MBIE Assessment Panel member, High Value Manufacturing Services.

R.J. Reeves, New Zealand-Republic of Korea Strategic Research Partnership Fund 2014: assessment panel membership – Advanced Technologies

R.J. Reeves, Member of the International Advisory Committee, International Conference on the Dynamical Processes in Excited States of Solids.

J.L. Tallon, Co-Editor “Handbook of Superconducting Materials” Institute of Physics

J.V. Kennedy, Associate Editor, International Journal on Smart Sensing and Intelligent Systems (2014-)

INSPIRATION


POLICY

N. Gaston, In the thick of it, seminar for the Public Service Association, 3 December 2014 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bfBGQNnP2OA&feature=youtu.be

J.B. Metson, Chief Science Advisor, Ministry of Business Innovation and Employment

M.M. Alkaisi, Robotics and Sensors Challenge, National Science Challenges, Advisory committee.

J.V. Kennedy, Research platform team member of NSC#10

MEDIA PUBLICATIONS

B.J. Ruck, Our paper “EuN: A novel diluted magnetic semiconductor” was featured in an article of the same name that appeared in the ESRF Highlights, an online publication that presents standout research carried out at the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility.

N. Gaston, Gallium and the disappearing spoon: Interview with the Naked Scientists for This Way Up, Radio NZ. The Paramount, Wellington, 12 August 2014.

http://www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/thiswayup/audio/20148533/naked-science-wellington

N. Gaston, Overcoming the hurdles in STEM, The Wireless 6 Jan 2015 (Radio NZ, 4 Jan 2015) http://thewireless.co.nz/audio_articles/overcoming-the-hurdles-in-stem

N. Gaston, Women in science, Jamie Morton, the NZ Herald. http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11216759

N. Gaston, Sisters are doing it together, Jeremy Olds, Sunday Magazine http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/women-of-influence/10176202/Sisters-are-doing-it-together


N. Gaston, Science Debate, Our Changing World, Radio NZ 24 July 2014 http://www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/ourchangingworld/audio/20142648/science-debate

N. Gaston, The purpose of science and its limits. 11 April 2014 http://publicaddress.net/speaker/the-purpose-of-science-and-its-limits/

N. Gaston, Blog: Why Science is Sexist. Whyscienceissexist.wordpress.com. Since December 2012.

N. Gaston, President’s column, the NZ Science Review 70 (4) (February 2014); 71 (1) (June 2014).



H.J. Trodahl, F. Natali, B.J. Ruck, J.F. McNulty, E.M. Anton, and S. Granville, Magnetic Materials and

Devices Comprising Rare Earth Nitrides, New Zealand provisional patent application 623343 (2014).

S. Vezian, H.J. Trodahl, F. Natali, and B.J. Ruck, Doped

rare-earth nitride materials and devices comprising

same, New Zealand provisional patent application 623339 (2014).

R. Etzion, G.J. McIntosh, J. B. Metson and M. I. Jones, Production of BN Composite Material, NZ Provisional Patent number 600341 Filed 30 May 2012. This is now proceeding to full patent (December 2014).

J.V. Kennedy, J. Leveneur, G.V.M. Williams, Wide

dynamic range magnetometer, WO 2014097128 A1, June 2014

INDUSTRY CONSULTING

R.J. Reeves, Expert consultant for Allens/Linklaters (Pty, Australia) in patent case assessment. Acting as Australasian expert in evaluating the claims and conflicts in a patent case on light-emitting diodes. Value of the work is >$10,000. Report is forthcoming in 2015.

INDUSTRY-LINKED PROJECT

J.B. Metson, Hydro Aluminium, Norway

J.B. Metson, Outotec Aluminium, Germany

J.B. Metson, Trimet Aluminium, Germany


INTERACTION

G.V.M. Williams, Two confidential reports to Gallagher concerning new security technology in May 2014

G.V.M. Williams, Two meetings with Raztec concerning current sensor development in February and May 2014

G.V.M. Williams, Meeting with Ed Neumueller, Standard Imaging, concerning dosimeter research and development in April 2014

M.M. Alkaisi, Invited to give presentation for the Technology Transfer Advisory Committee, Canterbury on my research work with potential commercialisation. Power house performed 21 November 2014.


THEME 3

Molecular Materials

Personnel



Jadranka Travas-SejdicAssociate Investigators

Penny Brothers, Jianyong Jin

Postdoctoral Fellow

Jenny Malstrom*

PhD Students

Aaron Tay, Alissa Hackett, Bicheng Zhu, Cherie

Tollemache, Eddie Chan, Katie Lin, Lisa Strover, Mona

Damavandi, Nihan Aydemir, Omer Chaudhary, Paul

Baek, Lakshika Perera, Nina Novikova, Seong Nam,

Stefanie Maslek, Thomas Kerr-Phillips



Alison Downard, Paul Kruger

Postdoctoral Fellow

Paula Brooksby*

PhD Students

Anna Farquhar, Brad Simons, David Young, Kalib Bell,

Lita Lee, Robert Staniland, Rosanna Archer, Shane

Verma

MSc Students

Ethan Lanshear, Luke Pearce

Callaghan Innovation


Ian Brown

PhD Student

Pauline Calloch

Massey University


Simon Hall, Shane Telfer


Geoff Jameson, Mark Waterland


Alan Ferguson, Hui Yang*

PhD Students

Ashley Way, Chris Lepper, Haidee Dykstra, Heather

Jameson, Kelsey Mortensen, Luke Liu, Sebastian

Blackwood

MPhil Student

Ryan Ennis

University of Otago


Sally Brooker, Keith Gordon


Lyall Hanton, Nigel Lucas, Steve Moratti

Postdoctoral Fellow

Humphrey Feltham*

PhD Students

Alvie Lo, Anastasia Elliott, Christopher Larsen, Daniel

Killeen, Holly van der Salm, James Wright, May

Mah, Reece Miller, Santiago Rodriguez, Sara Fraser,

Sebastien Dhers

MSc Students

Alexis Baltrop, Bryce Hoggard, Michael Bennington,

Tae Kim



Ken MacKenzie


Justin Hodgkiss, Jim Johnston


Jon Halpert

Postdoctoral Fellow

Matthew Cairns

PhD Students

Alex Barker, Andrea Kolb, Eldon Tate, Galen Eakins,

Joanne Rogers, Joao daSilva, Jonathan Tailby,

Joseph Gallaher, Kai Chen, Mahroo Poorsichani,

Maria Parry, Matthias Herzog, Michelle Cook,

Mohammad Al-Zeer, Omar Alsager, Shyamal Prasad,

Thomas Nilsson

MSc Students

Emma Wrigglesworth, Lia van den Kerkhof,

Valentine Chan


PROFILE 2014 39Molecular Materials

MOLECULAR MATERIALS


Molecular materials show promise for diverse

applications and researchers in this theme have

expertise in many of these, including: molecular

magnets, solar energy and electroluminescent

materials, sensors, catalysts and adsorbents. Such

applications rely on single molecules or collections

of molecules, in the form of 3-D structures or

thin films, exhibiting specific functions. To design,

synthesise, assemble and activate functional

materials we must understand the chemistry behind

their synthesis, the factors that control the higher

order assemblies and the structural and electronic

effects that lead to the functionality. The search for

new materials that have interesting and potentially

useful functionality is also important. Our research

tackles all of these challenges, from the design and

synthesis of molecular materials through to testing

their performance for practical applications.

OBJECTIVE 1.

Porous materials

(Kruger, Telfer)

1. Assessment of the feasibility of (i) metal,

(ii) metal oxide, and (iii) conducting

polymer growth in five different MOFs;

Hui Yang started in July as a MI-funded PDF assigned

to this project. He has made solid progress exploring

the MOFs MIL-101(Fe), ZIF-8, ZIF-67, HKUST-1, and

MOF-5. Metal nanoparticle growth methods have been

developed for gold, cobalt and palladium. Our focus has

also shifted to using MOF nanoparticles as templates

for materials such as titania.

2. Success in the development of soft

methods for removal of the MOF

templates;

This has been achieved. Attention is now turning to

deliberate decomposition of the MOFs using both

aerobic and anaerobic heating to produce metal oxide

and zero-valent metal composite materials.

3. Analysis of three functional properties of

the nanostructured materials.

Plans are underway and this should be achieved over

the next six-nine months.


OBJECTIVE 2.

Light-absorbing polymers

(Gordon and Hodgkiss)

1. Complete synthesis of at least six

different oligothiophenes up to 20

units long;

Five oligothiophenes were synthesized and purified

for spectroscopic studies: 4-, 6-, 8-, and 10-thiophene

linear oligomers, along with a bridged cofacial dimer

of two 4-thiophenes. Longer linear oligothiophenes

between 10 and 20 units long have also been

synthesized, however, challenges remain with their

purification. We expect to complete this aspect of the

objective when the PhD student involved resumes

following his 3 month industry internship.

2. Validate quantum chemical calculations

on the basis of optical absorption,

emission, and Raman spectra for the

series of oligomers.

Hybrid (density functional theory / Hartree-Fock)

calculations were performed on a series of oligomers

(4-, 6-, 8-, 10-thiophene). The development of

a reliable model for the optical properties was

ascertained; the sensitivity of this model to the

amount of electron correlation was quantified. The

most accurate calculations required 33% Hartree

Fock in the hybrid calculation. This is important

because failure to include leads to erroneous

bandwidth estimations and renders the modelling

ineffective.

OBJECTIVE 3:

Surface functionalisation

(Downard, Hall, Johnston, Travas-Sejdic, Brooker)

1. Demonstrate electrical switchability

of the surfaces based on grafted

conducting polymers that modulate

cell adhesion;

We have demonstrated a range of conducting

polymer grafted surfaces and switchability in the

properties of these surfaces upon applying a stimuli.

These included an electrical –stimuli switching of

polypyrrole based surfaces, acid-base switching of

poly(ethylene dioxythiophene)- based surfaces and

salt and temperature switching PEDOT surfaces (ms

in preparation).

Preliminary cell studies indicated biocompatibility

of some of these surfaces or non-fouling properties

of other surfaces, depending on the nature of the

grafted brushes.


2. Printing of 3D conducting polymer

microstructures imbedded into an

insulating resin which will retain sensing

functionality;

We have demonstrated 3D printing of conducting

polymers using our home-made apparatus. We

are now extending the principle to smaller printed

features, dawn to 100 nm range. This will be utilised

in the development of conducting polymer-based

biosensor arrays.

3. Develop synthetic access to at least one

SCO or SMM complex with a covalent

attachment point that can be used to

covalently link it to a solid surface; and

make initial attempts to attach it to such

a surface;

Methods to prepare small (< 10 nm) regular

diameter gold NPs have been elaborated and

firmly established in collaboration with Dr Carla

Meledandri, and initial attempts made to attach

our SMMs. Evidence to date is consistent with

attachment having occurred. Further studies are

underway.

4. Complete a study on the effect on the

SMM behaviour of assembling SMM

building blocks into covalently bridged

1-D chain architectures;

The first examples of assembly of our macrocyclic 3d-

4f SMMs into 1D chain architectures have been fully

characterised and reported (S. Dhers, H. L. C. Feltham,

R. Clérac and S. Brooker, Design of one-dimensional

coordination networks from a macrocyclic {3d-4f}

Single-Molecule Magnet precursor linked by [W(CN)8]3-

anions, Inorganic Chemistry, 2013, 52, 13685-13691)

and a full paper on the second such family is close to

completion also.


5. Refine the 3d-4f blend employed

in soluble, stable, tetrametallic

macrocycles with a view to optimising

SMM behaviour;

The 3d-4f blend in our tetrametallic macrocycle

system was further refined, with a large family of

Ni3Ln macrocyclic complexes prepared and sent

for magnetic characterisation in Bordeaux. The

full paper on this is drafted, but awaits these key

magnetic results, which will most likely be received

in most likely be received in publishable form soon

(these are substantial studies, requiring a lot of

machine time and expertise).

Meantime we completed a review of single 4f ion

containing SMMs and this has been published (H.

L. C. Feltham and S. Brooker, Review of purely 4f

and mixed-metal nd-4f Single-Molecule Magnets

containing only one lanthanide ion, Coordination

Chemistry Reviews, 2014, 276, 1–33).

6. Grafting of polymers to surfaces

via diazonium ion chemistry and

demonstrate switchable behaviour and

controllable cell adhesion;

This work is ongoing. We have demonstrated polymer

growth from initiators anchored to surfaces via

aryldiazonium chemistry. After full characterisation

of surfaces produced to date, the reaction conditions

will be optimised. In future work, switchable

behaviour will be investigated.

7. Demonstrate that grafted organic films

change the properties of metal oxide

materials;

To date, grafting organic layers to manganese dioxide

has been characterised. We obtained direct evidence

for covalent attachment of aryl groups to the MnO2

syrface via a Mn-O-C bond. Electrochemical and

solubility properties were shown to be modified

by the organic layer. Results to date have been

published: Bell, K.J., Brooksby, P.A., Polson, M.I.J.,

Downard, A.J. Chem. Commun., 2014, 50, 13687-

13690. DOI: 10.1039/C4CC05606J. Preliminary work

has been undertaken with zinc oxide (collaboration

with Martin Allen and Natalie Plank).


8. The successful attachment of silver

entities to natural fibre and polymer

substrates and demonstration of

their antimicrobial effectiveness and

durability;

Prof Jim Johnston and his team have carried out

a detailed study of the uptake kinetics and binding

of silver ions onto a variety of commercial NZ wool

yarns used in upholstery, carpet and apparel textiles.

Using zone of inhibition tests and colony counting

we have determined the silver levels required for

optimum antimicrobial effectiveness and durability

against S. coccus and E. coli bacteria to yield a

99.9% reduction. The technology has been branded

“NgaPure®” as a registered trademark and is being

commercilaised by a start-up company Noble Bond

Ltd, formed by Prof Jim Johnston and Dr Kerstin

Lucas with Wools NZ Ltd. We have carried out pilot

scale production tests and full scale commercial

production runs treating 200 kg quantities of yarn

at Park Valley Dyers, UK in partnership with Camira

Fabrics UK Ltd. The technology will be used by

Camira Fabrics in their upholstery fabrics.


9. The successful controlled synthesis of

gold nanoparticles of different colours

and their chemical binding to wool fibres

using pilot scale commercial stainless

steel equipment to produce a uniformly

coloured, washfast product; and

10. The production of kilogram quantities of

uniform nanogold coloured wool.

Prof Jim Johnston and his team have progressed

their R&D on the scale up of their “Aulana®” branded

nanogold wool technology where they successfully

use nanogold in different colours to colour NZ wool

with pure gold for high value rugs and apparel for

premium international markets. The technology is

also being commercialised by Noble Bond Ltd. Over

100 kg of Aulana® in different colours have been

produced using our own designed and constructed

stainless steel pilot plant equipment and made

into our internationally designed, hand knotted and

hand tufted prototype rugs, which were fabricated

for us in India and China. These were displayed

at the “Domotex”, European and “Surfaces”, US

trade fairs as world firsts and commanded much

interest. The “Midas” rug designed for us in Milan

by “SoFarSoNear” is in the shape of an earring

from the British royal jewels to portray the luxury

and opulance of Aulana. It is on display in the

“SoFarSoNear” interior design showroom in Mayfair,

London. See www.aulana.co.uk

11. The successful characterisation

of the IR absorption properties of

nanofunctionalised surfaces and

the measurement of their thermal

properties;

IR spectroscopy has been used to assist in

understanding the nature of the chemical binding of

nanogold to the amino acids in the keratin proteins of

wool fibres. This has suggested the gold is associated

with the S and N entities of the amino acids. It was

not possible measure the thermal properties of the

nanofunctionalised surfaces due to the very low

content of nanogold on the surfaces.

0.5 kg hanks of Aulana® wool


MOLECULAR MATERIALS

Outputs

SCIENCE EXCELLENCE

PUBLICATIONS

H. Aghaei, A. A. Nourbakhsh, S. Karbasi, R. JavadKalbasi, M. Rafienia, N. Nourbakhsh, S. Bonakdar and K. J. D. Mackenzie, Investigation on Bioactivity and Cytotoxicity of Mesoporous Nano-Composite Mcm-48/Hydroxyapatite for Ibuprofen Drug Delivery, Ceramics International, (2014)

O.A. Alsager, S. Kumar, G. R. Willmott, K. P. McNatty and J. M. Hodgkiss, Small Molecule Detection in Solution Via the Size Contraction Response of Aptamer Functionalized Nanoparticles, Biosensors

and Bioelectronics, 57, 262-268, (2014)

M. Alzeer, R. A. Keyzers and K. J. D. Mackenzie, Inorganic Polymers as Novel Chromatographic Stationary Phase Media, Ceramic International, 40(2), 3553-3560, (2014)

P. Asgarian, A. Nourbakhsh, P. Amin, R. Ebrahimi-Kahrizsangi and K. J. D. MacKenzie, The Effect of Different Sources of Porous Carbon on the Synthesis of Nanostructured Boron Carbide by Magnesiothermic Reduction, Ceramics International, 40, 16399-16408, (2014)

A.J. Barker, K. Chen and J. M. Hodgkiss, Distance Distributions of Photogenerated Charge Pairs in Organic Photovoltaic Cells, Journal of the American

Chemical Society 136, 34, 12018-12026, (2014)

O.J. Chaudhary, E. Calius, J. V. Kennedy and J. Travas-Sejdic, Polymer Brushes for Improvement of Dry Adhesion in Biomimetic Dry Adhesives, International Journal of Nanotechnology, 11(5-8), 636-644, (2014)

K. Chen, J. K. Gallaher, A. J. Barker and J. M. Hodgkiss, Transient Grating Photoluminescence Spectroscopy: An Ultrafast Method of Gating Broadband Spectra, Journal of Physical Chemistry

Letters, 5(10), 1732-1737, (2014)

K. Chen, A. J. Barker, Francis L. C. Morgan, Jonathan E. Halpert and Justin M. Hodgkiss, The Effect of Carrier Thermalization Dynamics on Light Emission and Amplification in Organometal Halide Perovskites, The Journal of Physical Chemistry Letters, (2014)

S. Chen, N. A. Parlane, J. Lee, D. N. Wedlock, B. M. Buddle and B. H. A. Rehm, New Skin Test for Detection of Bovine Tuberculosis on the Basis of Antigen-Displaying Polyester Inclusions Produced by Recombinant Escherichia Coli, Applied and

Environmental Microbiology, 80(8), 2526-2535, (2014)

G. Ciric-Marjanovic, S. Mentus, I. Pašti, N. Gavrilov, J. Krstić, J. Travas-Sejdic, L. T. Strover, J. Kopecká, Z. Moravková, M. Trchová and J. Stejskal, Synthesis, Characterization, and Electrochemistry of Nanotubular Polypyrrole and Polypyrrole-Derived Carbon Nanotubes, Journal of Physical Chemistry C, 118(27), 14770-14784, (2014)

M.G. Cowan, R. G. Miller, P. D. Southon, J. R. Price, O. Yazaydin, J. R. Lane, C. J. Kepert and S. Brooker, Selective Gas Adsorption in a Pair of Robust Isostructural Mofs Differing in Framework Charge and Anion Loading, Inorganic Chemistry, 53(22), 12076-12083, (2014)

K.D. Deshmukh, T. Qin, J.K. Gallaher, A.C.Y. Liu, E. Gann, K. O’Donnell, L. Thomsen, J.M. Hodgkiss, S.E. Watkins and C.R. McNeill, Performance, Morphology and Photophysics of High Open-Circuit Voltage, Low Band Gap All-Polymer Solar Cells, Energy &

Environmental Science, (2014)

G.L. Eakins, J. K. Gallaher, R. A. Keyzers, A. Falber, J. E. A. Webb, A. Laos, Y. Tidhar, H. Weissman, B. Rybtchinski, P. Thordarson and J. M. Hodgkiss, Thermodynamic Factors Impacting the Peptide-Driven Self-Assembly of Perylene Diimide Nanofibers, Journal of Physical Chemistry B, 118(29), 8642-8651, (2014)

H.L.C. Feltham and S. Brooker, Review of Purely 4f and Mixed-Metal Nd-4f Single-Molecule Magnets Containing Only One Lanthanide Ion, Coordination

Chemistry Reviews, 276, 1-33, (2014)

A. Ferguson, R. W. Staniland, C. M. Fitchett, M. A. Squire, B. E. Williamson and P. E. Kruger, Variation of Guest Selectivity within [Fe

4l

4]8+ Tetrahedral Cages

through Subtle Modification of the Face-Capping Ligand, Dalton Transactions, 43(39), 14550-14553, (2014)


S.J. Fraser and K. C. Gordon, Raman Spectroscopy in the Study of Pharmaceuticals: The Problems and Solutions to Sub-Sampling and Data Analysis, European Pharmaceutical Review , 19(1), 27-32, (2014)

S.E. Halcrow, J. Rooney, N. Beavan, K. C. Gordon, N. Tayles and A. Gray, Assessing Raman Spectroscopy as a Prescreening Tool for the Selection of Archaeological Bone for Stable Isotopic Analysis, PLoS ONE, 9(7), (2014)

C.S Hawes and P. E. Kruger, Dimensionality Variation in Dinuclear Cu(Ii) Complexes of a Heterotritopic Pyrazolate Ligand, Crystals, 4(1), 32-41, (2014)

C.S. Hawes and P. E. Kruger, Discrete and Polymeric Cu(II) Complexes Featuring Substituted Indazole Ligands: Their Synthesis and Structural Chemistry, Dalton Transactions , 43(43), 16450-16458, (2014)

C.S. Hawes and P. E. Kruger, Preparation of Open and Closed Forms of the Lvt Network with Cu(II) Complexes of Structurally Related 1,2-Diazole Ligands, RSC Advances, 4(30), 15770-15775, (2014)

C.S. Hawes, B. Moubaraki, K. S. Murray, P. E. Kruger, D. R. Turner and S. R. Batten, Exploiting the Pyrazole-Carboxylate Mixed Ligand System in the Crystal Engineering of Coordination Polymers, Crystal

Growth and Design, 14(11), 5749-5760, (2014)

I.D. Hay, J. Du, N. Burr and B. H. A. Rehm, Bioengineering of Bacteria to Assemble Custom-Made Polyester Affinity Resins, Applied and

Environmental Microbiology, 81(1), 282-291, (2014)

I.D. Hay, Y. Wang, M. F. Moradali, Z. U. Rehman and B. H. A. Rehm, Genetics and Regulation of Bacterial Alginate Production, Environmental Microbiology, 16(10), 2997-3011, (2014)

I.D. Hay, Y. Wang, M. F. Moradali, Z. U. Rehman and B. H. A. Rehm, Genetics and Regulation of Bacterial Alginate Production, Environmental Microbiology, (2014)

R.W. Hogue, R. G. Miller, N. G. White, H. L. C. Feltham, G. N. L. Jameson and S. Brooker, Hysteretic Spin Crossover in Iron(Ii) Complexes of a New Pyridine-Triazole-Pyrazine Ligand Is Tuned by Choice of Nce Co-Ligand, Chemical Communications, 50(12), 1435-1437, (2014)

D.O. Hooks, M. Venning-Slater, J. Du and B. H. A. Rehm, Polyhydroyxalkanoate Synthase Fusions as a Strategy for Oriented Enzyme Immobilisation, Molecules, 19(6), 8629-8643, (2014)

A.C. Jahns and B. H. A. Rehm, Immobilization of Active Lipase B from Candida Antarctica on the Surface of Polyhydroxyalkanoate Inclusions, Biotechnology Letters, (2014)

A. Jamshidi, A.A. Nourbakhsh, S. Naghibi and K.J.D. MacKenzie, Application of the statistical Taguchi Method to Optimize X-Sialon and Mullite Formation in Composite Powders Prepared by the Srn Process, Ceramics International, 40(1), 263-271, (2014)

H. Karaosmanoglu, J. Travas-Sejdic and P. A. Kilmartin, Designing Pedot-Based Sensors for Antioxidant Analysis, International Journal of

Nanotechnology, 11(5-8), 445-450, (2014)

Z. Katančić, J. Travaš-Sejdić, Z. Hrnjak-Murgić and J. Jelenčić, Thermal Decomposition of Fire-Retarded High-Impact Polystyrene and High-Impact Polystyrene/Ethylene-Vinyl Acetate Blend Nanocomposites Followed by Thermal Analysis, Journal of Elastomers

and Plastics, 46(3), 233-252, (2014)

T. Kerr-Phillips, A. R. G. Srinivas and J. Travas-Sejdic, Electrospun Substituted Polyphenylene Vinylene Nanofibres, International Journal of Nanotechnology, 11(5-8), 626-635, (2014)

R. Kiefer, N. Aydemir, J. Torop, T. Tamm, R. Temmer, J. Travas-Sejdic, I. Must, F. Kaasik and A. Aabloo, Carbide-Derived Carbon as Active Interlayer of Polypyrrole Tri-Layer Linear Actuator, Sensors and

Actuators, B: Chemical, 201, 100-106, (2014)

R. Kiefer, R. Temmer, N. Aydemir, J. Travas-Sejdic, A. Aabloo and T. Tamm, Electrochemistry of Interlayer Supported Polypyrrole Tri-Layer Linear Actuators, Electrochimica Acta, 122, 322-328, (2014)

D.P. Killeen, J. W. van Klink, B. M. Smallfield, K. C. Gordon and N. B. Perry, Herbicidal B-Triketones Are Compartmentalized in Leaves of Leptospermum Species: Localization by Raman Microscopy and Rapid Screening, New Phytologist, 205(1), 339-349, (2014)

P.A. Kilmartin, D. Robert, A. Nand, G. I. N. Waterhouse and J. Travas-Sejdic, Redox Properties of Nanostructured Aniline Oxidation Products Formed under Different Ph Conditions, International Journal

of Nanotechnology, 11(5-8), 458-465, (2014)

P.A. Kilmartin, J. Travas-Sejdic, R. Temmer, T. Tamm, A. Aabloo and R. Kiefer, Pedot-Pss/Mwcnt Coatings on PET for Conducting Polymer Actuators, International Journal of Nanotechnology, 11(5-8), 477-485, (2014)


R. Kulmaczewski, J. Olguín, J. A. Kitchen, H. L. C. Feltham, G. N. L. Jameson, J. L. Tallon and S. Brooker, Remarkable Scan Rate Dependence for a Highly Constrained Dinuclear Iron(II) Spin Crossover omplex with a Wide Thermal Hysteresis Loop, Journal of the American Chemical Society, 136(3), 878-881, (2014)

C.B. Larsen, H. Van Der Salm, C. A. Clark, A. B. S. Elliott, M. G. Fraser, R. Horvath, N. T. Lucas, X. Z. Sun, M. W. George and K. C. Gordon, Intraligand Charge-Transfer Excited States in Re(I) Complexes with Donor-Substituted Dipyridophenazine Ligands, Inorganic Chemistry , 53(3), 1339-1354, (2014)

K. Lee, E. J. Lim, K. S. Kim, S. L. Huang, Y. Veeranagouda and B. H. A. Rehm, An Alginate-Like Exopolysaccharide Biosynthesis Gene Cluster Involved in Biofilm Aerial Structure Formation by Pseudomonas Alkylphenolia, Applied Microbiology

and Biotechnology, 1-12, (2014)

L. Lee, H. Ma, P. A. Brooksby, S. A. Brown, Y. R. Leroux, P. Hapiot and A. J. Downard, Covalently Anchored Carboxyphenyl Monolayer Via Aryldiazonium Ion Grafting: A Well-Defined Reactive Tether Layer for on-Surface Chemistry, Langmuir, 30(24), 7104-7111, (2014)

J.E.M. Lewis, A. B. S. Elliott, C. J. McAdam, K. C. Gordon and J. D. Crowley, ‘Click’ to Functionalise: Synthesis, Characterisation and Enhancement of the Physical Properties of a Series of Exo- and Endo-Functionalised Pd

2l

4 Nanocages, Chemical Science,

5(5), 1833-1843, (2014)

Y. Li, C. Luo, C. Jiang, R. Huang, Y. Wang, H. Peng and J. Travas-Sejdic, Luminescent Carbon Nanoparticles as a Donor for the Fret-Based Detection of Oligonucleotide Hybridization, RSC Advances, 4(48), 25201-25204, (2014)

M. Liu, C. Luo, R. Huang, H. Peng, Y. Wang and J. Travas-Sejdic, Self-Assembly of Methyl Substituted Polyaniline Hollow Nanospheres in a Polyelectrolyte Solution, International Journal of Polymeric Materials

and Polymeric Biomaterials, 63(12), 602-608, (2014)

H. Ma, L. Lee, P. A. Brooksby, S. A. Brown, S. J. Fraser, K. C. Gordon, Y. R. Leroux, P. Hapiot and A. J. Downard, Scanning Tunneling and Atomic Force Microscopy Evidence for Covalent and Noncovalent Interactions between Aryl Films and Highly Ordered Pyrolytic Graphite, Journal of Physical Chemistry C, 118(11), 5820-5826, (2014)

K.J.D. MacKenzie and M. Welter, Geopolymer Matrix Composites: New Possibilities for CMC-like Materials, Advances in Ceramic Matrix Composites, 18, 445-470, (2014)

J. Malmström and J. Travas-Sejdic, Block Copolymers for Protein Ordering, Journal of Applied

Polymer Science, (2014)

T.M. McLean, S. G. Telfer, A. B. S. Elliott, K. C. Gordon, M. Lein and M. R. Waterland, Molecular Excitons in a Copper Azadipyrrin Complex, Dalton Transactions, 43(47), 17746-17753, (2014)

R.G. Miller, S. Narayanaswamy, J. L. Tallon and S. Brooker, Spin Crossover with Thermal Hysteresis in Cobalt(II) Complexes and the Importance of Scan Rate, New Journal of Chemistry , 38(5), 1932-1941, (2014)

G.M. Nasab, F. Golestanifard and K. J. D. MacKenzie, The Effect of the SiO

2/Na

2O Ratio in the Structural

Modification of Metakaolin-Based Geopolymers Studied by XRD, FTIR and MAS-NMR, Journal of

Ceramic Science and Technology, 5(3), 185-191, (2014)

E.M. Nickless, S. E. Holroyd, J. M. Stephens, K. C. Gordon and J. J. Wargent, Analytical Ft-Raman Spectroscopy to Chemotype Leptospermum Scoparium and Generate Predictive Models for Screening for Dihydroxyacetone Levels in Floral Nectar, Journal of Raman Spectroscopy, (2014)

A.A. Nourbakhsh, A. Vahedi, A. Nemati, M. Noorbakhsh, S. N. Mirsatari, M. Shaygan and K. J. D. Mackenzie, Optimization of the Magnetic Properties and Microstructure of Co2+-La3+ Substituted Strontium Hexaferrite by Varying the Production Parameters, Ceramics International, 40(4), 5675-5680, (2014)

J. Parcell, N. Aydemir, H. Devaraj, J. Travas-Sejdic, D. E. Williams and K. C. Aw, A Novel Air Flow Sensor from Printed Pedot Micro-Hairs, Smart Materials and

Structures, 22(11), (2014)

N. A. Parlane, B. H. A. Rehm, D. N. Wedlock and B. M. Buddle, Novel Particulate Vaccines Utilizing Polyester Nanoparticles (Bio-Beads) for Protection against Mycobacterium Bovis Infection-a Review, Veterinary Immunology and Immunopathology, 158(1-2), 8-13, (2014)


N.A. Parlane, D. Shu, S. Subharat, D. N. Wedlock, B. H. A. Rehm, G. W. De Lisle and B. M. Buddle, Revaccination of Cattle with Bacille Calmette-Guérin Two Years after First Vaccination When Immunity Has Waned, Boosted Protection against Challenge with Mycobacterium Bovis, PLoS ONE, 9(9), (2014)

Y. Pei, J. Travas-Sejdic and D. E. Williams, Water Structure Change-Induced Expansion and Collapse of Zwitterionic Polymers Surface-Grafted onto Carbon Black, Australian Journal of Chemistry, 67(11), 1706-1709, (2014)

F.J. Rawson, A. J. Downard and K. H. Baronian, Electrochemical Detection of Intracellular and Cell Membrane Redox Systems in Saccharomyces Cerevisiae, Scientific Reports, 4, (2014)

B.H.A. Rehm, Preface, Current Proteomics, 11(1), 1, (2014)

Z. Shen, C. Luo, R. Huang, Y. Wang, H. Peng and J. Travas-Sejdic, Simple One-Pot Aqueous Synthesis of Cdhgte Nanocrystals Using Sodium Tellurite as the Te Source, Journal of Luminescence, 153, 203-209, (2014)

B.M. Simons, J. Lehr, D. J. Garrett and A. J. Downard, Formation of Thick Aminophenyl Films from Aminobenzenediazonium Ion in the Absence of a Reduction Source, Langmuir, 30(17), 4989-4996, (2014)

A.R.G. Srinivas, D. Barker and J. Travas-Sejdic, Studies Towards a Switch-Off Optical DNA Sensor Based on Poly(P-Phenylenevinylene) Grafted Magnetic Beads, International Journal of

Nanotechnology, 11(5-8), 645-659, (2014)

J. Sui, P. Kilmartin and J. Travas-Sejdic, A Novel Micro Ring Structured Ppy/Pts Free Standing Film with Improved Actuation Stability, International

Journal of Polymeric Materials and Polymeric

Biomaterials, 63(8), 424-429, (2014)

J. Temuujin, A. Minjigmaa, B. Davaabal, U. Bayarzul, A. Ankhtuya, T.S. Jadambaa and K. J. D. MacKenzie, Utilization of Radioactive High-Calcium Mongolian Flyash for the Preparation of Alkali-Activated Geopolymers for Safe Use as Construction Materials, Ceramics International, (2014)

J. Travas-Sejdic, N. Aydemir, B. Kannan, D. E. Williams and J. Malmström, Intrinsically Conducting Polymer Nanowires for Biosensing, Journal of

Materials Chemistry B, 2(29), 4593-4609, (2014)

R. Ullah, G. A. Bowmaker, C. Laslau, G. I. N. Waterhouse, Z. D. Zujovic, K. Ali, A. U. H. A. Shah and J. Travas-Sejdic, Synthesis of Polyaniline by Using CuCl

2 as Oxidizing Agent, Synthetic

Metals, 198, 203-211, (2014)

R. Ullah, G. A. Bowmaker, J. Travas-Sejdic, K. Ali and A. U. H. A. Shah, Synthesis and Characterization of Polyaniline by Using Weak Oxidizing Agent, Macromolecular Symposia, 339(1), 84-90, (2014)

H. van der Salm, A. B. S. Elliott and K. C. Gordon, Substituent Effects on the Electronic Properties of Complexes with Dipyridophenazine and Triazole Ligands: Electronically Connected and Disconnected Ligands, Coordination Chemistry

Reviews, (2014)

H. Van Der Salm, M. G. Fraser, R. Horvath, S. A. Cameron, J. E. Barnsley, X. Z. Sun, M. W. George and K. C. Gordon, Re(I) Complexes of Substituted Dppz: A Computational and Spectroscopic Study, Inorganic Chemistry, 53(6), 3126-3140, (2014)

H. Van Der Salm, M. G. Fraser, R. Horvath, J. O. Turner, G. M. Greetham, I. P. Clark, M. Towrie, N. T. Lucas, M. W. George and K. C. Gordon, Dual Charge-Transfer in Rhenium(I) Thioether Substituted Hexaazanaphthalene Complexes, Inorganic

Chemistry, 53(24), 13049-13060, (2014)

H. Van Der Salm, C. B. Larsen, J. R. W. McLay, M. G. Fraser, N. T. Lucas and K. C. Gordon, Stretching the Phenazine Mo in Dppz: The Effect of Phenyl and Phenyl-Ethynyl Groups on the Photophysics of Re(I) Dppz Complexes, Dalton Transactions, 43(47), 17775-17785, (2014)

M. Venning-Slater, D. O. Hooks and B. H. A. Rehm, In Vivo Self-Assembly of Stable Green Fluorescent Protein Fusion Particles and Their Uses in Enzyme Immobilization, Applied

and Environmental Microbiology, 80(10), 3062-3071, (2014)

L. Zhao, P. Wagner, A. B. S. Elliott, M. J. Griffith, T. M. Clarke, K. C. Gordon, S. Mori and A. J. Mozer, Enhanced Performance of Dye-Sensitized Solar Cells Using Carbazole-Substituted Di-Chromophoric Porphyrin Dyes, Journal of Materials Chemistry A, 2(40), 16963-16977, (2014)

B. Zhu, M. A. Booth, P. Shepherd, A. Sheppard and J. Travas-Sejdic, Distinguishing Cytosine Methylation Using Electrochemical, Label-Free Detection of DNA Hybridization and Ds-Targets, Biosensors and Bioelectronics, 64, 74-80, (2014)


BOOK CHAPTERS

K.J.D. Mackenzie and M. Welter, Geopolymer (Aluminosilicate) Composites: Synthesis, Properties and Applications, In Advances in Ceramic Matrix Composites, 445-470: Elsevier Ltd., (2014)

J. Travas-Sejdic and A. Rao Gulur Srinivas, Optical Gene Detection Using Conjugated Polymers, in Optical Properties of Functional Polymers and Nano Engineering Applications, Edited by Vaibhav Jain, Akshay Kokil, CRC Press, Taylor & Francis, (2014)

A.J. Barker, K. Chen, S. Prasad and J.M. Hodgkiss, High-sensitivity ultrafast transient absorption spectroscopy of organic PV devices. In Ultrafast Dynamics in Molecules, Nanostructures and Interfaces, Gurzadyan, G. G.; Lanzani, G.; Soci, C.; Sum, T. C., Eds. World Scientific: Singapore, 8, (2014)


M.J. Cook and J. H. Johnston, Novel Syntheses of Silica-Gold Core-Shell Particles, In Nanotechnology 2014: Graphene, CNTs, Particles, Films and Composites - 2014 NSTI Nanotechnology Conference and Expo, NSTI-Nanotech 2014, 1, 121-124. Washington, DC: Nano Science and Technology Institute, (2014)

M.B. Herzog and J. H. Johnston, Wool Surfaces Made Superhydrophobic, In Nanotechnology 2014: Graphene, CNTs, Particles, Films and Composites - 2014 NSTI Nanotechnology Conference and Expo, NSTI-Nanotech 2014, 1, 245-248. Washington, DC: Nano Science and Technology Institute, (2014)

J.H. Johnston and M. Parry, New Generation Nanogold and Nanosilver Polymer Composites and Their Applications, In Nanotechnology 2014: Graphene, CNTs, Particles, Films and Composites - 2014 NSTI Nanotechnology Conference and Expo, NSTI-Nanotech 2014, 1, 358-361. Washington, DC: Nano Science and Technology Institute, (2014)

J.H. Johnston and A. Zeller, Synthesis and Characterization of Copper (I) Oxide and Zinc Oxide Quantum Dot Materials and the Development of New Fluorescent Fibre Composites, In Nanotechnology 2014: Graphene, CNTs, Particles, Films and Composites - 2014 NSTI Nanotechnology Conference and Expo, NSTI-Nanotech 2014, 1, 105-108. Washington, DC: Nano Science and Technology Institute, (2014)

T.W. Nilsson and J. H. Johnston, Scale-up of Novel Gold Nanoparticle-Wool Fibre Composites: A Commercialisation Success Story, In Nanotechnology 2014: Graphene, CNTs, Particles, Films and Composites - 2014 NSTI Nanotechnology Conference and Expo, NSTI-Nanotech 2014, 1, 362-364. Washington, DC: Nano Science and Technology Institute, (2014)

E.W. Tate and J. H. Johnston, Photocatalytic Silver/Silver Halide Polymer Nanocomposites, In Nanotechnology 2014: Graphene, CNTs, Particles, Films and Composites - 2014 NSTI Nanotechnology Conference and Expo, NSTI-Nanotech 2014, 1, 392-395. Washington, DC: Nano Science and Technology Institute, (2014)

R. Kiefer, N. Aydemir, J. Torop, P. A. Kilmartin, T. Tamm, F. Kaasik, A. Kesküla, J. Travas-Sejdic and A. Aabloo, Carbide-derived Carbon (CDC) linear actuator properties in combination with conducting polymers, Proceedings of SPIE – The International

Society for Optical Engineering, 171, pp. 69-75, San Diego, CA, (2014)


INVITATIONS

KEYNOTE SPEAKER

J.H. Johnston, Keynote paper plus 5 other papers were presented, TechConnect 2014 - NSTI

Nanotechnology Conference and Expo, Washington, DC. June 2014

J.M. Hodgkiss, 7th International conference on

Advanced Materials and Nanotechnology (AMN7), Nelson, February 2015

S. Brooker, Spin crossover in dinuclear complexes and/or with scan-rate dependent thermal hysteresis, SANZMAG (1st Southampton Australia

NZ workshop on molecular magnetism), Sydney, Australia, 17-20 February 2014

INVITED SPEAKER

A.J. Downard, L. Lee, P.A. Brooksby, Y.R. Leroux, P. Hapiot, Designer surfaces: robust monolayers for bottom-up construction of functional interfaces. RACI, National Congress, Adelaide, Australia, 7 - 12 December 2014


A.J. Downard, From the bottom up: electrochemistry as a tool for bottom-up construction of nanoscale funtionalised surfaces. Conference for Women in

Science, Wellington, 9-11 July 2014

J.M. Hodgkiss, Excitonic Photovoltaics 2014 (XPV2014), Telluride, Colorado, August 2014

J.M. Hodgkiss, 9th Aseanian Conference on

Dye-sensitized and Organic Solar Cells, Sydney, December 2014

J.M. Hodgkiss, 8th Asian Photochemistry conference, Trivandrum, India, November 2014 (did not attend)

J.M. Hodgkiss, 13th International conference on

the Frontiers of Polymer and Advanced Materials, Marrakesh, March 2015

K.C. Gordon, Low frequency Raman spectroscopy as a probe of crystalline phases in organic photovoltaic polymers and pharmaceuticals, at SciX, 41st FACCS

meeting (http://www.scixconference.org/), Reno NV, USA, October, 2014

K.C. Gordon, Resonance Raman spectroscopy as a probe of the electronic properties of complexes with dipyridophenazine and triazole ligands: electronically loquacious and diffident ligands, XXIV International

Conference on Raman Spectroscopy (ICORS 2014), 10-15 August 2014, Jena, Germany.

K.C. Gordon, Computational chemistry and spectroscopy: a strategy for the development of new electronic materials, Australasian Conference on

Vibrational Spectroscopy, Adelaide, South Australia, 14-16 April 2014

P.E. Kruger, lecture at the 2014 Royal Australian

Chemical Institute National Congress, Adelaide, Australia, 7-12 December 2014

S. Brooker, Robust isostructural cationic nanoporous frameworks with variable anion loading, Challenges

in Inorganic and Materials Chemistry (ISACS13), Dublin, 1-4 July 2014

S. Brooker, Remarkable scan rate effects on spin crossover with Thermal hysteresis: di-iron and mono-cobalt complexes as examples, ICCC-41, Singapore, 21-25 July 2014

S. Brooker, 14th International Conference on

Molecule-based Magnets, ICMM-2014, St Petersburg, Russia, 5-10 July 2014 (did not attend)

S. Brooker, Spin crossover complexes with memory, Edinburgh University, UK, 9 July (2014).

S. Brooker, Spin crossover complexes with memory, Durham University, UK, 10 July (2014).

J. Travas-Sejdic, Polymer Brushes Grafted Conjugated Polymers for Biomedical Applications, International Conference on Synthetic Metals 2014, Turku, Finland, 30 June – 5 July 2014

J. Travas-Sejdic, Conjugated Polymers for Label-free Gene Detection, 9th International Conference on

Surfaces, Coatings and Nanostructured Materials

- (NANOSMAT) Conference, Dublin, Ireland, 8-11September 2014

AWARDS, MEDALS, FELLOWSHIPS

A.J. Downard, R. H. Stokes medal of the Electrochemical Division of the Royal Australian Chemical Institute: for distinguished research in the field of electrochemistry carried out mainly in Australasia

A.J. Downard, Docteur Honoris Causa, Université de Rennes 1, France

A.J. Downard, Honorary Professor, Qilu University of Technology, Jinan, Shangdong Province, China

NEW GRANT FUNDS

A.J. Downard (PI), RSNZ Marsden Grant, Graphene

supercapacitors: transforming energy storage

solutions, $739,130, 2014-2016, with Dr Paula Brooksby (PI), University of Canterbury, A/Prof Scott Donne, (AI), University of Newcastle, Australia, Prof Ron Fawcett, (PI), University of California, Davis, USA

J.H. Johnston (PI), Wools of New Zealand, Nanogold and nanosilver wool, $100,000, from 1 December 2014 with Dr Kerstin Lucas

K.C. Gordon (AI), Australian Research Council, Council Centre of Excellence for Electromaterials

Science, AUD $25,000,000 over 6 years , AUD $5000 per annum as an AI, 2014-2020, with Gordon Wallace Lead PI (Wollongong)

K.C. Gordon (AI), Australian Research Council, The Development of Chemopropulsion-based Fluidic

Transport Systems, AUD $600,000 over 3 years, AUD $5000 per annum as an AI, 2015-2018, with David Officer, Lead PI (Wollongong)

S.G. Telfer (AI), Marsden Fund, Nanoparticle-

Nanorod Frameworks, $870,000, from April 2015-2018, with Richard Tilley (PI)


P.E. Kruger (PI), Marsden Fund, Spin-Switchable,

Externally Addressable Functional Molecular Cages, $750,000 for 3 years from 1 March 2015, with Prof. Rodolphe Clérac, CNRS / University of Bordeaux, FRANCE and Prof. Nathan McClenaghan CNRS / University of Bordeaux FRANCE

P.E. Kruger (PI), Dumont d’Urville New Zealand-

France Science & Technology Support

Programme, Switchable Molecular Magnetic

Materials, $21,600 over 2 years from 2015, with Prof. Corine Mathonière, CNRS / University of Bordeaux, France

J. Travas-Sejdic (AI), Marsden Fund, Creating neural

bridges: a conducting polymer neurotransmitter

releasing system, $300,000 over 3 years from February 2015, with Darren Svirskis (PI)

J. Travas-Sejdic (AI), Auckland Medical Research

Foundation, Creating neural bridges, $150,215 over 3 years from January 2015, with Darren Svirskis (PI)

J. Travas-Sejdic (AI), MBIE, Biocide Toolbox (BTB), $13,196, 022 over 6 years from January 2015, with Ralph Cooney (PI)

J. Travas-Sejdic (AI), Faculty Research

Development Fund, MEMS co-manufacturing using

3D printing technologies (3707476), $140, 238 over 2 years from November 2014, with Kean Aw (PI)

S.B.Hall (PI and Science Leader), MBIE Smart

Ideas Phase 2, New Cathodes, $1,148,882, over 2 years from 1 October 2014 with Assoc. Prof. Gareth Rowlands and Assoc. Prof. Mark Waterland, both IFS, Massey University


J.H. Johnston, Carried out R&D work on our nanogold wool colourant technology “Aulana” and our antimicrobial silver wool treatment “NgaPure” technology using the pilot plant facility of Park Valley Dyers Ltd, Huddersfield, Yorkshire, UK, to facilitate the scale up of the processes from the laboratory to commercial scale operation.

P.E. Kruger, We are member of a Collaborative Access Programme at the Australia Synchrotron and had access to MX1 beamline in 2014.


OVERSEAS FACILITIES

J.H. Johnston, Granted Research and Study Leave from July 2014 to February 2015 to carry out R&D work on the scale up of our nanogold-wool and antimicrobial silver wool technologies at VUW and at Park Valley Dyers in the UK. Also worked with Noble Bond Ltd (NZ), Wools NZ (UK) Ltd, Ilkely, and the SoFarSoNear Interior Design studio in Milan and London in the design and production of the “Midas Rug” as the first commercial implementation and production of designer rugs using our nanogold-wool technology “Aulana” for exhibiting at the European and UK flooring trade fair, Domotex in Hannover, and at US flooring trade fair, Surfaces in Las Vegas in February 2015.

P.E. Kruger, As part of my sabbatical leave I spent 5 weeks at the University of Bordeaux, France based within the laboratory of my collaborator, Prof. Rodolphe Clérac. September 4th – October 9th 2014.

J. Travas-Sejdic, Research leave: 15 April – 30 May, University of California Los Angeles; Host: Prof. Ric Kaner

VISITORS

Professor Richard McCreery, University of Alberta, Canada. Teaching and research visit, 20 February -30 March 2014 (A.J. Downard)

Dr James Webb, University of New South Wales, Ultrafast spectroscopy of perylene based light harvesting materials, 6-17 January 2014 (J.M. Hodgkiss)

Alistair Laos, Ultrafast spectroscopy of perylene based light harvesting materials, University of New South Wales, 6-17 January 2014 (J.M. Hodgkiss)

Jonathan Wos, University of New South Wales, Spectroscopy and device physics of perylene gels, 27 October – 7 November 2014 (J.M. Hodgkiss)

Dr Paul Shaw, University of Queensland, Ultrafast spectroscopy of fluorescent explosive sensors, 10-12 November 2014 (J.M. Hodgkiss)

Professor Sandro Gambarotta (Ottawa), 24 October 2014 (S. Brooker)

A/Professors Matthew Shores and Amy Prieto (Colorado), 12-14 June 2014 (S. Brooker)


Professor Phil Gale (Southampton), 12 May 2014 (S. Brooker)

Professor Annie Powell (Karlsruhe) as Julius von Haast Fellow (2010-2013) , 5-16 May 2014 (S. Brooker)

Professor Shinya Hayami (Japan), 13-14 March 2014 (S. Brooker)

Professor Jiri Janata, School of Chemistry and Biochemistry, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, USA, 2 seminars, a round table discussion with the research group, 10-12 December 2014 (J. Travas-Sejdic)

Dr Mira Josowitz, School of Chemistry and Biochemistry, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, USA, a seminar and round table discussion with the research group, 10-12 December 2014 (J. Travas-Sejdic)

Professor Peter Butko, Department of Chemistry, Graduate School of Science Nagoya University, Japan, 1 day visit:seminar and discussions, 26 March 2014 (J. Travas-Sejdic)

Professor John Lannutti, Department of Materials Science and Engineering, The Ohio State University, a half-day visit: research discussion, 12 December 2014 (J. Travas-Sejdic)

Dist. Prof. Digby D. Macdonald, FRSC, FRSNZ, FNACE, FECS, FISE, FIC, FASM, FWIC, Khwarizmi Laureate in Fundamental science, Doctuer Honoris Causa-INSA Lyon, Faraday Memorial Trust Gold Medalist, Gibbs Award Recipient (IAPWS), De Tao Master, Frumkin Memorial Medalist, 2013.

Professor in Residence, Departments of Nuclear Engineering and Materials Science and Engineering, University of California at Berkeley.

Visiting Chair Professor, Center of Research Excellence in Corrosion, King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals, Dhahran, Saudi Arabia.Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Materials Science and Engineering, Penn State University (S.B. Hall)

Prof. Mirna Urquid-Macdonald, Professor Emeritus, Engineering Science and Mechanics, Penn State University. Research discussions on electrochemistry and energy storage. 17-19 June 2014 (S.B. Hall)



Joseph Gallaher, PhD student, visited Hitachi Research Laboratory, Cambridge, UK, October – December 2014 as part of MacDiarmid Institute industry internship programme (J.M. Hodgkiss)

Matthias Herzog and Michelle Cook, PhD students, worked at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, Karlesruhe, Germany in July 2014 carrying out contact angle measurements on their superhydrophobic and superhydrophilic structured wool and polymer surfaces (J.H. Johnston)

Thomas Nilsson, PhD student, was selected for and attended the international Nanotechnology Workshop in Tehran, September, 2014 (J.H. Johnston)

Reece G. Miller, PhD student, visited Prof Rodolphe Clerac (Bordeaux), Prof Roberta Sessoli (Florence) and Prof Judith Howard (Durham) in June 2014. He visited Prof Cameron Kepert (Sydney Uni) and Prof Simon Clark (MacQuarie) (1-5 Dec 2014). Mostly to extend the full characterization of our spin crossover complexes and of our carbon dioxide selective MOFs beyond what can be done here in NZ (S. Brooker)

Thomas Kerr-Philips, PhD student, visited The University of Cergy-Pontoise, research collaboration funded by Dumont d’Urville NZ-France S and T Support Programme, 6- 23 July 2014 (J. Travas-Sejdic)

Eddie Chan, PhD student, visited Department of Bionanotechnology, Gachon University, South Korea, research collaboration funded by RSNZ NZ-Korea Joint Research Projects, 23 June to 5 July 2014, (J. Travas-Sejdic)


S.G. Telfer, Collaboration with Dr Vyacheslav Filichev, Associate Investigator, Maurice-Wilkins Centre

K.C. Gordon, Principal Investigator, Dodds Wall Centre

NEW COLLABORATIONS

S.G. Telfer, Dr Matthew Hill, CSIRO, Australia (MOFs and membranes)

S.G. Telfer, Dr Chris Richardson University of Wollongong (MOFs)


S.G. Telfer, Dr David Harding, Walailak University, Thailand (X-ray crystallographyof spin-crossover complexes)

S.G. Telfer, Dr. Stijn Van Cleuvenbergen, University of Leuven, Belgium (SHG microscopy of MOFs)

S.G. Telfer, Dr Francois-Xavier Coudert, CNRS & Chimie ParisTech, France (computational chemistry of MOFs)

J.M. Hodgkiss, Assoc. Prof. Christopher McNeill (Monash University, Australia) – organic photovoltaics. Prof. McNeill’s group have expertise in OPV device physics and morphology, which we have complemented with ultrafast spectroscopy. Our first publication from this project recently appeared in Energy & Enviromental Science (DOI: 10.1039/C4EE03059A).

J.M. Hodgkiss, Dr Ivan Kassal (University of Queensland, Australia) – organic photovoltaics. Dr Kassal has developed new theories of energy and charge transfer relevant to photosynthesis and OPV devices. We are engaging with Dr Kassal to provide experimental tests of the theories. We narrowly missed out on funding via an ARC discovery project bid in 2014.

J.H. Johnston, Research linkage with The Product Accelerator, University of Auckland, on the development of superhydrophobic and superhydrophilic surfaces.

P.E. Kruger, New collaboration struck up with Prof. Corine Mathonière (University of Bordeaux) supported by the Royal Society of New Zealand, Dumont d’Urville New Zealand-France Science & Technology Support Programme.

LEADERSHIP



Lita Lee, PhD student, ‘Covalently-anchored monolayer tethers for bottom-up assembly of functional surfaces’ Department of Chemistry,

University of Canterbury, 28 April 2014 (internal) (A.J. Downard)

Kalib Bell, PhD student, ‘Chemical Modifications of Metal Oxide Materials’, Department of Chemistry,

University of Canterbury, 28 April 2014 (internal) (A.J. Downard)

Kalib Bell, ‘Tuning Metal Oxide Nanomaterial Surfaces through Chemical Modification’, 9th

International Conference on Surfaces, Coatings and

Nanostructured Materials, 8 – 11 September 2014, Dublin, Ireland (external) (A.J. Downard)

Kalib Bell: ‘Tuning Metal Oxide Nanomaterial Surfaces through Chemical Modification’, 10th

MacDiarmid Student and Postdoc Symposium, 24- 25 November 2014, Auckland (external) (A.J. Downard)

Anna Farquhar, PhD student, ‘Graphene: Can we unleash its energy storage potential’, presented at the ‘Thesis in Three’ (3MT) competitions: University

of Canterbury, 11, 14 and 18 August 2014 (internal); and University of Western Australia 3 November 2014 (external) (A.J. Downard)

Alex Barker, PhD student, ‘Optical probes of free charge generation in organic photovoltaic materials’ Final PhD seminar at VUW, July 2014 (J.M. Hodgkiss)

Shyamal Prasad, MSc student, ‘Resolving photoisomerization dynamics via ultrafast UV-visible transient absorption spectroscopy’ Final MSc seminar, VUW, 8 August 2014 (J.M. Hodgkiss)

Dave Young, PhD student, was awarded the Royal Australian Chemical Institute Inorganic Division’s Don Stranks prize for best talk at the Royal Australian Chemical Institute National Congress, Adelaide, Australia, 7-12 December 2014 (P.E. Kruger)




S.G. Telfer, Member of selection panel for Fulbright awards

S.G. Telfer, Grant reviewer for NSERC Canada

S.G. Telfer, Elected member of the International Zeolite Association MOF commission

A.J. Downard, Chair, Division 1, Analytical Electrochemistry, International Society of Electrochemistry

A.J. Downard, Member of the Advisory Board of Electrochimica Acta

A.J. Downard, Member of the Scientific Committee of ElecNano, the nanoelectrochemistry conference series sponsored by the Société de Chimique de France and Université Paris Diderot


A.J. Downard, Member of committee for assessment of candidates for senior promotions, Trinity College Dublin and National Research Foundation, South Africa.

J.M. Hodgkiss, Physics, Chemistry and Biochemistry panel of the Marsden Fund (2013-2015)

J.M. Hodgkiss, Councillor, NZ Association of Scientists

J.M. Hodgkiss, Branch committee member and student liaison, NZ Institute of Chemistry

J.M. Hodgkiss, International Advisory Board, International Conference on Science and Technology of Synthetic Metals

J.H. Johnston, Member of the Editorial Advisory Board of “Pigment & Resin Technology – The International Journal of Colorants, Polymers and Colour Applications”.

J.H. Johnston, Member of the MBIE Science Panel to evaluate MBIE Smart Ideas research proposals.

K.C. Gordon, Member of Advisory Group to define a 2020 vision for eResearch in NZ (since 2014)

K.C. Gordon, Marsden Fund PCB panel (since 2013)

K.C. Gordon, Editorial board Vibrational Spectroscopy (Journal impact factor 2, Elsevier) 2014 – present

K.C. Gordon, Editorial Board Journal of Raman Spectroscopy (Journal impact factor > 3, Wiley) 2011 – present

K.C. Gordon, Editorial board Journal of Spectroscopy and Dynamics (New journal, Simplex Academic Publishers) 2010 – 2013.

K.C. Gordon, International steering committee PSSRC, Pharmaceutical Solid State Research Cluster (2010 – present)

K.C. Gordon, Pacifichem 2015 Technical Program Advisor for Materials & Nanotechnology (2012 – 2015).

K.C. Gordon, International Steering Committee International Conference on Advanced Vibrational Spectroscopy (ICAVS) series (since 2013)

K.C. Gordon, International Steering Committee Asian Spectroscopy Conference series (since 2013)

P.E. Kruger, New Zealand Representative on the Royal Australian Chemical Institute’s Inorganic Chemistry Division.

S. Brooker, Editorial Advisory Board of Inorganic

Chemistry (2013-2015).

S. Brooker, Editorial Board of Coordination Chemistry

Reviews, 1 January 2013-present (declined invitation to become a co-editor, 2011).

S. Brooker, Advisory Board member of RSC Advances (2011-present); but declined invitation to be a co-editor (2011).

S. Brooker, National Advisory Committee for The 23rd International Conference on Physical Organic Chemistry ICPOC-23 (an IUPAC conference, chairperson Dr J. Harper, UNSW), 3-8 July 2016, Sydney, Australia, December 2012-present.

S. Brooker, Co-organiser of Pacifichem 2015 symposium “Molecular Magnetism at the Front” Pacifichem 2015, Honolulu, Hawaii, December 2015, with Professors J.S. Miller, H. Oshio and R.T. Oakley.

S. Brooker, NZIC Inorganic Topic Reviewer (previously known as topical program advisor) for Pacifichem 2015, Honolulu, Hawaii, December 2015; responsibilities include reviewing inorganic symposia proposals, 2012-present.

S. Brooker, New Zealand representative on the Asian Conference on Coordination Chemistry (ACCC) committee (2009-present). ACCC comprises 17 Asian countries and regions, including NZ. The 1st ACCC was held in Japan in 2007 (350 delegates), the 2nd in China in 2009 (600 delegates), the 3rd in India in 2011, etc.

S. Brooker, New Zealand representative on the International Symposium on Macrocyclic and Supramolecular Chemistry planning committee (2009-present).

J. Travas-Sejdic, Councillor of the Pacific Polymer Federation (2009-present)

J. Travas-Sejdic, International Advisory Board for Chemistry – An Asian Journal (2010-present)

J. Travas-Sejdic, Editorial Board Member for the International Journal of Nanotechnology (2008-present)


INSPIRATION


POLICY

J.M. Hodgkiss, Submitted potential spearhead project proposal and participated in sandpit meeting for National Science Challenge 10 (Wellington, 21 March 2014).

J.M. Hodgkiss, Named investigator in National Science Challenge 10 proposal (Science for technological innovation).

J.M. Hodgkiss, Contributed to contributions on National Statement of Science Investment on behalf of Rutherford Discovery Fellows, and NZ Association of Scientists (invited for followup discussion at MBIE).

J.H. Johnston, Contributed to developing the National Science Challenge 10 research areas.

S. Brooker, Invited to participate as one of seven researchers chosen for discussions with the German Chancellor Dr Angela Merkel during her visit to NZ on 14 November 2014 (Minister Steven Joyce was also present, as was the German Ambassador to NZ, Dr Anne-Marie Schleich), regarding, amongst other things, strengthening our links with Germany.

MEDIA PUBLICATIONS

S.G. Telfer, Radio New Zealand, Our Changing World interview (aired on 13/11/14)

J.M. Hodgkiss, NZ herald article about emerging solar photovoltaic technologies (element magazine) Online 1 July 2014, http://www.nzherald.co.nz/element-magazine/news/article.cfm?c_id=1503340&objectid=11285509

J.M. Hodgkiss, Article about hormone sensor technology in Dominion Post and syndicated NZ newspapers, 7 July 2014, http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/health/10238491/Patch-to-test-oestrogen-in-water

J.M. Hodgkiss, 3News TV interview about solar roads, 25 May, 2014. http://www.3news.co.nz/Backers-pledge-more-than-1M-for-solar-roads/tabid/417/articleID/345694/Default.aspx

J.M. Hodgkiss, VicNews article about OPV research breakthrough, 8 October 2014

http://www.victoria.ac.nz/news/2014/creating-low-cost-solar-energy

J.M. Hodgkiss, OPV research featured in NZ online Energy newsletter, 13 October 2014

http://www.energynews.co.nz/news-story/18961/nz-research-solves-plastic-solar-cell-puzzle

J.M. Hodgkiss, Our changing world radio interview on biosensors, 30 October 2014 http://www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/ourchangingworld/audio/20153082/detecting-oestrogen-in-the-environment

J.M. Hodgkiss, Feature article about biosensor research in VUW alumni magazine, Victorious, Issue 2, 2014 ‘Detecting Harmful molecules’

P.E. Kruger, Marsden Fund success http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/SC1411/S00023/shape-shifting-molecules-may-provide-new-diagnosis-methods.htm

P.E. Kruger, Marsden Fund success, http://livenews.co.nz/2014/11/10/shape-shifting-molecules-may-provide-new-methods-for-drug-delivery-sensing-and-medical-diagnosis/

P.E. Kruger, Marsden Fund success, https://nz.news.yahoo.com/a/-/top-stories/25470528/project-investigating-the-impact-of-large-molecular-cages/




J.M. Hodgkiss, “Transient grating time resolved luminescence measurements” Hodgkiss, J. M.; Chen, K. US Provisional Patent US 61/938059, 2014.

J.M. Hodgkiss, “Polynucelotide sequence” Hodgkiss, J. M.; McNatty, K. P.; Alsager, O. A.; Kumar, S. NZ Patent application number 624985, 2014.

J.M. Hodgkiss, “Quantification methods in Samples” Travas-Sejdic, J.; Hodgkiss, J. M.; Zhu, B.; Alsager, O. A. NZ Patent application 701521, filed 31 Oct 2014.

J. Travas-Sejdic, ‘Methods and apparatus for amplifying nucleic acids’, J. Travas-Sejdic, David Williams, Nihan Aydemir, Clive Evans, U.S. Application Serial No. 62/011,491, filed on June 12 2014

S.B.Hall, On-going as part of Synthodics Ltd process

START-UP COMPANY

J.H. Johnston, Managing Director and co-founder with my PhD former student Dr Kerstin Lucas, of Noble Bond Ltd, a new start up company to commercialise our nanogold wool colourant technology “Aulana” and our antimicrobial silver wool treatment “NgaPure” technology. Noble Bond is implementing the NgaPure technology as a large upholstery fabric manufacturer and supplier in the UK for the UK and European markets, and in manufacturing Aulana rugs for high value international markets.



J.H. Johnston, Noble Bond has successfully secured a significant cornerstone investment and shareholding from Wools NZ Ltd to help it commercialise the NgaPure and Aulana technologies and grow the business.

INDUSTRY CONSULTING

J.H. Johnston, Carried out a detailed study of the geochemistry of the Chatham Rise phosphate deposit for Chatham Phosphate Ltd and provided a report accordingly.

S.B.Hall, Confidential consulting to a NZ company on an energy storage issue. Report prepared, value $1,400 + GST


J.H. Johnston, Collaborative research programme with Noble Bond Ltd and Wools NZ Ltd on the development and commercialization of our nanogold wool colourant technology “Aulana” and our antimicrobial silver wool treatment “NgaPure” technology. The value of the work is commercially sensitive.

PROFILE 2014 57

THEME 4

Bionano/Nanobio and Soft Matter

Personnel



Duncan McGillivray, David Williams, Geoff Willmott,

Juliet Gerrard


Margaret Brimble, Michelle Dickinson, Zoran Zujovic


Andrew Wadsworth, Bryon Wright, Ciaran Dolan*,

Evgeny Bogomolny, Maram Muthiah, Stephanie Papst

PhD Students

Amy Xu, Georgia Miskell, Jin Akaji, Maryam Alavi-

Shooshtari, Peter Akers, Rayomand Shahlori

Callaghan Innovation Limited


Mike Arnold



Volker Nock, Mark Staiger

Postdoctoral Fellow

Luigi Sasso*

PhD Students

Akshita Wason, Amy Phillips, Amy Yewdall, Azadeh

Hashemi, Deepti Mahapatra, Helen Ashmead, Louise

Orcheston-Findlay, Manmeet Kaur, Rishi Pandey,

Vi-Vie Ng

Massey University


Bernd Rehm, Bill Williams


Allan Raudsepp, Rob Ward, Sandy Suei*

PhD Students

Amir Irani, Brad Mansel, David Hooks, Fata Morodali,

Ian Lim, Jason Lee, Jessie Owen, Jinping Du, Majela

Gonzalez Miro, Pablo Hernandez, Patricia Rubio

Reyes, Shirin Ghods, Shuxiong Chen, Yacie Wang

MSc Students

Ben Munro, Lily Lian, Panan Sitthirit

LASRA


Sujay Prabakar

University of Otago


Carla Meledandri, Guy Jameson, John Evans, Tim

Woodfield

PhD Students

Gabriella Lindberg, Jonathon Parrish, Muthana Majid,

Naveen Mekhileri, Tiffany Tan

Tsinghua University, Beijing


Wenhui Wang



Kate McGrath, Richard Tilley


Petrik Galvosas, John Spencer


Bradley Douglass, David Herman, Marcel Nogueira

d’Eurydice, Natasha Evans*

PhD Students

Andrew McGrath, Angelique Faramus, Ben McVey,

Chenlong Yu, Christina Efthymiou, Christoph

Hasenoehrl, Davoud Zare, Elf Eldridge, Eva

Weatherall, Fangrong Zong, Graham Fairweather,

Huabing Liu, Leah Graham, Lucy Gloag, Mario Alayon,

Marjorie Griffiths, Mehrdad Ghahrae, Mima Kurian,

Moritz Banholzer, Nurul Che Zaudin, Riyad Mucadam,

Peter Hauer, Saeedah Afsar, Stefan Hertel, Stefan

Kuczera, Tim Brox, Wilfred Kittler, Xuan Hao Chan



BIONANO/NANOBIO AND SOFT MATTER


The disciplines of bionanotechnology,

nanobiotechnology, and soft matter coalesce

within this Research Theme. Biological systems

can act as an inspiration, so that the special

physics of the nano-world is used for ‘bottom-up’

processing. This approach can generate smart,

functional, viscoelastic matrices: from molecules

to materials. Biology can also be the end-goal,

so that interdisciplinary teams drive ‘top-down’

towards exciting new applications. Soft materials

and complex fluids are important not only in biology

and biotechnologies, but also in industrial arenas as

diverse as oil recovery, food technology, cosmetics

and personal care products, and electronic devices.

Soft and biological materials are characteristically

complex and hierarchical; that is, they are organized

on multiple length-scales. To understand and exploit

such rich architectures, we need to use experimental

techniques which address many orders of magnitude

in space and time. This Theme brings together

researchers who, together with their collaborators,

possess a unique and complementary set of theoretical

and experimental expertise, skills and facilities. Our

progress for 2014 includes several projects that have

emerged from this collective approach.

OBJECTIVE 1:

Bottom-Up Soft Engineering

(McGrath, B. Williams, Gerrard, D. Williams,

McGillivray, Rehm, Travas-Sejdic)

MILESTONES:

• Development of experimental protocols

to measure rheological properties over

the frequency range 10-2 to 106 and

that deal with non-ergodic samples;

Solid-like non-ergodic samples can be difficult

to study using standard single speckle diffusing

wave spectroscopy as the measurement may lack

requisite ensemble averaging. We have induced

the required ensemble averaging by translating the

speckle over the collection optics so that multiple

speckles are observed during an experiment (Int.

J. Nanotechnology 11:5-8). Translation is achieved

by refraction through a transparent rotating plate

with a surface normal angled slightly with respect

to the axis of rotation. By rotating the plate slowly,

the short time behaviour of the ensemble averaged

intensity correlation can be measured with good

fidelity using a standard multi-tau correlator.

The method combines easily with camera-based

multispeckle approaches, so the long-time behaviour

can be recovered using concurrent multispeckle

measurements if necessary.

PROFILE 2014 59Bionano/Nanobio and Soft Matter

• Exploration of the role of defects in the

stabilization and control of surfactant

self assembly;

Seven surfactant systems have now been explored,

each being a variant on the original AOT system.

In 2014, explicitly the ammonium and choline

systems were explored. Choline is a major biological

consitutent of ligand systems found in cellular

membranes. Interestingly in this system the lamellar

phase is stablilised over nearly the entire range

of surfactant concentrations and the defect basis

is seen to vary in the now general form based on

exploration of the full seven systems. The collection

of systems has now allowed a full evolution of the

defect behaviour in lamellar systems to be elucidated

and for the relationship between counterion binding

and volume relationships to be determined with

respect to optimal values for the generation of

bilayer formation. Graham Fairweather is completing

his PhD which will be submitted in 2016.

• Exploration of the relationship between

primary self-assembly of proteins,

secondary gel formation and structure

and macroscopic materials properties;

Protein assembly has produced strong advances

in three areas. Firstly, protein nanofibrils offer

advantages over other nanostructures due to their

ease of self-assembly and versatility of surface

chemistry. We have introduced a generic approach

for the multi-functionalization of protein nanofibrils

self-assembled from whey proteins. These methods

can be used to decorate whey protein nanofibrils

with components such as fluorescent quantum

dots, enzymes, and metal nanoparticles (Nanoscale

6:1629). Functionalised fibrils have been investigated

mechanically using optical tweezers (Figure 1) and

studies on gels assembled from such fibrils have

been undertaken at the Australian Synchrotron.

Computer simulations are underway to close the

circle, linking the microscopic fibril structure to their

mesoscopic mechanical properties and ultimately to

bulk materials behaviour.

FIGURE 1: Novel surfactants synthesised in the

lab allow us to probe why the liquid crystalline

structures that they form are energetically

favourable and how we can manipulate this

formation through chemical changes. In

particular we are interested in the role of

‘defects’, such as those shown in the electron

microscopy image, in transitions between

different liquid crystalline structures.


Secondly, we have developed an approach

to assemble proteins in ordered, hierarchical

nanostructures by combining ‘doughnut stacking’

proteins. This provides a functional organisation

along one axis of a structure with microphase-

separating block copolymers to provide organisation

along the other two axes. The protein was the

RNA-binding protein LSM�, in which subunits

assemble into rings (doughnuts) which can then be

persuaded to stack (tunnels). We have succeeded in

producing an ordered array of tunnels perpendicular

to a surface (Figure 2) through painstaking selection

and optimisation of solvents, casting and annealing

conditions for the thin films.

Thirdly, we have explored the synthesis of novel

metal ion-complexing polymers and the construction

of metal ion-complexing gels using these. We have

successfully polymerised new acrylate monomers

with metal ion-complexing side chains and

assembled these into gels.

FIGURE 2: A single whey-protein nano-fibril,

visualised with Quantum Dots while being

extended using Optical Tweezers.

FIGURE 3: Top, conceptual schematic

of the desired structure. Bottom

left, regular hexagonal array of

polystyrene-block-polyethyleneoxide.

The dark-stained regions are the

polyethyleneoxide blocks. Bottom

right: expansion of the lattice as a

consequence of protein incorporation.


• Development of a range of computational

tools to link molecular information to

macroscopic materials properties;

Construction of realistic network architectures from

imaging datasets in silico is a vital stepping-stone in

the understanding of bottom-up structure-function

engineering in soft materials. We have analysed 3D

TEM tomography images of polysaccharide networks

alongside confocal microscopy datasets obtained

from the better-studied actin and collagen networks.

The functional forms of the distributions of the node

degree, node-to-node distance and angle between

edges were found to be the same across all the

different biopolymer networks examined, regardless

of their length scale, chemical nature, or assembly

mechanism. Interestingly, the scale-free nature of

the node-degree distribution confers a significant

robustness advantage to the random failure of

edges, suggesting that perhaps such networks

could be functional in biomaterials in vivo, where the

maintenance of mechanical integrity is important.

This work was presented at the International

Biophysics Conference in Queensland in August.

OUTCOME:

New knowledge regarding hierarchical function

which could enable design of new materials via

synthesis of biominerals and mesocules, and

computational methods.

Progress has been made both in the experimental

measurement of the structure and dynamics of

soft hierarchically constructed systems and in the

computational techniques required to incorporate

that information into useful predictive tools.

OBJECTIVE 2:

Interacting with the Animate

(Alkaisi, D. Williams)

MILESTONE:

• Determination of the roles played

by surface topography and that of

surface chemistry on cell growth and

differentiation.

Cells have been cultured on conventional and

fabricated polymeric cell culture substrates

to investigate the effects of substrate surface

properties on cell differentiation and alignment.

Differences in C2C12 myoblast morphology were

observed between cells cultured on TCPS and PDMS

substrates. Fluorescent immunohistochemistry was

used to analyse the extent of differentiation. Alignment

and guidance of cell growth and spread were studied

using patterned platforms (Figure 3). Gratings were

made on polystyrene and PDMS and differentiation

was facilitated after five days. Fully differentiated

myofibrils were observed in highest numbers on

TCPS substrates and were non-detectable on

PDMS substrates. Muscle cell alignment and their

differentiation followed along the grating patterns on

polystyrene and elongated along the pattern length.

On the other hand, cells formed sheets of tissue and

peeled from the PDMS substrate.

FIGURE 4: Fluorescent microscopy

reveals linear morphology of C2C12

cells grown on polystyrene 5 micron

grating patterns. The morphology of

cells is influenced by the grating pattern

compared to that on flat substrate.


OUTCOME:

Role played by surface topography and that of

surface chemistry identified.

The characteristics of differentiation by the cells

were dependent on the chemical nature of the

polymer that constituted the substrate. The

difference in cell morphology grown on polystyrene

and PDMS may be attributed to the difference in

contact angle of polystyrene, which is close to 60

degrees (hydrophilic), compared to PDMS at 115

degrees (hydrophobic). This work has been reported

in J. Nanobiotechnology 12:60.

OBJECTIVE 3:

Transport in the Nanoworld

(Willmott, D. Williams, Le Ru, Tilley, Hendy, Tallon)

MILESTONES:

• Demonstration of simultaneous

acquisition of resistive pulse data and

spectral information for particles 500 nm

or smaller.

Co-ordination of tunable resistive pulse sensing

with fluorescence detection has been extended by

PhD student Peter Hauer. Simultaneous acquisition

has been achieved for particles as small as 200

nm, with discrimination between particles with

different fluorescence spectra. To achieve this,

the experimental technique has been improved

considerably through rearrangement of the optical

system. The process for co-ordinated measurement

of 1-2 micrometre beads was also reported (Figure 4).

Computational work has probed the fluid dynamics at

the tunable pore entrances, where the particles pass

through the region most sensitive both to the incident

laser, and to resistive pulse sensing. Figure 5: Co-ordination of tunable resistive

pulse sensing with fluorescence detection, from

Biomicrofluidics 9:014110. Left, schematic diagram

showing particles moving through the constriction

of a conical pore at the same time as they move

through the waist of an incident laser beam (blue),

producing a scattered fluorescence signal (green).

Right, the resistive pulse and fluorescence data are

synchronised.


• Development of a capability for

fabricating nanochannels using

nanolithography

Summer student Anton Ivanov was supported to

investigate the possibility of making New Zealand’s

first nanofluidic channels, interfaced to microfluidics,

at the University of Canterbury nanofabrication

facility. Device fabrication using a combination of

lithography and replica-casting in silicone elastomer

was largely successful, and several challenges

were overcome regarding combination of nano- and

microscale patterns on the mold and sealing of the

devices to glass without channel collapse. Flow

resistance of the long PDMS nanochannels (200 nm

wide, > 100 um long, hydrophobic) proved too high

to achieve liquid transport, so further developments

will use shorter channels in PDMS or else more

rigid materials (e.g. silicon or quartz). This work was

presented orally at Canterbury at the conclusion of

the project.

OUTCOME:

Analyses of submicrometre particles in aqueous

suspension with unprecedented detail, by

obtaining full spectra (e.g. fluorescence, Raman)

while simultaneously measuring particle size,

concentration and surface charge.

The co-ordination experiment has achieved the

specified Outcome, and will be pursued towards

applications. More broadly, the expertise we have

developed in making and characterizing small pores

and channels provides an excellent foundation for

our proposed future work in soft nanomechanics.

OBJECTIVE 4:

Nanomaterials for Biological

Applications

(Tilley, D. Williams, Rehm, McGrath,

AI-Melendandri)

MILESTONES:

• Expand our discovery of peptides which

are efficient agents for control of the

formation of metal nanoparticles;

• Demonstrate progress towards a ‘one-

pot’ synthesis of particles that are

specifically functionalised for use both

as imaging probes and as targeted

therapeutic agents in biological systems;

OUTCOME:

Proof of concept demonstration of a ‘one-pot’

synthesis of particles that are specifically

functionalised for use both as imaging probes and as

targeted therapeutic agents in biological systems.


Both of the Milestones and the overall Outcome have

been achieved via proof of concept demonstration

of a ‘one-pot’ synthesis of particles specifically

functionalised for binding to living cells. We

synthesised in one step platinum nanoparticles with

peptide functionalization potentially suitable for use

as bone imaging agents. We also assembled in just 2

steps platinum nanoparticle clusters functionalised

with Con-A, a protein directed at cell surface

receptors, and as a model demonstrated binding to red

blood cells (Figure 5). Elsewhere, we have developed

a strategy to engineer bacteria as cell factories for the

self-assembly of shell-core (protein-polymer) beads

applicable as “Tuberculosis diagnostic reagent”. This

achievement was utilized by PolyBatics Ltd (a wholly

NZ owned biotech start-up) for the development

of a new Tuberculosis skin test reagent, which has

been tested in field trials employing about 50000

cattle. Field data indicate superior specificity and

high sensitivity of the new reagent and have attracted

world-wide interest in this new diagnostic reagent.

The proof-of-concept was published (Applied and

Environmental Microbiology 80:2526) and a patent

application was filed.

FIGURE 6: Light microscopy images of red blood

cells, with agglutination (bottom left) encouraged

using peptide-modified platinum nanoparticles.


BIONANO/NANOBIO AND SOFT MATTER

Outputs

SCIENCE EXCELLENCE

PUBLICATIONS

O.A. Alsager, S. Kumar, G. R. Willmott, K. P. McNatty and J. M. Hodgkiss, Small Molecule Detection in Solution Via the Size Contraction Response of Aptamer Functionalized Nanoparticles, Biosensors

and Bioelectronics, 57, 262-268, (2014)

M. Bart, D. E. Williams, B. Ainslie, I. McKendry, J. Salmond, S. K. Grange, M. Alavi-Shoshtari, D. Steyn and G. S. Henshaw, High Density Ozone Monitoring Using Gas Sensitive Semi-Conductor Sensors in the Lower Fraser Valley, British Columbia, Environmental

Science and Technology, 48(7), 3970-3977, (2014)

M. Dimaki, M. Vergani, A. Heiskanen, D. Kwasny, L. Sasso, M. Carminati, J. A. Gerrard, J. Emneus and W. E. Svendsen, A Compact Microelectrode Array Chip with Multiple Measuring Sites for Electrochemical Applications, Sensors (Switzerland), 14(6), 9505-9521, (2014)

J.A. Eldridge, G. R. Willmott, W. Anderson and R. Vogel, Nanoparticle �-Potential Measurements Using Tunable Resistive Pulse Sensing with Variable Pressure, Journal of Colloid And Interface Science, 429, 45-52, (2014)

W.A. Greenbank, and K. M. McGrath, Photophysical Behaviour of 4-Hexyloxysalicylaldimies and Their Copper(II) Complexes, Journal of Photochemistry and

Photobiology A: Chemistry, 279, 52-58, (2014)

M. Kaur, J. Healy, M. Vasudevamurthy, M. Lassé, L. Puskar, M. J. Tobin, C. Valery, J. A. Gerrard and L. Sasso, Stability and Cytotoxicity of Crystallin Amyloid Nanofibrils, Nanoscale, 6(21), 13169-13178, (2014)

Y. Kim, M. A. K. Williams, J. T. C. Tzen, G. A. Luzio, A. L. Galant and R. G. Cameron, Characterization of Charged Functional Domains Introduced into a Modified Pectic Homogalacturonan by an Acidic Plant Pectin Methylesterase (Ficus Awkeotsang Makino) and Modeling of Enzyme Mode of Action, Food

Hydrocolloids, 39, 319-329, (2014)

M. Ko, B. Ingham, N. Laycock and D. E. Williams, In Situ Synchrotron X-Ray Diffraction Study of the Effect of Microstructure and Boundary Layer Conditions on Co2 Corrosion of Pipeline Steels, Corrosion Science, 90, 192-201, (2014)

Y.F. Lim, R. G. Lentle, P. W. M. Janssen, M. A. K. Williams, C. De Loubens, B. W. Mansel and P. Chambers, Determination of Villous Rigidity in the Distal Ileum of the Possum (Trichosurus Vulpecula), PLoS ONE, 9(6), (2014)

B.F.P. McVey, and R. D. Tilley. “Solution Synthesis, Optical Properties, and Bioimaging Applications of Silicon Nanocrystals, Accounts of Chemical

Research, 47(10), 3045-3051, (2014)

K.M. McGrath, Can you teach innovation and entrepreneurship? A new postgraduate programme, New Zealand Science Review, 71(1), 13-18, (2014)

D. Mercadante, L. D. Melton, G. B. Jameson and M. A. K. Williams, Processive Pectin Methylesterases: The Role of Electrostatic Potential, Breathing Motions and Bond Cleavage in the Rectification of Brownian Motions, PLoS ONE, 9(2), (2014)

N.H. Munro and K.M. McGrath, Advances in Techniques and Technologies for Bone Implants, Bioinspired, Biomimetic Nanobiomaterials, (2014)

A.E. Newton, A. J. Fairbanks, M. Golding, P. Andrewes and J. A. Gerrard, The Influence of Emulsion Structure on the Maillard Reaction of Ghee, Food

Chemistry, 173, 1243-1249, (2014)

S. Papst, M. A. Brimble, R. D. Tilley and D. E. Williams, One-Pot Synthesis of Functionalized Noble Metal Nanoparticles Using a Rationally Designed Phosphopeptide, Particle and Particle Systems

Characterization, (2014)

J. Parcell, N. Aydemir, H. Devaraj, J. Travas-Sejdic, D. E. Williams and K. C. Aw, A Novel Air Flow Sensor from Printed Pedot Micro-Hairs, Smart Materials and

Structures, 22(11), (2014)

Y. Pei, J. Travas-Sejdic and D. E. Williams, Water Structure Change-Induced Expansion and Collapse of Zwitterionic Polymers Surface-Grafted onto Carbon Black, Australian Journal of Chemistry, 67(11), 1706-1709, (2014)


A.J. Phillips, J. Littlejohn, N. A. Yewdall, T. Zhu, C. Valéry, F. G. Pearce, A. K. Mitra, M. Radjainia and J. A. Gerrard, Peroxiredoxin Is a Versatile Self-Assembling Tecton for Protein Nanotechnology, Biomacromolecules, 15(5), 1871-1881, (2014)

P.B. Ratnaweera, D. E. Williams, E. D. de Silva, R. L. C. Wijesundera, D. S. Dalisay and R. J. Andersen, Helvolic Acid, an Antibacterial Nortriterpenoid from a Fungal Endophyte, Xylaria Sp. Of Orchid Anoectochilus Setaceus Endemic to Sri Lanka, Mycology, 5(1), 23-28, (2014)

Raudsepp, A. J. Sutherland-Smith and M. A. K. Williams, Rotating Angled Plate Diffusing Wave Spectroscopy, International Journal of

Nanotechnology, 11(5-8), 573-582, (2014)

J.K. Raynes, J. A. Carver, S. L. Gras and J. A. Gerrard, Protein Nanostructures in Food - Should We Be Worried?, Trends in Food Science and

Technology, (2014)

L. Sasso, S. Suei, L. Domigan, J. Healy, V. Nock, M. A. K. Williams and J. A. Gerrard, Versatile Multi-Functionalization of Protein Nanofibrils for Biosensor Applications, Nanoscale, 6(3), 1629-1634, (2014)

S. Sivasubramaniam, A. Faramus, R. D. Tilley and M. M. Alkaisi, Performance Enhancement in Silicon Solar Cell by Inverted Nanopyramid Texturing and Silicon Quantum Dots Coating, Journal of Renewable

and Sustainable Energy, 6(1), (2014)

J. Travas-Sejdic, N. Aydemir, B. Kannan, D. E. Williams and J. Malmström, Intrinsically Conducting Polymer Nanowires for Biosensing, Journal of

Materials Chemistry B, 2(29), 4593-4609, (2014)

X. Wang, R. D. Tilley and J. J. Watkins, Simple Ligand Exchange Reactions Enabling Excellent Dispersibility and Stability of Magnetic Nanoparticles in Polar Organic, Aromatic, and Protic Solvents, Langmuir, 30(6), 1514-1521, (2014)

D.E. Williams, Closing Remarks: Looking Back and Ahead at ‘Nano’ Electroanalytical Chemistry, Faraday

Discussions, 164, 437-440, (2014)

G.R. Willmott, R. Chaturvedi, S. J. W. Cummins and L. G. Groenewegen, Actuation of Tunable Elastomeric Pores: Resistance Measurements and Finite Element Modelling, Experimental Mechanics, 54(2), 153-163, (2014)

G.R. Willmott, and B. G. Smith, Modelling of Resistive Pulse Sensing: Flexible Methods for Submicron Particles, ANZIAM Journal, (2014)

O. Yuliarti, L. Matia-Merino, K. K. T. Goh, J. Mawson, M. A. K. Williams and C. Brennan, Characterization of Gold Kiwifruit Pectin from Fruit of Different Maturities and Extraction Methods, Food Chemistry, 166, 479-485, (2014)

BOOK CHAPTER

L. Sasso and Gerrard, J.A., Self-assembled Biological Nanofibers for biosensor applications. In Micro and Nanofabrication Using Self-Assembled Biological Nanostructures (Micro and Nano Technologies), Elsevier, Oxford, UK. (2014)


INVITATIONS

KEYNOTE SPEAKER

R.D. Tilley, International Solvothermal and

Hydrothermal Association conference, Bordeaux, October 2014

B.H.A. Rehm, International Symposium on

Biopolymers, Sao Paulo, Brazil, September 2014

PLENARY SPEAKER

G.R. Willmott, Drop Splash Asymmetry and Structural Length Scale, Fluids in New Zealand, Auckland, NZ, 2014

D.E. Williams, Gordon Research Conference on

aqueous corrosion, New Hampshire, 13-18 July 2014

INVITED SPEAKER

M.A.K. Williams, IUPAB Biophysics Conference, Brisbane, Australia, August 2014

J.A. Gerrard, Protein Nanodoughnuts as Building Blocks in Nanotechnology, Lorne Conference on

Protein Structure and Function, February 2014

J.A. Gerrard, Protein Nanotechnology: approaches to generating useful materials using protein tectons, SCANZ Conference, Lamington National Park, Queensland, April 2014


J.A. Gerrard, Contributed talk at Advanced

Nanomaterials, Aveiro, Portugal, July 2014

G.R. Willmott, Bionano Applications for Tunable Resistive Pulse Sensing, NanoBio Australia, University of Queensland. Brisbane, 2014

G.R. Willmott, Tunable Resistive Pulse Sensing for Nanomedical Applications, International NanoMedicine

Conference, Coogee Beach, Sydney, 2014

G.R. Willmott, Pores, Pipes and Particles: A Nanofluidic Toolbox, as part of the Active Matter: Cytoskeleton,

Cells, Tissues and Flocks Program, Kavli Institute for Theoretical Physics, Santa Barbara, 2014

R.D. Tilley, European Materials Research Society

(E-MRS), Lille, France, May 2014

B.H.A. Rehm, Viral Hepatitis, Varadero, Cuba, April 2014

D.E. Williams, PacSurf 2014, American Vacuum Society, Hawaii December 7-11 2014

D.E. Williams, International NanoBio Conference, Brisbane, Queensland, 6-10 July 2014

K.M. McGrath, What is Collaboration?, Science

Communicators Association New Zealand, Palmerston North, March 2014

K.M. McGrath, Using hydrogels to control crystallization: synthesizing next general implant materials, Society of Crystallographers Australia and

New Zealand, Lamington National Park, Queensland, Australia, April 2014

K.M. McGrath, Strategies for mimicking nature: biomineralisation a case study, 2014 International

Conference on BioNano Innovation, Brisbane, Australia, July 2014

AWARDS, MEDALS AND FELLOWSHIPS

M.A.K. Williams, Fellow of New Zealand Institute of Physics

NEW GRANT FUNDS

J.A. Gerrard (PI), Callaghan Innovation, Enzymes in

Wound Healing, $165,000 over 3 years from August 2014, with Leonardo Negron, Callaghan Innovation

J.A. Gerrard (PI), Bioprocessing Resource

Alliance, Nanomaterials from Waste, $32,459, 1 year from March 2015, with Leonardo Negron, Callaghan Innovation

M.A.K. Williams (PI), Fonterra, Real Time

Measurement of Particle-Particle Formation, $212,500, 3 years from January 2015

R.D. Tilley (PI), Marsden Fund, Nanoparticle Nanorod Frameworks, $750,000 from April 2015-2018, with Shane Telfer

B.H.A. Rehm (PI), PolyBatics Ltd, Development, design and manufacture of bionanoparticles. Polybatics Chief Science Advisor, $185,000 for 1 year from 1 January 2014

D.E. Williams (PI), MBIE, High-density distributed networks of air quality measurement instruments, $4,890,324 over 4 years from 1 October 2014, with Dr Jennifer Salmond, Prof Jari Kaipio University of Auckland

D.E. Williams (AI), MBIE, Measuring pH with a RFID chip, $934,911, over 2 years from 1 October 2014, with Prof Penny Brothers (PI); Dr David Ware

D. J. McGillivray (PI), Australian Institute of

Nuclear Science and Engineering, Controlling biomineralisation – post-graduate research award, $58,275, 1 July 2014 – 31 May 2015, with Dr Andrew Nelson; Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation, Australia.

D. J. McGillivray (PI), Australian Institute of

Nuclear Science and Engineering, Protein - Polysacchardie interaction studies – novice user awards, $6000, 1 July 2014 – 31 May 2015, with Dr Andrew Nelson; Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation, Australia.


K.M. McGrath, Australian Synchrotron, Melbourne, Small Angle X-ray Scattering from fibril gels

M.A.K. Williams, Experiments at Australian Synchrotron, Beamtime in February and November

D.E. Williams, ANSTO, Lucas Heights, Neutron reflectivity from biosensor substrates

D.E. Williams, Australian Synchrotron, Melbourne, Small Angle X-ray Scattering from mild steel during carbon dioxide corrosion


D. J. McGillivray, Bragg Institute of the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation, Sydney Australia [8 experiments, 28 days of beamtime]

D. J. McGillivray, Australian Synchrotron, Melbourne, Australia [2 experiments, 4 days]

D. J. McGillivray, Diamond Light Source Synchrotron, Oxfordshire, UK [2 experiments, 6 days]

VISITORS

Prof Jiri Kozelka, Université Paris Descartes, UMR CNRS 8601, Speaking tour in NZ, August 2014 (M.A.K. Williams)

Dr Gillian Collins, University College Cork, Ireland, nanoparticle synthesis 1st August to 15th August (R.D. Tilley)

Prof Jiri Janata, Georgia Tech, collaboration, research seminars, 9-31 December 2014 (D.E. Williams)

Dr Robert Dimeo, Director of the National Institute of Standards and Technology Center for Neutron Research (Washington DC, USA), Research discussions and seminar, 23 March – 27 March 2014 (D. J. McGillivray)

Laura Squarcia, University of Venice, Italy, Research Collaboration, 1 August – 1 November 2014 (D. J. McGillivray)



Brad Mansel, PhD student, Cheiron School, Japan, learn about synchrotron radiation through 20 odd lectures and performing experiments using Spring 8 synchrotron, 23 September – 2 October 2014 (M.A.K. Williams)

Brad Mansel, Neutron scattering school, ANSTO, Sydney, learn about neutron scattering for the structural analysis of soft matter, lectures and small angle neutron scattering measurements using the opal reactor at the Bragg institute, 3-7 November 2014 (M.A.K. Williams)

Brad Mansel, RSNZ funded exchange with Taiwan Synchrotron Facility, learn about small angle x-ray scattering and perform experiments on my gelled biopolymer system, July-September 2014, 74 days (M.A.K. Williams)

Pablo Hernandez, PhD student, CSIRO TEM Tomography Facility, 21-26 March 2014 (M.A.K. Williams)

Lucy Gloag, PhD student, to Ruska electron Microscopy centre in Germany, Electron microscopy of samples, 15 October – 1 November 2014 (R.D. Tilley)

Christina Efthymiou, PhD student, conduct small angle scattering experiments, Australia Synchrotron, Melbourne, Australia, November 2014 (K.M. McGrath)


M.A.K. Williams, Associate Investigator, Riddet Institute

J.A. Gerrard, Principal Investigator, Riddet Institute

J.A. Gerrard, Associate Investigator, Maurice Wilkins Centre

G.R. Willmott, Associate Investigator, MedTech CoRE (successfully funded in 2014)

D.E. Williams, Associate Investigator, Maurice Wilkins Centre

D.E. Williams, Associate Investigator, Centre for Medical Device Technologies

D. J. McGillivray, Co-supervision of PhD student with Prof Laurie Melton (Riddet Institute PI)

K.M. McGrath, Associate Investigator, Riddet Institute

K.M. McGrath, Associate Investigator, MedTech CoRE

NEW COLLABORATIONS

D. J. McGillivray, New collaboration with Dr Nigel Kirby (Australian Synchrotron), and Dr Andrew Jackson (European Spallation Source, Sweden) established developing high pressure apparatus for in

situ SAXS / SANS studies of protein damage


LEADERSHIP

RESEARCH STUDENT TALKS

Eva Weatherall, PhD student, Current Enhancement in Tunable Resistive Pulse Sensing at Low Electrolyte Concentrations” (oral at an international conference/workshop), ANZ Nano and Microfluidics, Hobart, April 2014 (G.R. Willmott)

Eva Weatherall, Tunable Resistive Pulse Sensing (oral), MacDiarmid Institute Students and Postdocs

Symposium, Auckland, November 2014, (G.R. Willmott)

Eva Weatherall, Nanofludics: Tunable Resistive Pulse Sensing (oral), PhD seminar for first-year registration, SCPS at VUW, July 2014. (G.R. Willmott)

Eva Weatherall, Nanofludics: Tunable Resistive Pulse Sensing (oral), Internal talk to Sensing and Automation group at Callaghan Innovation. (G.R. Willmott)

Peter Hauer, PhD student, Co-ordinated Detection of Nanoparticles using Tunable Resistive Pulse Sensing and Fluorescence Spectroscopy (oral at an international conference/workshop), ANZ Nano and

Microfluidics, Hobart, April 2014 (G.R. Willmott)

Peter Hauer, Co-ordinated Detection of Nanoparticles using Tunable Resistive Pulse Sensing and Fluorescence Spectroscopy (oral), internal Theme 2

meeting, Masteron, June 2014 (G.R. Willmott)

Natasha Evans, Postdoctoral Fellow, Our adventures in 3D printing, 2014 Association of Women in Science

conference, Victoria University, Wellington, July 2014 (K.M. McGrath)

Natasha Evans, Design-Led Futures course (DSDN 411), Guest lecture, School of Design, Victoria University of Wellington, August 2014 (K.M. McGrath)

Saeedeh Afsar, PhD student, Carbohydrate vs. Protein Hydrogels as Responsive Scaffolds in Controlling Synthetic Biomineralisation, Euro

Bio-Inspired Materials Conference 2014, Potsdam, Germany, March 2014 (K.M. McGrath)

Saeedeh Afsar, Carbohydrate vs. Protein Hydrogels as Responsive Scaffolds in Controlling Synthetic Biomineralisation, Theme IV meeting, Auckland, September 2014 (K.M. McGrath)

Davoud Zare, PhD student, Novel food emulsions with a hierarchy of interactions: bridging between

microstructure-rheology-stability, 15th Food

Colloids Conference, Karlsruhe, Germany, April 2014 (K.M. McGrath)

Davoud Zare, Novel food emulsions, Riddet

Institute Annual Student Colloquium, Wellington, February 2014 (K.M. McGrath)

Davoud Zare, Food emulsions with hierarchy of interactions, Theme IV meeting, Auckland, September 2014 (K.M. McGrath)

Davoud Zare, Understanding protein food emulsions at multiple length scale, (poster) 9th Annual European Rheology Conference (AERC 2014), Karlsruhe, Germany, April 2014 (K.M. McGrath)

Christina Efthymiou, PhD student, Biopolymer Networks, “Scattering methods

for soft matter” workshop at Deakin University, Geelong, Australia, March 2014 (K.M. McGrath)

Christina Efthymiou, Biopolymer Networks, ANSTO Neutron School 2014, Sydney, Australia, November 2014 (K.M. McGrath)

Mario Alayon, How does sodium caseinate protein conformation control viscoelastic behaviour of concentrated emulsions?, (poster) 2nd International Dairy Federation

symposium on Microstructure and Dairy

Products, Melbourne, Australia, March 2014 (K.M. McGrath)


COMMITTEE, BOARD OR

PANEL MEMBERSHIPS AND

EDITORSHIPS

M.A.K. Williams, IUPAB (International Union of Pure and Applied Biophysics) Council, 2011.

M.A.K. Williams, Editorial Board of Food Hydrocolloids, 2008-

M.A.K. Williams, Editorial Board of Biophysical Reviews, 2011-

J.A. Gerrard, Chair RSNZ Marsden Council

R.D. Tilley, Advisory Board of Nature Publishing Group Asia Materials and the journal ChemPlusChem


B.H.A. Rehm, Editor-in-Chief of Current Proteomics; Editor-in-Chief of Current Bionanotechnology, Editor: Journal of Biomedicine and Biotechnology (USA); Applied Microbiology and Biotechnology; Current Issues in Molecular Biology

B.H.A. Rehm, Editorial Board member (11 Journals): A. Research Journal of Microbiology (USA), B. Applied and Environmental Microbiology (USA), C. Current Proteomics (USA), D. Biotechnology Letters (UK), E. Biotechnology (Asia), F. Journal of Microbiology (Asia), G. The Open Proteomics Journal (USA), H. International Journal of Biotechnology Research; I. World Journal of Biological Chemistry (China); J, International Journal of Proteomics.

B.H.A. Rehm, Member of the International Advisory Committee of the biannual conference “International Symposium of Biological Polymers”

D. J. McGillivray, Commissioner, International Union of Crystallography Small-Angle Scattering Commission

D. J. McGillivray, Member of selection panel for Asia-Oceania Neutron Scattering Association Fellowships

D. J. McGillivray, Chair of Instrument Advisory Team for Kookaburra Ultra-Small Angle Scattering instrument, ANSTO, Australia

D. J. McGillivray, International Scientific Advisory board for Small Angle Scattering Conference, Berlin 2015, and to the Asia-Oceania Conference on Neutron Scattering, Sydney 2015

K.M. McGrath, Science Advisor Te Papa, Natural History Exhibition

K.M. McGrath, Associate Editor Bioinspired, Biomimetic and Nanobiomaterials, ICE Publishers

K.M. McGrath, Reviewer Small Angle Beam Line, Australian Synchrotron, multiple applications

K.M. McGrath, Reviewer Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment, Smart Ideas

K.M. McGrath, Reviewer Australian Research Council

K.M. McGrath, Reviewer Royal Society of New Zealand, International Mobility Fund (USA), multiple applications

K.M. McGrath, Panel Member Rutherford Discovery Awards, Royal Society of New Zealand

INSPIRATION


POLICY

J.A. Gerrard, Director, Plant and Food Research

D.E. Williams, Marsden Fund convenor, Physics Chemistry Biochemistry

D.E. Williams, MBIE Science Board

D. J. McGillivray, Member of the Taki Ao Early-Mid-Career consultant group to the MBIE Science and Innovation section.

K.M. McGrath, Steering Panel, National Science Challenge, Science for technological innovation

MEDIA PUBLICATIONS

J.A. Gerrard, student Amy Yewdall was on National Radio: http://www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/ourchangingworld/audio/20155005/protein-nano-lego

B.H.A. Rehm, Radio NZ interview “Our changing world” entitled “Biobead Vaccines”

K.M. McGrath, Interviewed by Kathryn Ryan, Nine to Noon, Radio NZ, topic: MacDiarmid Institute outreach programmes, 4 February 2014

K.M. McGrath, Profiled in IPENZ magazine “Innovation: changing and improving the world?” April 2014



B.H.A. Rehm, Patent application: Tuberculosis diagnostic reagent, New Zealand, Provisional 620682, 683465, Application filed

B.H.A. Rehm, Bionanoparticles PCT 1, New Zealand, Divisional, 569097, 581345, Registered, Granted, plus 22 other countries

B.H.A. Rehm, Divisional application out of New Zealand patent application 551989


D.E. Williams, Application Serial no. 62/011,491, June 2014. ‘Methods and Apparatus for amplifying nucleic acids’, Nihan Aydemir, Jadranka Travas-Sejdic, David E. Williams et al.

D.E. Williams, United Kingdom patent application 1412968.8, ‘Platinum Nanoparticles Conjugates for Imaging and Therapy’. Stephanie Papst, Richard E. Tilley, Margaret A. Brimble David E. Williams.

START-UP COMPANY

R.D. Tilley, Boutiq, nanoparticle products.



R.D. Tilley, PSAF awarded to Boutiq in December 2014.


M.A.K. Williams, Ongoing PGP Projects with Fonterra

M.A.K. Williams, Subcontract from MBIE Project with Magritek

G.R. Willmott, Izon Science: “Nanopore Development and Application” objective in “Fast Fluidic Microanalysis” MSI NERF programme ($8.625M over 6 years from 2008). Aligned projects include:

- NERF programme contributes to a 1-year Postdoctoral fellowship (Bogomolny)

- two PhD studentships funded by the MacDiarmid Institute (Eldridge, Hauer)

- one PhD studentships funded by a Rutherford Discovery Fellowship (Weatherall)


INTERACTION

M.A.K. Williams, Hosting Masters student supported by LASRA

J.A. Gerrard, Involved in Fonterra PGP programme (grant reported previously, still continuing)

G.R. Willmott, Defence Technology Agency (collaboration with Brent Martin). High-speed photography of interactions between water and icephobic coatings.

B.H.A. Rehm, Chief Science Officer of the start-up company PolyBatics Ltd


Outreach Activities (ALL THEMES)

AMN7

AMN7 Chair

Shane Telfer

Programme

Bill Williams, Volker Nock & Geoff Willmott

Proceedings

Cather Simpson

DISCOVERY AWARDS

Ten students from Auckland to Invercargill attended

a two day introduction at Victoria University of

Wellington, followed by a two-week lab experience at

our partner institutions in January 2014


G.R. Willmott and D.J. McGillivray, co-supervised two

students


Ben Ruck and Nicola Gaston each supervised a

student

Callaghan Innovation

Bob Buckley supervised two students

GNS

Andreas Markwitz supervised one student


Maan Alkaisi and Roger Reeves co-supervised

three students, with activities involving hands on

experiments, fabrication of solar cells, presentations

and laboratory demonstrations and visits.

NANOCAMP

Fifteen students from Auckland to Rangiora

Based at Victoria University of Wellington

Michele Governale, main organiser

Petrik Galvosas

Natalie Plank

Justin Hodgkiss

Franck Natali

Uli Zülicke

Eric Le Ru

Damian Carder

Ben Ruck

Shen Chong

Rob Keyzers

Kate McGrath

with help from David Flynn, James Storey and

MESA members

SCIENCE MASTERCLASS

WELLINGTON

Robert Winston, Imperial College London - Frontiers in fertility - JULY

Steven Chown, Monash University - Invasive species in Antarctica - AUGUST

Marlene Zuk, University of Minnesota - Paleofantasies (Evolution, diet, behaviour) - NOVEMBER

PROFILE 2014 73

AUCKLAND

Bill Denny, University of Auckland - Cancer research advances - JUNE

Heather Hendrickson, Massey University - Antibiotic resistance - JULY

Peter Dearden, University of Otago - Epigenetics - AUGUST

[Cather Simpson, University of Auckland - Light lasers and photonics - session cancelled due to low

numbers] - SEPTEMBER

AUCKLAND - PANEL DISCUSSIONS

Ebola: Contagion, containment and treatment - OCTOBER

Dr Colin McArthur, Intensive care specialist, Auckland DHB

Prof John Crump, McKinlay Professor of Global Health, University of Otago

Dr Fabrice Merien, Senior Lecturer in Immunology, AUT University

Dr David Hayman, Senior Lecturer, Molecular Epidemiology and Public Health Lab (mEpiLab), Massey University

DRONES: PUSHING THE LIMITS -

NOVEMBER

Kelvin Barnsdale, Senior Research Engineer, University of Canterbury

Dr Barbara Bollard-Breen, Senior Lecturer in GIS, Applied Sciences, AUT University

Linda Bulk, Director, Aeronavics

Steve Moore, GM General Aviation, Civil Aviation Authority (CAA)

KŌRERO WITH SCIENTISTS

Discussions held in Auckland, Tauranga,

Wellington and Christchurch with

Alison Downard

Andrea Kolb

Duncan McGillivray

Elf Eldridge

Eric Le Ru

Franck Natali

Geoff Willmott

Jim Metson

Juliet Gerrard

Mike Reid

Rosa Hughes-Currie

Luigi Sasso

Amy Yewdall

Penny Brothers

David Williams

Nina Novikova

Simon Ashforth

Andy Wang

Peter Akers

Rayomand Shahlori

Amy Xu

Mario Kubanik (not MI)

Kelsey Fletcher (primary teacher)

Justin Hodgkiss

Kate McGrath

Natalie Plank

Natasha Evans

Paul Kruger

Simon Granville


OTHER OUTREACH ACTIVITIES

E.C. Le Ru, I was again involved in 2014 in the Science Clinic initiative at Ngaio School (see http://www.ngaio.school.nz/learning-at-ngaio/the-clinic for details). In 2014, I gave about 10 sessions of science (physics) demonstrations to students from year 1 to year 6.

S.G. Telfer, Organised and coordinated crystal growing competition among local high school students as part of the International Year of Crystallography.

M.A.K. Williams, MacDiarmid Institute: Meet our Scientists Video: (http://www.biophysics.ac.nz/videos/)

M.A.K. Williams, Outreach talk ‘Signs of Life’, University of the Third Age, Palmerston North, June 2014.

M.A.K. Williams, Outreach talk ‘Exposed in the Light: Optical Tweezers Shine on DNA’, IFS Biomedical Research Meetings, Massey University, Palmerston North, April 2014.

J.A. Gerrard, Developed strawberry DNA experiment and took part in Christchurch Korero

G.R. Willmott, Hosted MacDiarmid Institute “Industry Tiki Tour”, December 2014, Auckland

B.J. Ruck, Helped coordinate visit of MacDiarmid Institute researchers (mostly students) to local high-tech industries in Lower Hutt (NUENZ and Opus Research) (October 2014).

J.M. Hodgkiss, Gold CREST awards consultant for Onslow College team, 2014-2015.

J.M. Hodgkiss, Pecha Kucha performance, Hannah Playhouse (Wellington), 18 May 2014.

J.H. Johnston, Provided a seminar to MacDiarmid Institute Post Graduate Summer Workshop on “Commercialising Science and Technology”, February 2014.

K.C. Gordon, MESA Photovoltaics Bootcamp, Craigieburn Environmental Education Centre, Craigieburn Forest Park, Canterbury, 6-9 April 2014

M. W. Allen, “UV Dosimetry Laboratory SunSmart Health Education Programmes” in Los Angeles and Southern California Elementary Schools in collaboration with Assoc. Prof. Myles Cockburn, Keck School of Medicine, University of Southern California,

USA. Students carry out their own investigations, with guidance from trained volunteer facilitators, collecting UV exposure data using electronic dosimeters, from their school environment (including direct sun and shaded locations) and comparing the results against their own predictions. Extension activities include investigating the protection provided by hats, sunglasses, and sunscreens. By participating in the “UV Dosimetry Laboratory” students experience a direct encounter with the nature of UV exposure rather than just being taught about it. Overall aims are to help reduce melanoma incidence and to heighten the perceived risk for skin cancer leading to secondary prevention in adulthood. Also represents the coolest MI related thing that I did

in 2014.

S.C. Hendy, More than a dozen talks to government and industry bodies.

M.M. Alkaisi, Delivering four lectures on the development of Photovoltaics at the MacDiarmid Institute MESA Bootcamp, 6 – 8 November 2014.

M.M. Alkaisi, Hosting 96 intermediate school students plus their teacher and a number of parents. The visit include demonstration of processes at the nanofabrication laboratory and giving a presentation introducing Nanotechnology and encouraging discussions about what contribution they wish to see from nanoscales science and technology.

N. Gaston, Why Science is Sexist, School of Psychology Colloquium, University of Auckland, 13 Aug 2014

N. Gaston, Why Science is Sexist, Invited talk for the Physics Department at the UoA, 4 June 2014

http://www.science.auckland.ac.nz/en/for/current-students-4/women-in-science.html#903e782b6188475eb1721c898ac7fb07

K.M. McGrath, “Is Innovation Important?”, Rotary Youth Leadership Awards, Wellington, February 2014

K.M. McGrath, “Soft Nanotechnology – consequences for food, medicine and agriculture”, Royal Society of New Zealand, Speakers Science Forum, NZ Parliament, February 2014

K.M. McGrath, “Feeding the Entrepreneurial Ecosystem: A Serial Entrepreneur’s Viewpoint and Insights from The Victoria University MATE Programme” MBIE Te Pūnaha seminar, April 2014

PROFILE 2014 75

K.M. McGrath, “From soap to bones, molecules to 3D printers, innovation and leadership. One woman’s journey through the New Zealand research sector” 2014 Hudson Lecture, Royal Society of New Zealand Wellington Branch, July 2014

M.C. Simpson, “Light and the 2014 Nobel Prizes in Chemistry and Physics” presentation at Auckland NerdNite, NZ.

M.C. Simpson, “Futures” Keynote lecture and other activities. Evening for younger high school students from the North Island to learn about careers in science, hosted by U. Auckland.

M.C. Simpson, Host, Primary Science Teacher Fellowships (2), The Royal Society of New Zealand.

M.C. Simpson, Invited Seminar, “Achieving Diversity and Success in Science and Engineering Courses” Faculty of Science & Engineering, University of Waikato, NZ

M.C. Simpson, (2014) “Changing the Culture: A first-hand example” New Zealand Science Review

(accepted)

Oosterbeek, R. N., Cochrane, C., James, R., Jackson, S., Simpson, M.C. (2014) “The Nature of Science: Teaching the Next Generation” CiNZ (accepted).

SEMINAR SERIES 2014

6 MARCH Ultrafast Probes of Free Charge Generation in Organic Photovoltaics

Dr Justin Hodgkiss


3 APRIL Amyloid nanofibrils – useful properties for biosensor systems

Dr Luigi Sasso


1 MAY Critical Currents in Superconductors

Dr Nick Long

Robinson Research Institute

5 JUNE The soft x-ray “RIXS map” – arguably the most complete look at the electronic structure of solids, liquids, and gases

Dr Clemens Heske

ANKA Synchrotron Radiation Facility

3 JULY The Secret Life of Inorganic Polymers: More than Just Ecologically-Friendly Cements

Professor Ken MacKenzie


7 AUGUST Intrinsic Electron Quantum Well States in Solids

Professor Kevin Smith

The University of Auckland

4 SEPTEMBER Synthesis and Applications of Nanoparticles

Associate Professor Richard Tilley


2 OCTOBER Percolating Cluster Devices

Professor Simon Brown


4 DECEMBER Nanomaterial field effect transistor biosensors

Dr Natalie Plank




Professor Maan Alkaisi, BSc(Eng)

(Bagh) – MSc(Salf) PhD(Sheff) MISES,

MIEEE

Electrical & Computer Engineering University of Canterbury Private Bag 4800 Christchurch 8140

Phone: 03 364 2867 x7272 E-mail: [email protected]

Dr. Alkaisi is a Principal Investigator of the MacDiarmid

Institute for Advanced Material and Nanotechnology.

He is the founder and coordinator of the MacDiarmid

Institute BioNanoNetwork.

He is Professor in microelectronics at the Department

of Electrical & Computer Engineering, University of

Canterbury, Christchurch, New Zealand.

Alkaisi’s current research interest covers the

following areas: interactions of biological cells with

patterns, physical forces and cancer development

, nanoscale patterning and semiconductor devices,

three dimensional nanoimprint lithography and surface

texturing for solar cells.

He has over 120 refereed articles and holds two patents,

has given a number of invited and plenary talks at

international conferences on nanotechnology.

Research Interests


Objective 1: Sub-wavelength patterning with

evanescent interference lithography and high-power



Objective 2: Interacting with the Animate

Selected Publications

L. M. Murray, V. Nock, J. J. Evans, and M. M. Alkaisi,

Bioimprinted polymer platforms for cell culture using

soft lithography, (2014)Journal of Nanobiotechnology,

12/2014;12(1):289.

Senthuran Sivasubramaniam, Angelique Faramus,

Richard D. Tilley and Maan M. Alkaisi. (2014)

Performance enhancement in silicon solar cell by

inverted nanopyramid texturing and silicon quantum

dots coating. J. Renewable Sustainable Energy 6 http://

dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.4828364.

Senthuran Sivasubramaniam, Maan M Alkaisi, “Inverted

nanopyramid texturing for silicon solar cells using

interference lithography” 2014/5/1, Microelectronic

Engineering, 119, 146-150, (2014).

Mohamed, K. and Alkaisi, M.M. (2013) Investigation of

a nanofabrication process to achieve high aspect-ratio

nanostructures on a quartz substrate. Nanotechnology

24, 015302: 5pp. http://iopscience.iop.org/0957-

4484/24/1/015302.

Johari, S., Nock, V., Alkaisi, M.M. and Wang, W. (2013)

On-chip analysis of C. elegans muscular forces and

locomotion patterns in microstructured environments.

Lab on a Chip 13(9): 1699–1707. http://dx.doi.

org/10.1039/C3LC41403E.

Samsuri F; Alkaisi M. M.; Evans J.J; Chitcholtan,

K; Mitchell, J.S “Detection of changes in cell

membrane structures using the Bioimprint technique

“ MICROELECTRONIC ENGINEERING Volume:

88 Issue: 8 Pages: 1871-1874 DOI: 10.1016/j.

mee.2010.12.069 Published: AUG 2011.

Postdoctoral Fellow

Isha Mutreja

Research Students

Amairaj Peter Amalathas, PhD

Arunava Banerjee, PhD

Hari Murthy, PhD

Senthuran Sivasubramaniam, PhD

Technical & Research Assistants

Helen Devereux

Gary Turner

Pablo Lepe

PROFILE 2014 77

Dr Martin Allen, BSc(Hons)

(Bris.), MSc(Oxon.), DipTchg,

PhD(Canterbury)

Electrical & Computer Engineering University of Canterbury Private Bag 4800 Christchurch 8140

Phone: 03 3642987 Ext. 7036 E-mail: [email protected]

Martin Allen is a senior lecturer in electrical

engineering at the University of Canterbury. He has

a B.Sc. (Hons) degree in Physics from the University

of Bristol, UK, M.Sc. in Plasma Physics from the

University of Oxford, UK, and a Ph.D. in Electrical

Engineering from the University of Canterbury.

His current research interests include the

fundamental properties and commercial device

applications of metal oxide semiconductors,

particularly those that are optically active in the UV

spectrum. Martin also has a Diploma of Teaching

from the Christchurch College of Education and

is involved in international science education

programmes concerning the risks and benefits of

solar UV exposure.

Research Interests


Objective 3: Next generation semiconductor

materials and devices


M.W. Allen, D.Y. Zemlyanov, G.I.N. Waterhouse,

J.B. Metson, T.D. Veal, C.F. McConville and

S.M. Durbin, “Polarity effects in the X-ray

photoemission of ZnO and other wurtzite

semiconductors,” Applied Physics Letters 98,

101906 (2011).

R.J. Mendelsberg, M.W. Allen, S.M. Durbin

and R.J. Reeves, “Photoluminescence and the

exciton-phonon coupling in hydrothermally

grown ZnO”, Physical Review B 83, 205202

(2011).

M.W. Allen and S.M. Durbin, “Role of a universal

branch-point energy at ZnO interfaces”, Phys.

Rev. B 82, 165310 (2010).

M.W. Allen, C.H. Swartz, T.H. Myers, T.D.

Veal, C.F. McConville and S.M. Durbin, “Bulk

transport measurements in ZnO: The effect of

surface electron layers,” Physical Review B 81,

075211 (2010).

M.W. Allen, R.J. Mendlesberg, R.J. Reeves and

S.M. Durbin, “Oxidized noble metal Schottky

contacts to n-type ZnO,” Applied Physics

Letters 94, 103508 (2009).

Post Doctoral Fellow

Giang Thai Dang

Research Students

Alana Hyland, PhD

David Kim, PhD

Robert Heinhold, PhD

Salim Elzwawi, PhD

Max Lynam, PhD

Matthew Whiteside, MSc


Professor Richard Blaikie, BSc(Hons)

PhD(Camb) MIEEEE MInstP

Department of Physics University of Otago PO Box 56 Dunedin 9054

Phone: 03 479 8513 E-mail: [email protected]

Professor Richard Blaikie, former Director of the

MacDiarmid Institute for Advanced Materials and

Nanotechnology, currently holds the role of University

of Otago’s Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Research and

Enterprise).

After graduating with a first class honours degree in

Physics from the University of Otago in 1988, Professor

Blaikie was a Rutherford Memorial Scholar at the

University of Cambridge, where he received his PhD

in Physics in 1992. He also spent a year as a visiting

scientist at the Hitachi Cambridge Laboratory. He

returned to New Zealand to take up a position at the

University of Canterbury in 1993.

Richard was the Deputy Director of the MacDiarmid

Institute from 2002, succeeding Sir Paul Callaghan as

Director in 2008.

Internationally, he is perhaps best known for his

scientific work on the negative refraction of light and its

use in fabricating tiny electrical circuits.

As well as formerly sitting on the Marsden Fund

Council, Professor Blaikie was a foundation member

of the Science Board established by the New Zealand

Government. He was awarded the T K Sidey Medal

by the Royal Society of New Zealand in 2001 and the

Hector Medal in 2013, and was also a Fulbright Fellow

at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 2001.

Professor Blaikie’s role as Deputy Vice-Chancellor also

comes with a Chair in Physics to ensure that he is able

to continue to make strong contributions to MacDiarmid

Institute research programmes.

Research Interests





Objective 3: Next generation semiconductor materials

and devices


Moore, C.P. and Blaikie, R.J. “Robust design of a silver-

dielectric near-field superlens for photolithography” J.

Opt. Soc. Am. B vol 30, no 12, 3272-3277 (2013).

Mehrotra, P., Mack, C.A. and Blaikie, R.J. “A detailed

study of resonance-assisted evanescent interference

lithography to create high aspect ratio, super-resolved

structures”, Opt. Express vol 21 13,710-13,725 (2013).

Moore, C.P. and Blaikie, R.J. “Experimental

characterisation of the transfer function for a Silver-

dielectric superlens” Opt. Express, vol. 20, no 6, 6412-

6420 (2012).

Holzwarth, C.W., Foulkes, J.E. and Blaikie, R.J.

“Increased process latitude in absorbance-modulated

lithography via a plasmonic reflector”, Opt. Express 19,

17790-17798 (2011).

Blaikie R.J. “Comment on ‘Perfect imaging without

negative refraction’”, New J. Phys. 12, 058001 (2010).

Warner M. and Blaikie, R.J. “Two-color nonlinear

absorption of light in dye layers”, Phys. Rev. A 80,

033833 (2009).

Post Doctoral Fellows

Boyang Ding

Sam Lowrey

Research Students

Levi Bourke, PhD

Madhuri Kumari, PhD

Noah Hemsley, PhD

PROFILE 2014 79

Professor Sally Brooker, BSc(Hons) first

Class, PhD, FNZIC, FRSC, FRSNZ

Department of Chemistry University of Otago PO Box 56 Dunedin 9054


Sally did her PhD with Dr Vickie McKee at the University

of Canterbury, New Zealand (Vickie is now a Professor

at Loughborough University), then a postdoc with

Professor George Sheldrick (of SHELX fame) at Göttingen

University in Germany. She then returned to NZ to take

up a lectureship at the University of Otago, the first

position she applied for, where she is now a full professor.

She is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry, Royal

Society of New Zealand and New Zealand Institute

of Chemistry. Recent awards include the 2011 Royal

Society of Chemistry Australasian Lectureship, the 2009

NZIC Maurice Wilkins Centre Prize for Excellence in

Chemical Research and the 2008 Francis Lions Memorial

Lectureship at Sydney University. She loves supervising

her large, multinational, highly productive and high

impact research team (over 160 papers to date, h = 34

Web of Science, PhD 1989), Brookers Bunch.

She and her research group have prepared and

characterised some key dinuclear spin crossover

systems, including the first dicobalt complex to undergo

simultaneous magnetic exchange and spin crossover,

and the first structurally characterised dimetallic

complex in which one metal ion is high spin whilst the

other is low spin. More recently they have reported, in

collaboration with Dr Jeff Tallon (RRI), the first triply

switchable cobalt complex.

In collaboration with Professor Annie Powell (Karlsruhe)

and Dr Rodolphe Clerac (Bordeaux), larger clusters of

metal ions are also being targeted and magnetically

characterised, consistent with another aim, the

preparation of soluble single molecule/chain magnets

(SMMs/SCMs). They recently reported the first SMMs to

be designed and made in NZ.

They are also taking steps towards immobilising

switchable complexes on solid supports.

Research Interests

Molecular Materials

Objective 3: Metallosupramolecular materials


Feltham, H.L.C., Lan, Y., Klöwer, F., Ungur, L., Chibotaru,

L.F., Powell, A.K. and Brooker, S., A non-sandwiched

macrocyclic mono-lanthanide single molecule magnet:

the key role of axiality, Chemistry – A European Journal,

17, 4362–4365, and cover feature (2011). DOI: 10.1002/

chem.201100438. Cited 67 times by Feb 2014.

Feltham, H. L. C., Clérac, R., Powell, A. K. and Brooker,

S., A tetranuclear, macrocyclic 3d-4f complex showing

Single-Molecule Magnet behaviour, Inorganic Chemistry,

50, 4232-4234 (2011). doi.org/10.1021/ic2003639. The

6th most read paper in Inorganic Chemistry between April

and June in 2011. Cited 42 times by Feb 2014.

Cowan, M.G., Olguín, J., Narayanaswamy, S., Tallon, J.L.,

and Brooker, S., Reversible switching of a cobalt complex

by thermal, pressure and electrochemical stimuli: abrupt,

complete, hysteretic spin crossover, Journal of the

American Chemical Society, 134, 2892–2894 (2012), and

front cover feature. DOI: 10.1021/ja208429u. Cited 16

times by Feb 2014.

Olguín, J., Kalisz, M., Clérac, R., and Brooker, S., Di- and

tetra-nuclear copper(II), nickel(II) and cobalt(II) complexes

of four bis-tetradentate triazole-based ligands: synthesis,

structure, and magnetic properties, Inorganic Chemistry,

51, 5058–5069 (2012). DOI: 10.1021/ic202537c. Second

most downloaded paper in this journal in April; the sixth

most read paper in this journal April-June 2012; in top 20

most read papers in this journal in the twelve months to 1

May 2013. Cited 13 times by Feb 2014.

Bilbeisi, R.A., Zarra, S., Feltham, H.L.C., Jameson, G.N.L.,

Clegg, J.K., Brooker, S. and Nitschke, J.R., Guest-binding

influences spin crossover in an Fe4L

4 capsule, Chemistry

A European Journal, 19, 8058–8062 (2013). DOI: 10.1002/

chem.201300805. Cited 3 times by Feb 2014.

Dhers, S., Feltham, H.L.C., Clérac, R. and Brooker, S.

Design of one-dimensional coordination networks from

a macrocyclic {3d-4f} Single-Molecule Magnet precursor

linked by [W(CN)8]3- anions, Inorganic Chemistry, 52,

13685-13691 (2013). doi:10.1021/ic402248y


Humphrey Feltham

Research Students

Sebastien Dhers, PhD

Reece Miller, PhD

Santiago Rodriguez, PhD

Alexis Baltrop, MSc

Michael Bennington, MSc


Professor Simon Brown, BSc(Hons)

Well PhD(Camb)

Department of Physics & Astronomy University of Canterbury Private Bag 4800 Christchurch 8140


Professor Simon Brown is based at the University of

Canterbury. Simon has a B.Sc (Hons) degree from Victoria

University of Wellington and a Ph. D. from the University

of Cambridge, UK. He has been on the faculty of the

Department of Physics and Astronomy at the University

of Canterbury since 1998, and is currently a Professor in

that Department. He was heavily involved in the formation

of the MacDiarmid Institute for Advanced Materials

and Nanotechnology, and is a Principal Investigator and

served as Deputy Director from 2011-2013.

Simon has published more than 100 refereed papers

in a variety of areas of nanotechnology, semiconductor

and solid state physics. His current research interests

focus on properties of devices fabricated from

nanoparticles, as well as scanning probe investigations

of nanoscale systems. Simon was founder of NZ’s first

nanotechnology company, and has an ongoing interest

in the wider ethical, social, environmental and health

impacts of nanotechnology.

Research Interests


Objective 2: Atomic- and molecular-scale self assembly

for future nanodevices


Shawn Fostner, Richard Brown, James Carr, and Simon

A. Brown, ‘Continuum Percolation with Tunneling’, Phys.

Rev. B 89, 075402 (2014).

A. Sattar, S. Fostner, and S. A. Brown, ‘Quantized

conductance and switching in percolating devices’, Phys.

Rev. Lett. 111, 136808 (2013).

P. J. Kowalczyk, O. Mahapatra, S. A. Brown, G. Bian,

X. Wang, and T.-C. Chiang, ‘Electronic Size Effects in

Three-Dimensional Nanostructures’, Nano Letters 13,

43 (2013).

A. I. Ayesh, S. A. Brown, A. Awasthi, S. C. Hendy, P. Y.

Convers, and K. Nichol, ‘The Coefficient of Restitution for

Bouncing Nanoparticles’, Phys. Rev. B. 81, 195422 (2010)

S. A. Brown, ‘The New Deficit Model’, Nature

Nanotechnology 4, 609 (2009).

S. A. Brown and J. Schmelzer, Jr., ‘Nanoscale Electronic

Devices & Fabrication Methods’. US patent US7, 494,

907 B2; granted 24 February 2009.


Shawn Fostner

Research Students

Amol Nande, PhD

Ishan Mahajan, PhD

Rodrigo Martinez Gazoni, PhD

Alex Smith, MSc

PROFILE 2014 81

Professor Alison Downard, BSc(Hons)

PhD Otago

Department of Chemistry University of Canterbury Private Bag 4800 Christchurch 8140


Alison Downard is a Professor of Chemistry at

the University of Canterbury and Deputy Director,

Stakeholder Engagement, of the MacDiarmid Institute.

She gained her PhD at the University of Otago and

undertook postdoctoral research at the University of

Southampton with Prof. Derek Pletcher and at UNC-

Chapel Hill with Prof. T. J. Meyer. She has an Honorary

Doctorate from Université de Rennes 1, France.

Alison has published more than 100 refereed papers on

various aspects of electrochemistry. Her current major

focus is on electrochemistry for surface engineering.

She has undertaken various leadership roles including

Associate Dean of Science, University of Canterbury

(1999-2004) and Head of Department of Chemistry

(2009-2010) and is currently the Chair of the Analytical

Electrochemistry Division of the International Society of

Electrochemistry.

Research Interests

Molecular Materials

Objective 1: Functionalised surfaces

Alison’s research focuses on surface engineering,

giving new properties to a surface while maintaining the

usual properties of the bulk material. For example, a

coating can be applied to improve the biocompatibility,

corrosion resistance or self-cleaning properties of a

material. A surface can also be modified with small

numbers of molecules that act as tethers to anchor

functional species such as biomolecules, inorganic

molecules or nano-objects for the smart materials of

the future. Alison’s group is expert in radical-based

grafting procedures that give nanoscale coatings

that are extremely strongly attached to the surface.

Current research projects include strategies to control

the growth of the layers and applications of surface

functionalization in energy storage and conversion.


Bell, K.J., Brooksby, P.A., Polson, M.I.J., Downard,

A.J. Evidence for Covalent Bonding of Aryl Groups

to MnO2 Nanorods from Diazonium-Based Grafting.

Chem. Commun., 2014, 50, 13687-13690. DOI: 10.1039/

C4CC05606J

Lee, L., Downard, A.J. Preparation of ferrocene-

terminated layers by direct reaction with glassy carbon:

a comparison of methods. J. Solid State Electrochem.,

2014, 18, 3369 -3378. DOI: 10.1007/s10008-014-2615-8

Lee, L., Ma, H., Brooksby, P.A., Brown, S.A., Leroux,

Y.R., Hapiot, P., Downard, A.J. Covalently-Anchored

Carboxyphenyl Monolayer via Aryldiazonium Ion

Grafting: a Well-Defined Reactive Tether Layer for On-

Surface Chemistry. Langmuir, 2014, 30, 7104–7111.

Simons, B.M., Lehr, J., Garrett, D.J., Downard,

A.J. Formation of Thick Aminophenyl Films from

Aminobenzenediazonium Ion in the Absence of a

Reduction Source. Langmuir, 2014, 30, 4989–4996. DOI:

10.1021/la501217n

Ma, H., Lee, L., Brooksby, P.A., Brown, S.A., Fraser,

S.J., Gordon, K.C., Leroux, Y.R., Hapiot, P., Downard,

A.J. Scanning Tunneling and Atomic Force Microscopy

Evidence for Covalent and Non-Covalent Interactions

between Aryl Films and Highly Ordered Pyrolytic

Graphite. J. Phys. Chem. C, 2014, 118, 5820–5826. DOI:

10.1021/jp411826s

Gross, A.J., Nock, V., Polson, M.I.J., Alkaisi, M.M.,

Downard, A.J. Surface Patterning using Two-Phase

Laminar Flow and In-Situ Formation of Aryldiazo-

nium Salts. Angew. Chem. Int. Ed., 2013, 52, 10261-

10264. http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/

anie.201305024/abstract;jsessionid=769C348

C696E6E7E904E6147710ED6D.f02t03


Paula Brooksby

Research Students

Anna Farquhar, PhD

Brad Simons, PhD

Kalib Bell, PhD

Lita Lee, PhD

Ethan Lankshear, MSc

Luke Pearce, MSc


Dr Nicola Gaston, BSc(Hons) Auckland,

PhD Massey

School of Chemical and Physical Sciences Victoria University of Wellington PO Box 600 Wellington 6140


Dr Nicola Gaston is a Senior Lecturer in the School

of Chemical and Physical Sciences at VUW. She was

previously a Principal Research Scientist at IRL, where

she was based since returning to New Zealand in

2007 from the Max Planck Institute for the Physics of

Complex Systems in Dresden. She has previously been

the leader of Theme 2: Electronic and Optical Materials

and a member of the Science Executive.

Research Interests


Objective 1: Understanding structural, electronic and

optical properties of nanoparticles and nanostructures

Nicola is interested in understanding the development

and variation of physical properties in materials as

a function of size, from few atom clusters to large

nanoparticles and the bulk. Her current research is

focused on understanding the relationship between

electronic structure and properties such as catalytic

activity, chemical reactivity, conductivity and

thermodynamic stability, and how this relates to the

underlying structure (size, shape, composition) of

the material. She uses a range of ab initio quantum

mechanical techniques to describe electronic structure

and the way it depends on the chemical and physical

environment.


R. Tonner and N. Gaston. The dimeric nature of bonding

in gallium: from small clusters to the �-gallium phase.

Phys. Chem. Chem. Phys. 16, 24244-24249, (2014).

D. Mollenhauer and N. Gaston. A balanced procedure

for the treatment of cluster ligand interactions on

gold phosphine systems in catalysis. Journal of

Computational Chemistry. 35, 986–997 (2014). Cover

Article

K. G. Steenbergen and N. Gaston. Geometrically

induced melting variation in gallium clusters from first-

principles. Phys. Rev. B Rapid 88, 161402 (2013).

U. Ojha, K. G. Steenbergen, and N. Gaston. How a single

aluminum atom makes a difference to gallium: first-

principles simulations of bimetallic cluster melting.

J.Chem. Phys. 139, 094309 (2013).

K. G. Steenbergen and N. Gaston. First-principles

melting of gallium clusters down to nine atoms:

structural and electronic contributions to melting. Phys.

Chem. Chem. Phys. 15, 15325-15332, (2013). Cover

Article.

D. Schebarchov and N. Gaston. Throwing jellium at

gallium — a systematic superatom analysis of metalloid

gallium clusters. Phys. Chem. Chem. Phys., 13, 21109–

21115, (2011).


Doreen Mollenhauer

Research Students

Julia Schacht, PhD

Udbhav Ojha, PhD

PROFILE 2014 83

Professor Juliet Gerrard, B.A. Hons

(Oxon) First Class Chemistry, with

distinction in Biochemistry M.A. (Oxon)

DPhil (Oxon) Natural Sciences, FRSNZ

School of Biological Sciences and School of Chemical Sciences University of Auckland

Phone: 027 8080746 E-mail: [email protected]

Professor Juliet Gerrard trained at Oxford University,

where she completed an Honours degree in Chemistry

and a DPhil in Biological Chemistry. In 1993, she took a

role as a research scientist at Crop & Food Research and

in 1998 she was appointed as a Lecturer in Biochemistry

at the University of Canterbury in 1998, where she was

Professor and Director of the Biomolecular Interaction

Centre before leaving in 2014 to take up a new position

at the University of Auckland.

She has over 130 publications and holds a Callaghan

Innovation Industry and Outreach Fellowship which is

focused on creating an integrated research programme

across Callaghan Innovation and the University of

Auckland.

Research Interests


Objective 1: Bottom-Up Soft Engineering

Our research is interdisciplinary and highly

collaborative, cutting across biochemistry, chemistry,

health, agricultural and food science and biomaterial

design. It also incorporates a full spectrum of applied

and fundamental research.

At present, the major focus is the understanding of the

quaternary structure of proteins and the implications

that this has for evolution of oligomeric proteins and

higher order protein assembly. This research has

potential application in the design of novel therapeutic

agents (by disrupting quaternary structure) and in the

assembly of novel materials, e.g. from higher order

quaternary complexes or amyloid fibrils.


Kaur, M., Healy, J., Vasudevamurthy, M., Lassé,

M., Puskar, L., Tobin, M. Gerrard, J.A., Sasso, L.

2014: Stability and cytotoxicity of crystallin amyloid

nanofibrils. Nanoscale. 6 (21), 13169-13178.

Phillips, A. J., Littlejohn, J., Yewdall, N. A., Zhu, T., Valéry,

C., Pearce, F. G., Mitra, A.K., Radjainia, M., Gerrard, J.

A. (2014). Peroxiredoxin is a versatile self-assembling

tecton for protein nanotechnology. Biomacromolecules,

15(5), 1871-1881.

Raynes, J. K., Carver, J. A., Gras, S. L., & Gerrard, J.

A. 2014: Protein nanostructures in food – Should we be

worried? Trends in Food Science & Technology, 37(1),

42-50.

Sasso, L. Suei, S., Healy, J. Williams, M.A.K., Gerrard,

J.A. 2014: Versatile dual functionalisation of protein

nanofibrils via biotinylation and thiolation for biosensor

applications. Nanoscale 6: 1629-1634.

Valery, C., Pandey, R., and Gerrard, J.A. (2013). Protein

β-interfaces as a generic source of native peptide

tectons. Chemical Communications, 49(27), 2825-2827.

Domigan, L. J., J. P. Healy, S. J. Meade, R. J. Blaikie,

and J. A. Gerrard. “Controlling the Dimensions of

Amyloid Fibrils: Toward Homogenous Components for

Bionanotechnology.” Biopolymers 97, no. 2 (2012): 123-

133.


Luigi Sasso

Research Students

Akshita Wason, PhD

Amy Phillips, PhD

Amy Yewdall, PhD

Deepti Mahapatra, PhD

Helen Ashmead, PhD

Manmeet Kaur, PhD

Rishi Pandey, PhD

Nadishka Jayawardena, MSc


Professor Keith Gordon, BSc PhD Belf

FRSC CChem, FNZIC, FRSNZ

Department of Chemistry University of Otago PO Box 56 Dunedin 9054


Keith Gordon received his BSc Hons (First Class)

in 1986 and PhD in 1989 in chemistry from Queens

University, Belfast, UK. His PhD research, under the

direction of Professor John J McGarvey, focused on

laser spectroscopy of solar energy compounds. He

was awarded a Director’s Fellowship at Los Alamos

National Laboratories, USA, and worked with Professor

W H Woodruff from 1989 – 1992 on ultrafast laser

spectroscopy of biological systems and solar energy

materials.

In 1993 Keith took up a lecturing post in the Chemistry

Department at the University of Otago, Dunedin,

New Zealand, becoming Professor in 2009 in that

department. Keith was President of the New Zealand

Institute of Chemistry in 2006 and is a founding Principal

Investigator in the MacDiarmid Institute for Advanced

Materials and Nanotechnology.

Keith was President of the New Zealand Institute

of Chemistry in 2006 and is a founding Principal

Investigator in the MacDiarmid Institute for Advanced

Materials and Nanotechnology.

Keith’s research interests focus on the understanding

the properties of conducting polymers, nanostructured

electromaterials, such as found in dye-sensitised

solar cells, dairy products and pharmaceuticals using

spectroscopy and computational chemistry.

Research Interests

Molecular Materials

Objective 2: Identifying the role of delocalization

in primary excitations of conjugated polymers via

spectroscopy and computational chemistry


Long Zhao, Pawel Wagner, Anastasia B. S. Elliott, Tracey

M. Clarke, Keith C. Gordon, Shogo Mori, Attila J. Mozer,

“Enhanced performance of dye-sensitized solar cells

using carbazole-substituted di-chromophoric porphyrin

dyes” Journal of Materials Chemistry A (2014) 2, 16963

– 16977.

Haifeng Ma, Lita Lee, Paula A. Brooksby, Simon A.

Brown, Sara J. Fraser, Keith C. Gordon, Yann R. Leroux,

Philippe Hapiot, Alison J. Downard. Scanning Tunneling

and Atomic Force Microscopy Evidence for Covalent

and Non-Covalent Interactions between Aryl Films

and Highly Ordered Pyrolytic Graphite. Journal of

Physical Chemistry C (2014) 118, 5820 – 5826, dx.doi.

org/10.1021/jp411826s

Kai Chen, Alex J. Barker, Matthew Reish, Lionel

Hirsch, Keith C. Gordon and Justin M. Hodgkiss

“Broadband ultrafast photoluminescence spectroscopy

reveals the role of delocalized primary excitations in

polymer:fullerene photovoltaic blends. Journal of the

American Chemical Association (2013) 135, 18502 –

18512 DOI: 10.1021/ja408235h

Matthew E. Reish, Sanghun Nam, Wonho Lee, Han Young

Woo, Keith C. Gordon. A Spectroscopic and DFT Study of

the Electronic Properties of Carbazole-based D-A type

Copolymers. Journal of Physical Chemistry C (2012)

116, 21255–21266. doi: 10.1021/jp307552z

Matthew E. Reish, Andrew J. Kay, Ayele Teshome, Inge

Asselberghs, Koen Clays, Keith C. Gordon. Testing

Computational Models of Hyperpolarizability in a

Merocyanine Dye Using Spectroscopic and DFT Methods

Journal of Physical Chemistry A (2012) 116, 5453-5463


Mike Fraser

Research Student

Alvie Lo, PhD

Anastasia Elliott, PhD

Chris Larsen, PhD

Daniel Killeen, PhD

Greg Huff, PhD

Holly van der Salm, PhD

May Mah, PhD

Sara Fraser, PhD

PROFILE 2014 85

Associate Prof Michele Governale, MSc

Elec Eng(Hons), PhD (Pisa)



After obtaining his PhD from the University of Pisa in

Italy in 2001, Michele has held postdoctoral positions at

the University of Karsluhe, Scuola Normale Superiore

in Pisa, Ruhr-Unversität Bochum, and Dusiburg-Essen

University. In 2009 he moved to Victoria University of

Wellington in New Zealand, where he is currently based.

His present research focuses on the theory of

quantum transport in nanostructures, spin-dependent

phenomena, and hybrid normal-superconducting

systems.

Research Interests


Objective 4: Theory and modelling of new functionality

at the nanoscale

Theoretical condensed matter physics, theory and

modelling of nanoscale systems, quantum transport

in low-dimensional systems (Nanoelectronics),

spin-dependent phenomena (Spintronics), time-

dependent transport in nanodevices, hybrid normal-

superconducting structures.


L. Rajabi, C. Pöltl, M. Governale, Waiting Time

Distributions for the Transport through a Quantum-

Dot Tunnel Coupled to One Normal and One

Superconducting Lead, Physical Review Letters 111,

067002 (2013)

T. Kernreiter, M. Governale, and U. Zülicke, Carrier-

Density-Controlled Anisotropic Spin Susceptibility

of Two-Dimensional Hole Systems, Physical Review

Letters 110, 026803 (2013)

A. G. Moghaddam, M. Governale, and J. König, Driven

superconducting proximity effect in interacting quantum

dots, Physical Review B 85, 094518 (2012).

F. Giazotto, P. Spathis, S. Roddaro, S. Biswas, F. Taddei,

M. Governale, and L. Sorba, A Josephson Quantum

Electron Pump, Nature Physics 7, 857 (2011).

T. Kernreiter, M Governale, and U. Zülicke, Static

polarisability of two-dimensional hole gases, New

Journal of Physics, 12, 093002 (2010).

F. Cavaliere, M. Governale, and J. König, Non-adiabatic

pumping through interacting quantum dots, Physical

Review Letters 103, 136801 (2009)


Thomas Kernreiter

Christina Pöltl

Research Students

Cameron Dykstra, PhD

Stephanie Droste, PhD

Research Assistant

Finian Gray


Professor Simon Hall, MSc PhD Auck,

FNZIC, CChem, FRSC

Institute of Fundamental Sciences Massey University Private Bag 11 222 Palmerston North 4442


Simon Hall is an electrochemist whose research

focuses on energy storage applications. His research

on a rechargeable zinc electrode with his then PhD

student Michael Liu led to the formation of the spin-out

companies Anzode Inc. (USA) and Anzode (NZ) Ltd in

2003.

Simon took a leave of absence from Massey University

for 4 years to work as the Chief Science Officer for

Anzode. In 2011 he initiated the formation of a further

spin-out company Synthodics Ltd.

Together with Dr Mark Waterland (MacDiarmid AI), Dr

Gareth Rowlands and MacDiarmid Institute-funded

PhD students Kelsey Mortensen and Ryan Ennis he is

working on developing new energy storage materials.

Simon was awarded the NZIC Fonterra Prize for

Excellence in Industrial & Applied Chemistry in 2008

and the Bayer Innovators Award for Research &

Development in 2010. He was elected Fellow of the

Royal Society of Chemistry in 2010. He is Head of the

Institute of Fundamental Sciences at Massey University.

Research Interests

Molecular Materials

Objective 1: Functionalised Surfaces


S.B. Hall, and J. Liu, Compositions, zinc electrodes,

batteries and their methods of manufacture

(composition claims), US Patent, notice of granting

received 1 October 2012, awaiting publication number.

S.B. Hall, and J. Liu, Rechargeable zinc electrode

(method claims), Japanese Patent 4991982, granted 18

May 2012.

S.B. Hall, and J. Liu, Method of making zinc electrode

including a fatty acid, US Patent 7,811,704, granted 12

October 2010.

B.P. Warner, T.M. McCleskey, A.K. Burrell, A. Agrawal

and AS.B. Hall, Radiofrequency attenuator and method,

US Patent 7,615,267, granted 10 November 2009.

S.B. Hall, and J. Liu, Rechargeable zinc electrode

(composition claims), South Korean Patent 925862,

granted 2 November 2009.

Research Students

Kelsey Mortensen, PhD

Ryan Ennis, PhD

PROFILE 2014 87

Professor Shaun Hendy, BSc(Hons)

Massey, PhD Alberta, FRSNZ

Department of Physics University of Auckland Private Bag 92019 Auckland 1142


Shaun Hendy is Director of the Te Pūnaha Matatini,

a Centre of Research Excellence, and a Professor of

Physics at the University of Auckland. Shaun has a PhD

in physics from the University of Alberta in Canada and

a BSc(Hons) in mathematical physics from Massey

University.

He has a wide range of research interests, including

computational physics, nanoscience, complex systems

and innovation.

In 2010, Shaun was awarded the New Zealand

Association of Scientists Research Medal and a Massey

University Distinguished Young Alumni Award. In 2012

he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of New

Zealand for his research on nanotechnology, and in 2013

he was awarded ANZIAM’s E. O. Tuck medal for research

in applied mathematics.

Shaun blogs, writes for Unlimited Magazine and has a

regular slot on Radio New Zealand Nights as physics

correspondent. In 2012, Shaun was awarded the

Callaghan Medal by the Royal Society of New Zealand

and the Prime Minister’s Science Media Communication

Prize for his achievements as a science communicator.

His first book, Get Off the Grass, co-authored with the

late Sir Paul Callaghan, was published in August 2013.

Shaun uses methods from theoretical and

computational physics to study the properties of

materials at the atomic scale. He is interested in

how fluids flow over complex surfaces like those on

leaves or Gore-Tex. He also studies the properties of

nanomaterials like carbon nanotubes and nanoparticles.

Finally, he also uses methods from physics and

mathematics to study how innovation works, particularly

how it can be affected by collaboration and distance.

Research Interests

Nanofabrication and Devices - Theme Leader

Objective 2: Atomic- and molecular-scale self assembly

for future nanodevices


at the nanoscale


Objective 3: Transport in the Nanoworld


D. Schebarchov, B. Lefevre, W. R. C. Somerville and S. C.

Hendy “Filling a nanoporous substrate by dewetting of

thin films”, Nanoscale 5 1949-1954, (2013).

D. R. J. O’Neale, S. C. Hendy, “Power Law Distributions

of Patents as Indicators of Innovation”, PLoS ONE 7(12):

e49501 (2012).

N. Lund, X. Y. Zhang, K. Mahelona and S. C. Hendy,

“Calculation of effective slip on rough chemically

heterogeneous surfaces using a homogenization

approach”, Physical Review E 86, 046303 (2012).

D. Schebarchov, S. C. Hendy, E. Ertekin, and J. C.

Grossman “Modelling the interaction between carbon

nanotube caps and catalyst nanoparticles”, Physical

Review Letters 107, 185503 (2011).

G. R. Willmott, C. Neto and S. C. Hendy, “An experimental

study of microfluidic interactions between droplets and

a nonwetting capillary”, Faraday Discussions 146, 233-

245 (2010).

T. H. Lim, D. McCarthy, S. C. Hendy, S. A. Brown and R. D.

Tilley, “Real-Time TEM and Kinetic Monte Carlo Studies

of the Coalescence of Decahedral Gold Nanoparticles”,

ACS Nano 3, 3809-3913, (2009).

Research Students

Catriona Sissons, PhD

Leila Rajabi, PhD

Nathaniel Lund, PhD


Dr Justin Hodgkiss, BSc Hons (Otago),

PhD (MIT)

School of Chemical & Physical Sciences Victoria University of Wellington PO Box 600 Wellington 6140


Dr Justin Hodgkiss is a senior lecturer in Physical

Chemistry at Victoria University of Wellington and a

Rutherford Discovery Fellow.

Justin completed his BSc (hons) in chemistry at the

University of Otago in 2000, and his Ph.D. as a Fulbright

Scholar at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in

2006. Following his Ph.D., he carried out post-doctoral

research in the Cavendish laboratory at the University of

Cambridge.

Justin’s research program is focused on the

development of molecular electronic materials for

low-cost printable electronics - primarily solar cells.

Recently, he has used laser spectroscopy to develop a

detailed understanding of the physics of photocurrent

generation in polymer solar cells and elucidate

how power conversion efficiencies can be markedly

improved.

A second research focus is on DNA aptasensors.

Through collaboration with biologists, Justin’s group are

creating ultrasensitive and highly specific colorimetric

and electronic sensors for biological targets, including

hormones.

Research Interests

Molecular Materials

Objective 2: Identifying the role of delocalization

in primary excitations of conjugated polymers via

spectroscopy and computational chemistry


Chen, K.; Barker, A. J.; Reish, M. E.; Gordon, K. C.;

Hodgkiss, J. M. “Broadband ultrafast photoluminescence

spectroscopy resolves charge photogeneration

via delocalized hot excitons in polymer:fullerene

photovoltaic blends” J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2013, 135,

18502-18512.

Gallaher, J. K.; Aitken, E. J.; Keyzers, R. A.; Hodgkiss,

J. M., “Controlled aggregation of peptide-substituted

perylene-bisimides”, Chem. Commun., 2012, 48, 7961-

7963.

Hodgkiss, J. M.; Albert-Seifried, S.; Rao, A.; Barker, A.

J.; Campbell, A. R.; Marsh, R. A.; Friend, R. H., “Exciton-

Charge Annihilation in Organic Semiconductor Films”,

Adv. Funct. Mat. 2012, 22, 1567-1577.

Hodgkiss, J. M.; Campbell, A. R.; Marsh, R. A.;

Rao, A.; Albert-Seifried, S.; Friend, R. H. , “Sub-

nanosecond geminate charge recombination in

polymer:polymerphotovoltaic devices”

Phys. Rev. Lett. 2010, 104, 177701.

Marsh, R. A.; Hodgkiss, J. M.; Albert-Seifried, S.; Friend,

R. H., “Effect of Annealing on P3HT:PCBM Charge

Transfer and Nanoscale Morphology Probed by Ultrafast

Spectroscopy”, Nano Lett. 2010, 10, 923-930.

Hodgkiss, J. M.; Tu, G.; Albert-Seifried, S.; Huck, W. T. S.;

Friend, R. H., “Ion-induced Formation of Charge-transfer

States in Conjugated Polyelectrolytes”, J. Am. Chem.

Soc. 2009, 131, 8913-8921.

Research Students

Alex Barker, PhD

Galen Eakins, PhD

Joseph Gallaher, PhD

Justinas Butkus, PhD

Kai Chen, PhD

Lia van der Kerkhof, MSc

Omar Alsager, PhD

Shyamal Prasad, PhD

Research Assistant

Anastasia Elliott

PROFILE 2014 89

Professor Jim Johnston, MSc PhD Well

FNZIC FRSNZ



Professor Jim Johnston has a Personal Chair in

Chemistry in the School of Chemical and Physical

Sciences at Victoria University of Wellington. He is

a Fellow of the Royal Society of New Zealand and a

Fellow of the New Zealand Institute of Chemistry. His

research programmes are positioned at the university-

industry interface and are concerned with the innovative

development of new materials and nanofunctionalised

materials and new chemical process technologies with

commercial potential. They include the use of nanogold

as unique colourfast colourants on NZ wool for high

value fashion apparel, upholstery textiles and rugs for

international luxury markets, and the use of nanosilver

to impart effective antimicrobial properties to wool;

photoluminescent quantum dot composite materials;

nano-structured calcium silicate products and their

industry applications; enhanced energy recovery from

geothermal waters; and the use of wet air oxidation

for treating organic waste streams. This has resulted

in two new start-up companies: Noble Bond Ltd to

commercialize the nanogold “Aulana®” and nanosilver

antimicrobial wool “NgaPure®” technologies and products

internationally; and Wetox Ltd to commercialize the wet

air oxidation technology. Noble Bond Ltd has secured a

cornerstone investment and shareholding from Wools

NZ Ltd and is producing Aulana® rugs for the UK,

European and US luxury markets, and is implementing

the NgaPure® technology with a major UK textile

manufacturer. He has published 141 research papers, 5

book chapters and is the inventor on 15 patents.

Professor Johnston’s successes in the R&D and

application of these innovative science and technology

programmes have been recognised by him being awarded

of the following prizes:

2007 NZ Institute of Chemistry “Industrial Chemistry

Prize”.

2008 Wellingtonian of the Year 2008 (Science and

Technology)

2009 The Bayer Innovation Award (Research and

Development)

2011 Named one of New Zealand’s “40 Farm Thinkers”

2011 Victoria University of Wellington Research

Excellence Award

Research Interests

Molecular Materials



www.noblebond.co.uk, www.aulana.co.uk

James H Johnston and Aaron C Small: Photoactivity

of Nano-structured Calcium Silicate-Titanium Dioxide

Composite Materials. J. Mater. Chem. Vol 21, 1240-1245

(2011)

Kerstin A Burridge, James H. Johnston and Thomas

Borrmann: Silver nanoparticle – Clay Composites. J.

Mater. Chem., 21, 734-742 (2011)

Fern M Kelly and James H Johnston: Colored and

Functional Silver Nanoparticle−Wool Fiber Composites.

ACS Appl. Mater. Interfaces, 3 (4), 1083–1092, (2011)

James H Johnston and Kerstin A Lucas: Nanogold

Synthesis in Wool Fibres: Novel Colourants. Gold

Bulletin, Vol 44(2), 85-89 (2011)

James H Johnston and Thomas Nilsson: Nanogold and

Nanosilver Composites with Lignin-containing Cellulose

Fibres. J. Mater. Science. Vol. 47, Iss. 3, 1103-1112 (2012)

James Johnston and Kerstin Lucas: Aulana and

NgaPure : Novel Nanogold Coloured and Antimicrobial

Nanosilver Woollen Textiles: The Journey of Discovery,

the Nanoscience and Pathway to Commercialisation.

Nanotech 2013, Vol. 1, 510-513, (2013)

Matthias.B.Herzog and James H. Johnston:

Superhydrophobic merino fibres utilising silica

nanospheres. Surface Innovations Vol. 2, Iss. SI2. 127-

134, (2014)

Tate, E.W. and J. H. Johnston. Photocatalytic Silver/

Silver Chloride Polymer Nanocomposites. ICE

Nanomaterials and Energy. http://dx.doi.org/10.1680/

nme.14.00023, (2014).


Mathew Cairns

Research Students

Andrea Kolb, PhD

Eldon Tate, PhD

Joao DaSilva, PhD

Maria Parry, PhD

Matthias Herzog, PhD

Michelle Cook, PhD

Thomas Nilsson, PhD

Emma Wrigglesworth, MSc

Valentine Chan, MSc

Research Assistants

Ahmet Kitap

Sandra Weiss

Georg-Simon Ohm


Dr John Kennedy, BSc, MSc, PhD

National Isotope Centre GNS Science 30 Gracefield Road PO Box 31312 Lower Hutt 5010

Phone: 04 5704771 E-mail: [email protected]

John Kennedy is an ion beam physicist who works on

new materials development and ion beam analysis for

advanced materials, biology, geology and environmental

applications. His main area of research interest is

condensed matter physics with particular focus on

coatings and surface modification. He is currently

investigating metal and metal oxide nanoparticle growth

and their structural, electrical, optical and magnetic

properties. John leads the GNS Science core science

programme of ion beam applications which focuses on

research and development of ion beam technology for

industry and environment sectors.

Metal and metal oxide nanoparticles show unique

electronic, optical and magnetic properties that are

desirable for applications in sensors, optical devices and

the electronics industry. In our group, we are working

to understand the fundamental mechanism of these

nanoparticle growth and their remarkable properties so

that they can be tailored for the specific applications.

Research Interests


Objective 1: Functionalised Surfaces



Kennedy, J..; Williams, G.V.M.; Murmu, P.P.; Ruck, B.J.

2013. Intrinsic magnetic order and inhomogenous

transport in Gd-implanted zinc oxide. Physical Review B,

88(21): 214423.

Bubendorfer, A.J.; Ingham, B.; Kennedy, J.V.; Arnold,

W.M. 2013. Contamination of PDMS microchannels

by lithographic molds. Lab Chip, 13: 4312-4316; doi:

10.1039/c3lc50641j

Kennedy, J.; Leveneur, J.; Williams, G.V.M.;

Mitchell, D.R.G.; Markwitz, A. 2011. Fabrication of

surface magnetic nanoclusters using low energy

ion implantation and electron beam annealing.

Nanotechnology, 22: 115602

Leveneur, J.; Kennedy, J.; Williams, G.V.M.; Metson,

J.; Markwitz, A. 2011. Large room temperature

magnetoresistance in ion beam synthesized surface Fe

nanoclusters on SiO2. Applied physics letters, 98: 053111

Kennedy, J.; Carder, D.A.; Markwitz, A.; Reeves, R.J.

2010. Properties of nitrogen implanted and electron

beam annealed bulk ZnO. Journal of applied physics,

107: paper 103518

Fang, F.; Futter, R.J.; Markwitz, A.; Kennedy, J. 2009.

UV and humidity sensing properties of ZnO nanorods

prepared by the arc discharge method. Nanotechnology,

20(24): Paper 245502


Peter Murmu

Research Students

Pierre Couture, PhD

Tushara Prakash, PhD

PROFILE 2014 91

Professor Paul Kruger, BSc (Hons), PhD

(Monash); MA (Dublin); MRACI, MRSC

Department of Chemistry University of Canterbury Private Bag 4800 Christchurch 8140


Paul undertook his BSc (Hons) and PhD degrees at

Monash University (Melbourne, Australia) under the

direction of Prof Keith S Murray, where his research

was centred on the synthesis of multi-nuclear metal

complexes in the quest to develop species of bio-

mimetic relevance and as novel magnetic materials.

He then spent two years as a Postdoctoral Fellow

at the Queen’s University of Belfast investigating

the structural and functional aspects of metallo-

macrocyclic complexes with Prof Vickie McKee. Paul

was then appointed to a lectureship at the University of

Dublin, Trinity College before moving to the University of

Canterbury in August 2007.

Research Interests

Molecular Materials


Our research interests touch upon all aspects of

Supramolecular Chemistry ranging from organic

synthesis and coordination chemistry, through

materials and structural chemistry, to host-guest and

sensor chemistry. We extend beyond basic synthesis,

and incorporate functionality within the molecules

/ materials we make. In a series of endeavours we

are addressing the following themes: Spin-switching

materials; Anion binding and sensing; Coordination

polymers and metal-organic frameworks (MOFs), and;

Paramagnetic cluster materials.


A. Ferguson, R.W. Staniland, C.M. Fitchett, M.A.

Squire, B.E. Williamson and P.E. Kruger, Variation of

guest selectivity within [Fe4L

4]8+ tetrahedral cages

through subtle modification of the face-capping ligand,

Dalton Trans., 2014, 43: 14550-14553. http://dx.doi.

org/10.1039/c4dt02337d

C.S. Hawes and P.E. Kruger, Discrete and polymeric

Cu(II) complexes featuring substituted indazole ligands:

their synthesis and structural chemistry, Dalton Trans.,

2014, 43: 16450-16458. http://dx.doi.org/10.1039/

c4dt02428a.

A. Ferguson, M.A. Squire, D. Siretanu, D. Mitcov, C.

Mathonière, R. Clérac, and P.E. Kruger, A face-capped

[Fe4L

4]8+ spin crossover tetrahedral cage, Chem.

Comm. 2013, 49: 1597-1599. http://dx.doi.org/10.1039/

c3cc00012e.

M.E. Russell, C.S. Hawes, A. Ferguson, M.I.J. Polson,

N.F. Chilton, B. Moubaraki, K.S. Murray and P.E. Kruger,

Synthesis, structural and magnetic characterisation

of iron(II/III), cobalt(II) and copper(II) cluster

complexes of the polytopic ligand: N-(2-pyridyl)-3-

carboxypropanamide, Dalton Trans., 2013, 42: 13576-

13583. http://dx.doi.org/10.1039/c3dt51301g

O. Kotova, R. Daly, C.M.G. dos Santos, M. Boese, P.E.

Kruger, J.J. Boland and T. Gunnlaugsson, Europium-

directed self-assembly of a luminescent supramolecular

gel from a tripodal terpyridine-based ligand, Angew.

Chem. Int. Ed. 2012, 51(29): 7208-7212. http://dx.doi.

org/10.1002/anie.201201506

C.S. Hawes, R. Babarao, M.R. Hill, K.F. White, B.F.

Abrahams and P.E. Kruger, Hysteretic carbon dioxide

sorption in a novel copper(II)-indazole-carboxylate

porous coordination polymer. Chem. Comm. 2012, 48:

11558-11560. http://dx.doi.org/10.1039/c2cc37453f


Alan Ferguson

Hui Yang

Research Students

David Young, PhD

Rosanna Archer, PhD

Shane Verma, PhD

Rob Staniland, PhD


Professor Eric Le Ru, PhD (Paris)



Eric Le Ru studied physics at Ecole Polytechnique (Paris)

and obtained a PhD in 2002, working at Imperial College

London on semiconductor quantum dots for telecom

applications. After a one-year postdoctoral position at

Imperial College, he moved to New Zealand in 2004 as a

postdoctoral fellow of the MacDiarmid institute, working

with Pablo Etchegoin at Victoria University of Wellington.

He is now an Professor in Physics at Victoria.

His research focuses on various aspects, both

theoretical and experimental, of nano-photonics, with

a particular emphasis on nano-plasmonics; i.e. the

study and applications of the optical properties of sub-

wavelength (i.e. typically less than 100 nm) metallic

objects, and related applications in surface-enhanced

spectroscopies (Raman and fluorescence). This work

has resulted in over 70 publications since 2004 and was

recently complemented by the publication of a book,

co-authored with Pablo Etchegoin, on surface-enhanced

Raman spectroscopy.

Research Interests





B. L. Darby and E. C. Le Ru, Competition between

Molecular Adsorption and Diffusion: Dramatic

Consequences for SERS in Colloidal Solutions, J. Am.

Chem. Soc. 136, 10965-10973 (2014).

W. R. C. Somerville, B. Auguie, and E. C. Le Ru, A new

numerically stable implementation of the T-matrix

method for electromagnetic scattering by spheroidal

particles, J. Quant. Spectrosc. Radiat. Transfer 123, 153-

168 (2013).

E. C. Le Ru and P. G. Etchegoin, Single-Molecule Surface-

Enhanced Raman Spectroscopy, Annu. Rev. Phys. Chem.

(invited) 63, 65-87 (2012).

E. C. Le Ru, Lina Schroeter, and P. G. Etchegoin, Direct

Measurement of Resonance Raman Spectra and Cross

Sections by a Polarization Difference Technique, Anal.

Chem. 84, 5074-5079 (2012).

E. C. Le Ru, J. Grand, I. Sow, W. R. C. Somerville, P. G.

Etchegoin, M. Treguer-Delapierre, G. Charron, N. Felidj,

G. Levi and J. Aubard , A Scheme for Detecting Every

Single Target Molecule with Surface-Enhanced Raman

Spectroscopy, Nano Lett. 11, 5013 (2011).

C. M. Galloway, P. G. Etchegoin and E. C. Le Ru, Ultrafast

nonradiative decay rates on metallic surfaces by

comparing surface-enhanced Raman and fluorescence

signals of single molecules, Phys. Rev. Lett. 103, 063003

(2009).


Stefan Meyer

Research Students

Brendan Darby, PhD

Camille Artur, PhD

Walter Somerville PhD

Research Assistant

Chris Galloway

PROFILE 2014 93

Dr Andreas Markwitz, Phys(Dip) PhD

Frankfurt

GNS Science PO Box 30 368 Lower Hutt 5040


Dr Andreas Markwitz is Principal Scientist and

Department Head at GNS Science. His ongoing

interests in nanotechnology and advanced matererials

are in silicon nanosurface, interfaces and how our

understanding of new materials can be applied to

industrial products.

Andreas has more than 200 publications in the field

and has pioneered electron beam annealing and ion

implantation at GNS under ultrahigh vacuum conditions.

He has developed three ion implanters for implanting

all elements of the periodic table with energies from

100 V to more than 100 kV and developed an electron

beam annealer that can reproducibly manufacture

nanosurfaces on the 1 nm scale.

Andreas’ interest in applying his surface science to

industrial projects has led him to be involved in the

Materials Accelerator at Auckland University and

research with the Titanium Development Association

in Tauranga.

Research Interests



and devices


A. Markwitz, F. Fang, H. Baumann and Peter B. Johnson,

“Diffusion of Pb in (100) Si under electron beam

annealing following dual ion implantations of Pb/Ne,

Pb/O and Pb/N“, Vacuum 84 (2010) 1103-1110

F. Fang, J. Kennedy, J. Futter, D. Carder and A. Markwitz,

“Modulation of field emission properties of ZnO

nanorods during arc discharge” Journal of Nanoscience

and Nanotechnology 10 (2010) 8239-8243

A. Markwitz, K. Kant, D. Carder and P. B. Johnson, “Low-

energy Fe+ ion implantation into silicon nanostructures”,

AIP Proceedings Series 1151 (2009) 149

F. Fang and A. Markwitz, “Onset temperature for

Si nanostructure growth on Si substrate during

high vacuum electron beam annealing”, Journal of

Nanoscience and Nanotechnology 9 (2009) 2950-2955

F. Fang and A. Markwitz, “Controlled fabrication of

Si nanostructure by high vacuum electron beam

annealing”, Physica E: Low-dimensional Systems and

Nanostructures 41 (2009) 1853-1858

D. Carder and A. Markwitz, “Field emission measured

from nanostructured germanium and silicon thin films”,

Applied Surface Science 256 (2009) 1003–1005

Research Student

Prasanth Gupta, PhD

Technical Assistant

John Futter

Research Assistants

Peter Johnson

Vivian Fang


Dr Duncan McGillivray, BA/BSc (Auck),

BSc (Hons) (ANU), DPhil (Oxf)

School of Chemical Sciences University of Auckland Private Bag 92019 Auckland Mail Centre Auckland 1142


Duncan McGillivray is a Senior Lecturer at the University

of Auckland who trained in neutron and X-ray scattering

in the UK and USA, before returning to set-up a research

group in New Zealand. His undergraduate was at the

University of Auckland and the Australian National

University, and he completed his doctorate at Oxford

University looking at surfactant structures using

neutrons. Later he served a post-doctoral fellowship at

Johns Hopkins and Carnegie Mellon Universities, jointly

with the NIST Center for Neutron Research, developing a

biomimetic membrane system and investigating protein-

membrane interactions.

Duncan’s current research is focussed on understanding

the physical bases of biological interactions at surfaces,

particularly through investigating the structure of

complex non-crystalline protein systems (including

membrane proteins and protein colloids), primarily

making use of the Australian Synchrotron and the OPAL

Research Reactor in Sydney.

Research Interests



Objective 5: Nanomaterials for Biological Applications


Kjällman, T. H. M.; Nelson, A.; James, M.; Dura, J.

A.; Travas-Sejdic, J.; McGillivray, D. J.; “A neutron

reflectivity study of the interfacial and thermal

behaviour of surface-attached hairpin DNA”; Soft Matter,

2011, DOI: 10.1039/c0sm01284j

McGillivray, D. J.; Jackson, A. J.; “Protein aggregate

structure under high pressure”; Chem. Commun., 2011,

47, 487

**Reynolds, P. A.; McGillivray, D. J.; Jackson, A. J.;

White, J. W.; “Ultra-small-angle neutron scattering: A

tool to study packing of relatively monodisperse polymer

spheres and their binary mixtures” Phys. Rev. E, 2009,

80, 011301

Holt, S. A.; Le Brun, A. P.; Majkrzak, C. F.; McGillivray, D.

J.; Heinrich, F.; Lösche, M.; Lakey, J. H.; “An ion channel

containing model membrane: structural determination

by magnetic contrast neutron reflection” Soft Matter,

2009, 5, 2576

McGillivray, D. J.; Valincius, G.; Heinrich, F.; Robertson,

J. W. F.; Vanderah, D. J.; Febo-Ayala, W.; Ignatjev, I.;

Lösche, M.; Kasianowicz, J. J.; “Structure of functional

Staphylococcus aureus-hemolysin channels in tethered

bilayer lipid membranes” Biophysical J., 2009, 96, 1547

McGillivray, D. J.; Mata, J. P.; Zank, J; White, J. W.;

“Nano- and Microstructure of the Interfaces between Air,

Oil and Water” Langmuir, 2009, 25, 4065


Gloria Xun

Research Students

Amy Xu, PhD

Peter Akers, PhD

Rayomand Shahlori, PhD

PROFILE 2014 95

Professor Kathryn McGrath, BSc(Hons)

PhD ANU



Kate completed her BSc(Hons) degree in Chemistry

at the University of Canterbury, before moving to The

Australian National University (Department of Applied

Mathematics), Canberra, Australia where she obtained

her PhD investigating surfactant self-assembly. After

finishing her PhD Kate took up a post-doctoral position

in Paris at L’Université de Pierre et Marie Curie – Paris

VI (Laboratoire de Mineralogie et Cristallographie), with

Maurice Kléman. During her second post-doctoral

fellowship, Kate worked with Sol Gruner in the Physics

Department at Princeton University, Princeton. Kate’s

first lecturing position was in the Department of

Chemistry, University of Otago, where she stayed for

six years. During this time Kate completed a PGDipCom

in Finance. In 2004 she moved to Victoria University of

Wellington. In 2011 Kate was promoted to Professor

and became the Director of the MacDiarmid Institute

in the same year. Kate’s research has been recognised

by the New Zealand Institute of Chemistry (2003

Easterfield Medal) and the New Zealand Association of

Scientists (2007 Research Medal). In 2013 Kate was

awarded the Wellington Gold Inspire Wellington Award.

Kate is currently Chair of the association of Centres of

Research Excellence.

Research Interests




Molecular Self-assembly, Complex Fluids and

Hierarchical Solid Formation.

Many materials consist of molecules interacting

with each other via weak interactions only and are

often formed by a process called self-assembly.

Furthermore, depending on what length scale or

time scale is investigated different effects and/or

structure is evident. These materials are examples of

hierarchical materials, our bones, cellular membranes

and emulsions are examples or such materials. In our

group we are working to understand the fundamental

behaviour of such materials so that we are able to make

new materials with advanced physical, chemical and

mechanical characteristics.


Malassagne-Bulgarelli, N. and McGrath, K.M., Emulsion

ageing: effect on the dynamics of oil exchange in oil-in-

water emulsions, Soft Matter, 9:48-59 (2013)

A. Fournier, and K.M. McGrath, Porous protein/silica

composite formation: manipulation of silicate porosity

and protein conformation, Soft Matter, 7(10) 4918-4297

(2011), DOI: 10.1039/c1sm05299c

Greenbank, W.A. and McGrath, K.M.*Photophysical

behaviour of 4 hexyloxysalicylaldimies and their

copper(II) complexes, Journal of Photochemistry &

Photobiology, A: Chemistry, available online: 5-FEB-

2014, DOI: 10.1016/j.jphotochem.2014.01.012

Munro, N.H., Green D.W. and McGrath, K.M., In situ

continuous growth formation of synthetic biominerals,

Chemical Communications, 49:3407-3409 (2013) DOI:

10.1039/c3cc39025j

Tan, H.L. and McGrath, K.M., How does oil type

set emulsion characteristics in concentrated Na-

caseinate emulsions? Journal of Colloid and Interface

Science, 403:7-15 (2013) http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.

jcis.2013.03.026

Munro, N.H., Green, D.W., Dangerfield, A and McGrath,

K.M., Biomimetic mineralisation of polymeric scaffolds

using a combined soaking and Kitano approach, Dalton

Transactions, 40(36): 9259-9268 (2011) DOI: 10.1039/

c1dt11056j

Lendrum, C.D., Ingham, B. Lin, B., Meron, M.,

Toney, M.F. and McGrath, K.M., Non-equilibrium

2-hydroxyoctadecanoic acid monolayers: Effect of

electrolytes, Langmuir, 27(8):4430-4438 (2011)

DOI: 10.1021/la104938f


Natasha Evans

Research Students

Christina Efthymiou, PhD

Davoud Zare, PhD

Graham Fairweather, PhD

Mario Alayon, PhD

Marjorie Griffiths, PhD

Mehrdad Ghahrae, PhD

Mima Kurian, PhD

Nurul Che Zaudin, PhD

Riyad Mucadam, PhD

Saeedeh Afsar, PhD


Dr Natalie Plank, BSc (Hons), MSc, PhD

(Edinburgh)



Dr Natalie Plank is a Lecturer in Physics in the School of

Chemical and Physical Sciences at Victoria University

of Wellington. Natalie completed a BSc (Hons) in

Astrophysics at The University of Edinburgh before

doing an MSc in Microelectronics. She then completed

her PhD on the functionalisation of carbon nanotubes for

molecular electronics with Rebecca Cheung also at The

University of Edinburgh.

After arriving in New Zealand she has been a Foundation

for Science Research and Technology (FRST)

postdoctoral fellow and has established the cleanroom

fabrication facility at Victoria. Since becoming a

MacDiarmid Institute she has been actively involved in

the role of emerging scientists in New Zealand and was

the founder and inaugural chair of MESA.

Natalie’s research interests are in the area of

nanomaterial device fabrication and the characterisation

of novel materials. Her current work focuses

on nanomaterial device platforms for sensing

technology. She is interested in carbon nanotubes and

ZnO nanowires for nanowire transistor applications and

in particular the ability to functionalise the nanomaterial

channels with specific biomarkers. Natalie’s core

interests are in low cost fabrication techniques which

allow for high throughput of devices whilst maintaining

the particular material properties of the unique

nanowire system. This has been particularly important

for device fabrication for both carbon nanotubes and

ZnO nanowire transistors, where flexible electronics

have huge potential. See the full publications list for

more details.

Research Interests



and devices


Conor P. Burke-Govey and Natalie O V Plank, Review of

hydrothermal ZnO nanowires: Toward FET applications,

Journal of Vacuum Science and Technology B, 31,

06F101 (2013)

N.O.V. Plank, H Y Zheng, Satya Agarwal, Dayna Kivell,

Gideon Gouws and Jadranka Travas-Sejdic, Facile

synthesis of Poly(methylsilsesquioxane) and MgO

nanoparticle composite dielectrics, Journal of Materials

Research, In Press 28 (2013).

N.O.V. Plank, F. Natali, J. Galipaud, J.H. Richter, M.

Simpson, H.J. Trodahl and B.J. Ruck, Enhanced Curie

temperature in N-deficient GdN, Applied Physics Letters

98, 112503 (2011)

N.O.V. Plank, I. Howard, A. Rao, M.W.B. Wilson, C.

Ducati, R.S. Mane, J.S. Bendall, R.R.M. Louca, N.C.

Greenham, H. Miura, R.H. Friend, H.J. Snaith and

M.E. Welland, Efficient ZnO nanowire solid-state dye-

sensitized solar cells using organic dyes and core-shell

nanostructures, Journal of Physical Chemistry C 113,

18515 (2009) DOI: 10.1021/jp904919r

Research Students

Hanyue (Hannah) Zheng, PhD

Conor Burke-Govey, PhD

Cameron Wood, MSc

PROFILE 2014 97

Professor Roger Reeves, BSc(Hons) PhD

Cant

Department of Physics & Astronomy University of Canterbury Private Bag 4800 Christchurch 8140


Roger Reeves is a Professor of Physics and currently

Head of Department at the University of Canterbury.

In general terms, his research interests concern the

optical properties of materials. Investigations have

covered solid state laser development, the nonlinear

optical properties of photorefractive crystals and the

spectroscopy of new semiconductors and fabricated

nanostructures. A distinctive characteristic of these

studies has been the extensive use of student input in

research projects that develop their education

They have developed an extremely sensitive

spectroscopic technique called Combined Excitation-

Emission Spectroscopy (CEES) that has dramatically

shortened the time needed to fully explore both the

emission and laser-excitation spectra of atoms. CEES

of rare-earth ions have been used for the first time

to probe the optical properties of superlattices of

insulating materials. The sensitivity of their technique

has allowed atomic monolayer resolution to be realised

in a spectroscopic experiment.

They have made significant progress in the

understanding of the optical properties of two very

important semiconductors. Their photoluminescence

(PL) studies have been able to identify a low energy

feature in Mg-doped InN that correlates to the

onset of p-type conductivity. This discovery will

significantly contribute to the large indium-gallium-

nitride optoelectronics industry. At the other end

of the spectrum their rigorous studies of ZnO have

revealed subtle differences in the PL spectra from the

two polar faces.

Research Interests




Objective 2: Optoelectronic properties of nanoscale and

advanced materials


R. Heinhold, H.S. Kim, F. Schmidt, H. von Wenckstern,

M. Grundmann, R.J. Mendelsberg, R.J. Reeves, S.M.

Durbin, M.W. Allen, Optical and defect properties of

hydrothermal ZnO with low lithium contamination,

Applied Physics Letters, 101, 062105 DOI:

10.1063/1.4739515 (2012)

M.F. Reid, P.S. Senanayake, J.P.R. Wells, G. Berden, A.

Meijerink, A.J. Salkeld, C.K. Duan, R.J. Reeves, Transient

photoluminescence enhancement as a probe of the

structure of impurity-trapped excitons in CaF2:Yb2+,

PHYSICAL REVIEW B, 84, 113110, DOI: 10.1103/

PhysRevB.84.113110 (2011)

R.J. Mendelsberg, M.W. Allen, S.M. Durbin, R.J. Reeves,

Photoluminescence and the exciton-phonon coupling

in hydrothermally grown ZnO, Physical Review B, 83

205202. (2011)

S.V. Gastev,J.K.Choi, R.J. Reeves, Laser spectroscopy of

Eu3+ cubic centers in the CaF2 bulk single crystal, Physics

of the Solid State 51 44-49.(2009)

Research Students

Adam Hyndman, PhD

Alex Neiman, PhD

Chrissy Emeny, MSc

Mohammad Zeidan, PhD

Research Assistant

Ian Farrell


Professor Bernd Rehm

Institute of Molecular Biosciences Massey University Private Bag 11 222 Palmerston North

Phone: 06 350 5515 extn 7890 E-mail: [email protected]

Bernd Rehm received his MSc (1991), PhD (1993),

Postdoctoral Associate (1994) from Ruhr-University

of Bochum, Germany; DFG Postdoctoral and Research

Grant Fellow (1994-96) from University of British

Columbia, Canada; Habilitation in Microbiology (1996-

2001), Research Group Leader (2001-2003) University

of Münster, Germany; Associate Professor (2004-2005)

Massey University, New Zealand

Research Interests

Nanobio/Bionano and Soft Matter



Bernd’s research focuses on microbial biosynthesis of

polymers and biosurfactants as well as on the self-

organisation of biological nanostructures produced

by microorganisms. The biosynthesis of alginates,

polyhydroxyalkanoates (bioplastics, biopolyester) and

rhamnolipids and the formation of intracellular polymer

and protein self-assemblies are investigated. These

studies involve synthetic biology approaches and the

application of a broad spectrum of imaging techniques

as well as a variety of analytical methods.


Whitney, J., Hay, I.D., Li, C., Eckford, P., Robinson,

H., Amaya, M., Wood, L., Ohman, D., Bear, C., Rehm,

B.H.A., Howell, P.L. (2011) Structural basis for alginate

secretion across the bacterial outer membrane. Proc.

Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 108(32):13083-8.

Parlane, N.A. , Grage, K., Lee, J.W., Buddle, B.M., Rehm,

B.H.A. (2011) Production of a particulate Hepatitis C

vaccine candidate by engineered Lactococcus lactis.

Appl. Environ. Microbiol. 77(24):8516-22.

Rehm, B.H.A. (2010) Bacterial polymers: Biosynthesis,

modifications and applications. Nature Rev. Microbiol.

8:578-592.

Grage, K., Jahns, A. C., Parlane, N., Palanisamy, R.,

Rasiah, I. A., Atwood, J.A., Rehm B.H.A. (2009)

Polyhydroxyalkanoate granules: Biogenesis,

structure and potential use as micro-/nano-beads

in biotechnological and biomedical applications.

Biomacromolecules, 10:660-669.

Research Students

David Hooks, PhD

Fata Moradali, PhD

Jason Lee, PhD

Jinping Du, PhD

Majela Gonzalez Miro, PhD

Patricia Rubio Reyes

Shirin Ghods, PhD

Shuxiong Chen, PhD

Yacie Wang, PhD

Panan Sitthirit, MSc

PROFILE 2014 99

Dr Ben Ruck, BSc (Hons), PhD Well



Ben completed a PhD at Victoria University of

Wellington before undertaking postdoctoral work at in

the Molecular Beam Epitaxy Laboratory of Professor

Tom Tiedje at the University of British Columbia. He

returned to New Zealand on a FRST Postdoctoral

Fellowship working with Professor Joe Trodahl before

taking a position on the academic staff at Victoria

University in 2003.

Ben’s area of research interest is experimental

condensed matter physics, with a particular focus on

growing thin films of novel materials and determining

their atomic structure and electronic properties. This

work involves collaboration with numerous students,

postdocs, and academics at VUW and the MacDiarmid

Institute, and at other institutions in New Zealand and

around the world. Current research projects include

investigating the electronic and magnetic properties

of rare-earth nitrides, including their potential use in

spintronics, and investigating the electronic structure of

transition metal nitrides.

Research Interests



advanced materials

Objective 3: Superconducting and spin-dependent

properties of novel materials


Do Le Binh, B.J. Ruck, F. Natali, H. Warring, H.J. Trodahl,

E.-M. Anton, C. Meyer, L. Ranno, F. Wilhelm, and A.

Rogalev, Europium nitride: A novel diluted magnetic

semiconductor, Phys. Rev. Lett. 111, 167206 (2013)

F. Natali, B. J. Ruck, N. O. V. Plank, and H. J. Trodahl, S.

Granville, C. Meyer, Walter R. L. Lambrecht, Rare-earth

mononitrides, Prog. Mats. Sci. 58, 1316 (2013)

H. Warring, B.J. Ruck, H.J. Trodahl, and F. Natali,

Electric field and photo-excited control of the carrier

concentration in GdN, Appl. Phys. Lett. 102, 132409

(2013)

F. Natali, B.J. Ruck, H. J. Trodahl, Do Le Binh, S. Vezian,

B. Damilano, Y. Cordier, F. Semond, and C. Meyer, Role of

magnetic polarons in ferromagnetic GdN, Phys. Rev. B

87, 035202 (2013)

J.H. Richter, B.J. Ruck, M. Simpson, F. Natali, N.O.V.

Plank, M. Azeem, H.J. Trodahl, A.R.H. Preston, B. Chen,

J. McNulty, K.E. Smith, A. Tadich, B. Cowie, A. Svane,

M. van Schilfgaarde, and W.R.L. Lambrecht, Electronic

structure of EuN: growth, spectroscopy, and theory,

Phys. Rev. B 84, 235120 (2011)

N.O.V. Plank, F. Natali, J. Galipaud, J. H. Richter, M.

Simpson, H. J. Trodahl, and B. J. Ruck, Enhanced Curie

temperature in N-deficient GdN, Appl. Phys. Lett. 98,

112503 (2011)


Eva Anton

Research Students

Harry Warring, PhD

James McNulty, PhD

Jibu Stephen, PhD

Luis Figueras, PhD

Tanmay Maity, PhD

Thomas Minnee, PhD


Associate Professor Cather Simpson,

B.A. (University of Virginia), PhD

(University of New Mexico School of

Medicine)

University of Auckland School of Chemical Sciences and Department of Physics Private Bag 92019 Auckland 1142


Dr. Cather Simpson earned a B.A. in Interdisciplinary

Studies - Echols at the University of Virginia, and a

Ph.D. in Medical Sciences at the University of New

Mexico School of Medicine as a Howard Hughes

Predoctoral Fellow. During her Ph.D. studies, she

became increasingly interested in understanding and

exploiting the fundamental interactions of light with

molecules. After a Department of Energy Distinguished

Postdoctoral Fellowship at Sandia National Laboratories

in Albuquerque, she joined Case Western Reserve

University in 1997 to pursue this research. In the

Chemistry Department at CWRU, she earned tenure, was

promoted to Associate Professor and started the Center

for Chemical Dynamics. Along with her laser research,

she fostered innovation in undergraduate teaching,

women in science, and ethics in education and research.

In 2007, Dr. Simpson joined The University of Auckland

where she soon took on a new challenge - to establish

and direct the new multi-user Photon Factory. The

core mission of the Photon Factory is to bring the rich

versatility of high-tech, short laser pulses to NZ academic

and industry innovators. The facility has grown rapidly

since it opened in 2010 - we now have about thirty

students and staff who work on dozens of academic and

commercial projects. These range from evaluating the

photobehaviour of improved solar energy harvesting

molecules to fabricating photomasks for microfluidic

chip production and improving the efficiency of ultrafast

laser micromachining. The Photon Factory’s first spin-off

company, Engender Technologies, is commercializing

research to make a novel sperm sorting chip for the

agriculture sector. Dr. Simpson’s own research interests

lie with the fundamental photoinduced dynamics of

molecules in the condensed phase, and with the detailed

interaction of ultrashort pulsed lasers with materials.

Research Interests






Hertel, S.A., Wang, X., Hosking, P., Simpson, M.C., Hunter,

M., Galvosas, P. (2015) “Magnetic Resonance Pore Imaging

of Microscopic Non-Symmetric Pore Shapes” Phys. Rev. E.

Yang, Xiaojie; Lorenser, Dirk; McLaughlin, Robert A.;

Kirk, Rodney W.; Edmond, Matthew; Simpson, M. Cather;

Grounds, Miranda D.; Sampson, David D. (2014) “Imaging

deep skeletal muscle structure using a high-sensitivity

ultrathin side-viewing optical coherence tomography

needle probe” Biomedical Optics Express. 5(1):136-48.

Rohde, C. A.; Ware, H.; MacMillan, F.; Malkhaz, M.; Simpson,

M. C. (2013) “Selective Gold Film Removal from Multilayer

Substrates with Nanosecond UV Pulsed Laser Ablation”

App. Phys. A. 111(2): 531-537.

Simpson, M.C.; Protasiewicz, J.D. (2013) “Phosphorus

as a Carbon Copy and as a Photocopy: New Conjugated

Materials Featuring Multiple Bonded Phosphorus” Pure

Appl. Chem.85:801-815.

Raos, B.J.; Unsworth, C.P.; Costa, J.L.; Rohde, C.A.; Bunting,

A.S.; Devilopolous, E.; Murray, A.F.; Dickinson, M.D.;

Simpson, M.C.; Graham, E.S. (2013) “Infrared Laser Ablative

Micromachining of Parylene-C on SiO2 Substrates for Rapid

Prototyping, High Yield, Human Neuronal Cell Patterning”

Biofabrication, 5:025006.

Kho, Julie L.H.; Rohde, Charles A.; Vanholsbeeck,

Frédérique; Simpson, M. Cather (2013) “High energy,

low repetition rate, photonic crystal fiber generated

supercontinuum for nanosecond to millisecond transient

absorption spectroscopy” Optics Communications

294:250-254.

PROFILE 2014 101


Bryon Wright

Graham Brodie

Michel Nieuwoudt

Maran Muthiah

Research Students

Dijana Bogunovic, PhD

Julie Kho, PhD

Matheus Vargas, PhD

Nina Novikova, PhD

Sarah Thompson, PhD

Simon Ashforth, PhD

Xindi Wang, PhD

Jake Martin, MSc

Research Engineers

Peter Hosking

Reece Oosterbeek

Owen Bodley

Fraser MacMillan

Hayley Ware

Research Assistants

Tristan Ware

Tom Ford

Yonje Kwan

David Han

Rebecca Ma

Nico Lumangas

Tyla Sterrs

Yael Ben-Tal

Gloria Hou

Tulele Masoe

Maggie Au

Antoine Runge


Professor Jeff Tallon, BSc(Hons) PhD

DSc FRSNZ, HonFIPENZ, CNZM

Robinson Research Institute Victoria University of Wellington PO Box 600 Wellington 6140


Professor Jeff Tallon is Professor of Physics at Robinson

Research Institute, Victoria University of Wellington.

He is internationally known for his research and

discoveries in high-Tc superconductors (HTS), which are

currently being developed for applications across all

sectors – health, transport, energy, mining and minerals

processing, and the research sector. His research

includes the physics and materials science of HTS –

thermodynamics, magnetism, electronic transport

properties, novel materials, and flux pinning. Jeff’s

other research interests include nanotechnology, hybrid

organic/inorganic materials, spin crossover materials

and physics at high pressure. He has received many

awards for his work, including the Rutherford Medal, the

Dan Walls Medal for Physics and, along with Prof. Bob

Buckley, the inaugural Prime Minister’s Science Medal.

Jeff has been a Visiting Professor at the Cavendish

laboratory, Cambridge University, University of Paris and

EPFL, Lausanne. He is Chair of the MacDiarmid Institute

International Science Advisory Board.

Research Interests






Focus on achieving a thermodynamic understanding of

High Tc Superconductors by determining the pressure-,

temperature-, doping- and ion-size-dependence of all

the important energy and length scales pertinent to

superconductivity using specific heat, Raman, NMR and

muon spin relaxation.


B.P.P. Mallett, T. Wolf, E. Gilioli, F. Licci, G.V.M. Williams,

A.B. Kaiser, N.W. Ashcroft, N. Suresh and J.L. Tallon,

“Dielectric versus magnetic pairing mechanisms in

high-temperature cuprate superconductors investigated

using Raman scattering”, Phys. Rev. Lett. 111, 237001

(2013).

J. G. Storey, J. L. Tallon & G.V.M. Williams, “Electron

pockets and pseudogap asymmetry observed in the

thermopower of underdoped cuprates”, Europhysics

Letters, 102, 37006 (2013).

J.L. Tallon & J.R. Cooper, High times for High-Tc, Physics

World 24 (9) 21-22 (2011).

Dubroka, M. Rössle, K. W. Kim, V. K. Malik, D. Munzar,

D. N. Basov, A. A. Schafgans, S. J. Moon, C. T. Lin, D.

Haug, V. Hinkov, B. Keimer, Th. Wolf, J. G. Storey, J.

L. Tallon, and C. Bernhard, Evidence of a Precursor

Superconducting Phase at Temperatures as High as

180 K in RBa2Cu

3O

7-�(R=Y,Gd,Eu) Superconducting

Crystals from Infrared Spectroscopy, Phys. Rev. Lett.

106, 047006 (2011).

Tallon J.L., Barber, F., Storey, J.G., Loram, J.W.,

“Coexistence of the superconducting energy gap &

pseudogap above and below the transition temperature

of cuprate superconductors”, Phys. Rev. B Rapid Comm.

87, R140508 (2013).

J. L. Tallon, J. G. Storey and J. W. Loram, Fluctuations,

and Tc reduction in cuprate superconductors, Phys. Rev.

B 83, 092502 (2011).


James Storey

Suresh Narayanswamy

Research Students

Haissam Dernaika, PhD

Wayne Crump, PhD

PROFILE 2014 103

Associate Professor Shane Telfer, PhD

Cant



Shane Telfer was born in the town of Clyde in Central

Otago, New Zealand. He completed a BSc(Hons) and

a PhD in Chemistry at the University of Canterbury,

and is now an Associate Professor of Chemistry at

Massey University. This gradual drift northwards was

punctuated by a post-doctoral odyssey that included

stops in Geneva, Tokyo and Montreal. Shane has

broad interests in synthetic chemistry and molecular

materials. The current focus of his research is the

chemistry of metal-organic frameworks, a tremendously

exciting new class of porous materials.

Research Interests

Molecular materials


We currently focus on metal-organic frameworks,

which are crystalline ‘molecular sponges’ that have

applications in gas storage, separations and catalysis.

We are exploring new ways to design and synthesize

these materials and to enhance their functional

properties. We also have a keen interest in synthesizing

new chromophoric compounds for applications in

photovoltaics.


L. Liu, K. Konstas, M. R. Hill and S. G. Telfer,

Programmed Pore Architectures in Modular Quaternary

Metal–Organic Frameworks. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2013,

135, 17731-17734.

R. K. Deshpande, G. I. N. Waterhouse, G. B. Jameson and

S. G. Telfer, Photolabile Protecting Groups in Metal-

Organic Frameworks: Preventing Interpenetration and

Masking Functional Groups. Chem. Commun. 2012, 48,

1574-1576.

T. M. McLean, J. L. Moody, M. R. Waterland and S. G.

Telfer, Luminescent Re(I)-dipyrrinato Complexes. Inorg.

Chem. 2012, 51, 446-455.

D.J. Lun, G. I. N. Waterhouse, and S. G. Telfer, A

General Thermolabile Protecting Group Strategy for

Organocatalytic Metal−Organic Frameworks. J. Am.

Chem. Soc. 2011, 133, 5806–5809.

R. K. Deshpande, J. L. Minnaar and S. G. Telfer,

Thermolabile Groups in Metal-Organic Frameworks:

Post-Synthetic Cavity Expansion and Unmasking of

Reactive Functional Groups. Angew. Chem, Int. Ed.

2010,47, 4598-4602


Alan Ferguson

Hui Yang

Research Students

Heather Jameson, PhD

Luke Liu, PhD

Sebastian Blackwood, PhD

Research Assistant

David Lun


Associate Professor Richard Tilley,

MChem Oxf, PhD Camb



Associate Professor Richard Tilley is part of the School

of Chemical and Physical Sciences, Victoria University

of Wellington (VUW), NZ. His research is focused on the

solution synthesis of nanoparticles and quantum dots

for applications ranging from catalysis to biomedical

imaging. He did his PhD in the Department of Chemistry,

University of Cambridge, UK, after which he was a

Postdoctoral Fellow for two years at the Toshiba basic

R&D Center, Japan. A native of the UK, he graduated

with a Masters of Chemistry from Oxford University, UK.

Research Interests



Objective 4: Biology on-the-Fly


Research into the synthesis of nanoparticles with

a range of applications including MRI contrast

agents, catalysts and solar cells. Characterization

of nanoparticle sizes, shapes, crystallography and

properties using electron microscopy.


J. Watt, C. Yu, S. L.-Y. Chang, S. Cheong, R. D. Tilley

‘Shape Control from Thermodynamic Growth Conditions

– The Case of hcp Ruthenium Hourglass Nanocrystals’

Journal of the American Chemical Society, 135, 606-

609, (2013).

A. P. LaGrow, S. Cheong, J. Watt, B. Ingham, M. F. Toney,

D. A. Jefferson, R. D. Tilley ‘Can polymorphism be used

to form branched metal nanostructures?’ Advanced

Materials,25, 1552-1556,(2013).

A. M. Henning, J. Watt, P. J. Miedziak, S. Cheong,

M. Santonastaso, M. Song, Y. Takeda, A. I. Kirkland,

S. H. Taylor, R. D. Tilley ‘Gold-palladium core-shell

nanocrystals with size and shape control optimised for

catalytic performance’ Angewandte Chemie International

Edition, 52, 1477–1480 (2013).

M. Dasog, Z. Yang, S. Regli, T. M. Atkins, A. Faramus, M. P.

Singh, E. Muthuswamy, S. M. Kauzlarich, R. D. Tilley, J. G.

C. Veinot‘Chemical Insight Into The Origin of Red and Blue

Photoluminescence Arising From Freestanding Silicon

Nanocrystals’ ACS Nano, 7, 2676-2685,(2013).

S. Cheong, R. D. Tilley, ‘Earthworms lit with quantum

dots’, News and Views Nature Nanotechnology, 8, 6-7,

(2013).

S. Cheong, P. Ferguson, K. W. Feindel, I. F. Hermans, P. T.

Callaghan, C. Meyer, A. Slocombe, C-H. Su, F-Y. Cheng,

C-S. Yeh, B. Ingham, M. F. Toney, R. D. Tilley ‘Simple

Synthesis and Functionalization of Iron Nanoparticles

for Magnetic Resonance Imaging’ Angewandte Chemie

International Edition, featured as issue back cover article,

50, 4206–4209(2011).


David Herman

Research Students

Angelique Faramus, PhD

Andrew McGrath, PhD

Ben McVey, PhD

Christoph Hasenoehrl, PhD

Chenlong Yu, PhD

Leah Graham, PhD

Lucy Gloag, PhD

Moritz Banholzer, PhD

Xuan Hao Chan, PhD

PROFILE 2014 105

Professor Jadranka Travas-Sejdic, BSc,

MSc (Zagreb, Croatia), PhD (Auckland,

NZ)

School of Chemical Sciences University of Auckland Private Bag 92 019 Auckland 1142


Jadranka Travas-Sejdic received her MSc in Zagreb

and Ph.D. from University of Auckland, New Zealand in

1999. She worked as a scientist in Genesis Research

Corporation Limited and as a scientist and senior project

manager in Pacific Lithium Limited, Auckland, before

returning to the University of Auckland in 2002 where

she is currently a Professor at the School of Chemical

Sciences and Director of the Polymer Electronic

Research Centre (PERC). She has been a Principal

Investigator of the MacDiarmid Institute since 2007. She

is a recipient of the Easterfield Medal, a Fellow of the

International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry, a

Councilor of the Pacific Polymer Federation and a Fellow

of the New Zealand Institute of Chemistry.

Research Interests

Molecular Materials





Laslau, C., Zujovic, Z. and Travas-Sejdic, J. (2010).

Theories of polyaniline nanostructure self-assembly:

Towards an expanded, comprehensive Multi-Layer

Theory (MLT). Review in Prog Polym Sci, 35 (12), p1403-

1419

Kannan, B., Williams, D.E., Booth, M.A. and Travas-

Sejdic, J. (2011). High-Sensitivity, Label-Free DNA

Sensors Using Electrochemically Active Conducting

Polymers. Anal Chem, 83 (9), p3415-3421

Laslau, C., Williams, D.E., Wright, B.E. and Travas-

Sejdic, J. (2011). Measuring the Ionic Flux of an

Electrochemically Actuated Conducting Polymer Using

Modified Scanning Ion Conductance Microscopy. J Am

Chem Soc, 133 (15), p5748-5751

Zujovic, Z.D., Laslau, C., Bowmaker, G.A., Kilmartin, P.A.,

Webber, A.L., Brown, S.P. and Travas-Sejdic, J. (2010).

Role of Aniline Oligomeric Nanosheets in the Formation of

Polyaniline Nanotubes. Macromolecules, 43 (2), p662-670

Luo, C.H., Peng, H., Zhang, L.J., Lu, G.L., Wang, Y.T.

and Travas-Sejdic, J. (2011). Formation of Nano-/

Microstructures of Polyaniline and its Derivatives.

Macromolecules, 44 (17), p6899-6907

Peng, H., Zhang, L.J., Soeller, C. and Travas-Sejdic, J.

(2009). Conducting polymers for electrochemical DNA

sensing. Review in BIOMATERIALS, 30 (11), p2132-2148


Jenny Malstrom

Research Students

Alissa Hackett, PhD

Bicheng Zhu, PhD

Eddie Chan, PhD

Lisa Strover, PhD

Mona Damavandi, PhD

Nihan Ayedmir, PhD

Omer Chaudhary,PhD

Paul Baek, PhD

Thomas Kerr-Phillips, PhD


Emeritus Professor Joe Trodahl, MSc

PhD Mich Stat



Professor Joe Trodahl is a Professor Emeritus in Physics

at Victoria University, after retiring from a chair in 2002.

He joined Victoria University in 1971, having completed a

PhD from Michigan State University and a postdoctoral

fellowship at the University of British Columbia.

He remains involved in research nearly full time in

Wellington, and the freedom of retirement has allowed

him to take on work outside New Zealand.

Current research includes the intrinsic ferromagnetic

rare-earth nitride semiconductors, Raman

scattering investigation of the ferroelectric phases of

nanostructured perovskites, ferroelectric/ferromagnetic

multiferroic structures and heat flow in sea ice.

Research Interests



advanced materials



Growth, electronic and magnetic properties of

ferromagnetic semiconductors;

Raman investigation of structural phase transitions,

especially nanostructured ferroelectrics

Magneto-electric multiferroic devices; sea ice structure

and properties


Do Le Binh, B. J. Ruck, F. Natali, H. Warring, H. J.

Trodahl, E. M. Anton, C. Meyer, L. Ranno, F. Wilhelm, and

A. Rogalev “Europium nitride: A novel diluted magnetic

semiconductor”, Phys. Rev. Lett. 111, 167206 (2013).

Ben Wylie-van Eerd,Dragan Damjanovic, Naama Klein,

Nava Setter, Joe Trodahl,“The Structural Complexity

of (Bi0.5Na0.5)TiO3-BaTiO3 as Revealed by Raman

Spectroscopy”, Phys. Rev. B 82, 104112 (2010).

E. Mikheev, I. Stolichnov, E. De Ranieri, J. Wunderlich,

H. J. Trodahl, A. W. Rushforth, S. W. E. Riester, R. P.

Campion, K. W. Edmonds, B. L. Gallagher, N. Setter,

“Magnetic Domain Wall Propagation under Ferroelectric

Control”, Phys. Rev. B 86, 235130 (2012).

F. Natali, B.J. Ruck, H.J. Trodahl,Do Le Binh,S. Vezian,B.

Damilano,Y. Cordier,F. Semond,and C. Meyer, “Role of

magnetic polarons in ferromagnetic GdN”, Phys. Rev. B

87, 035202 (2013).

Eva-Maria Anton, B. J. Ruck, C. Meyer, F. Natali, Harry

Warring, Fabrice Wilhelm, A. Rogalev, V. N. Antonov and

H. J. Trodahl, “Spin/orbit moment imbalance in the near-

zero moment ferromagnetic semiconductor SmN”, Phys.

Rev. B 87, 134414 (2013).

F. Natali, B. J. Ruck, N. O. V. Plank, and H. J. Trodahl, S.

Granville, C. Meyer and Walter R.L. Lambrecht, “Rare-

earth mononitrides”, Prog. Materials Science 58, 1316

(2013).


Eva Anton

Research Student

Tanmay Maity, PhD

PROFILE 2014 107

Professor David Williams, PhD FRSC

CChem

School of Chemical Sciences University of Auckland Private Bag 92 019 Auckland 1142


Professor David E Williams is a graduate (MSc, PhD

in Electrochemistry) of the University of Auckland. He

developed his research career in electrochemistry and

chemical sensors at the UK Atomic Energy Research

Establishment, Harwell, in the 1980s following a

period at IMI Titanium, Birmingham, UK, investigating

the electrochemistry of intermetallic compounds

of titanium, and after postdoctoral work at Oxford

University and Imperial College London. He became

Thomas Graham Professor of Chemistry at University

College London in 1991 and co-founded Capteur Sensors

Ltd. He was Head of the Chemistry Dept at UCL from

1999-2002 and co-founded Aeroqual Ltd .

David was Chief Scientist of Inverness Medical

Innovations, based at Unipath Ltd, Bedford, UK, from

2002-2005. He joined the faculty of the Chemistry

Dept at Auckland University in February 2006. He is

a Deputy Director for the MacDiarmid Institute for

Advanced Materials and Nanotechnology. He is an

adjunct Professor at Dublin City University and was

Principal Investigator in the Biomedical Diagnostics

Institute there. He is also a Visiting Professor at

University College London, where he has strong

research links, and University of Southampton, and has

been Visiting Professor at University of Toronto and

Cranfield University of Technology and Honorary Visiting

Professor of the Royal Institution of Great Britain. He has

published around 240 papers in international journals,

and is inventor on around 40 patents.

Research Interests



Objective 2: Interacting with the Animate



“Point of Care Diagnostics: Status and Future”, Vladimir

Gubala, Leanne F. Harris, Antonio J. Ricco, Ming X.

Tan, and David E. Williams (2012) Anal.Chem., 84, pp

487–515

“Validation of low-cost ozone measurement instruments

suitable for use in an air-quality monitoring network” ,

David E Williams, Geoff S Henshaw, Mark Bart, Greer

Laing, John Wagner, Simon Naisbitt and Jennifer A

Salmond, Meas. Sci. Technol. 24 (2013) 065803 (12pp)

doi:10.1088/0957-0233/24/6/065803

“Direct Writing of Conducting Polymers”, Aydemir,

N; Parcell, J; Laslau, C; Nieuwoudt, M; Williams,

DE; Travas-Sejdic, J (2013) Macromolecular Rapid

Communications, 34 , 1296-1300

“High Density Ozone Monitoring Using Gas Sensitive

Semi-Conductor Sensors in the Lower Fraser Valley,

British Columbia”, Bart, M ; Williams, DE ; Ainslie, B ;

McKendry, I ; Salmond, J ; Grange, SK ; Alavi-Shoshtari,

M ; Steyn, D ; Henshaw, GS (2014) Environmental

Science & Technology 48, 3970-3977

Room Temperature Deposition of Tunable Plasmonic

Nanostructures By Atmospheric Pressure Jet Plasma”,

Niall O Connor, Ram Prasad Gandhiraman, Colin

Doyle, Bryony James, David E Williams and Stephen

Daniels (2012), J Materials Chem.: 22, 9485-9489; DOI:

10.1039/C2JM30879G

“Reversible Electrochemical Switching of Polymer

Brushes Grafted Onto Conducting Polymer Films”,

Yiwen Pei, Jadranka Travas-Sejdic, David E. Williams

(2012), Langmuir, 28 (21), pp 8072–8083. DOI: 10.1021/

la301031b


Bryon Wright

Ciaran Dolan

Maram Muthiah

Stephanie Papst

Research Students

Georgia Miskell, PhD

Jin Akaji, PhD

Maryam Alavi-Shoshtari, PhD

Monika Ko, PhD


Dr Grant Williams, BSc(Hons) PhD Well



Grant Williams is a Professorial Research Fellow at

Victoria University. He is currently involved in a number

of research programmes that include the study of new

materials for magnetic sensors, optical materials and

methods for radiation detection, high temperature

superconductivity, topological insulators, and linear and

nonlinear optics. He is co-author on 233 publications and

his research programmes span fundamental physics to

applied research for New Zealand companies.

Research Interests



advanced materials




John Kennedy, Grant V. M. Williams, Peter P. Murmu,

and Ben J. Ruck, “Intrinsic Magnetic Order and

Inhomogeneous Transport in Gd Implanted Zinc Oxide”,

Phys. Rev. B 88, 214423 (2013).

G. V. M. Williams, S. Janssens, C. Gaedtke, S. G. Raymond,

and D. Clarke, “Observation of photoluminescence

and radioluminescence in Eu and Mn doped NaMgF3

nanoparticles”, J. Lumin.143, 219 (2013).

S. Chong, G. V. M. Williams, J. Kennedy, J. L. Tallon, and

K. Kadowaki, “Large magneto-resistance in SrFe2As

2

single crystals”, EPL 104, 17002 (2013).

D. Rybicki, T. Meissner, G. V. M. Williams, S. Chong,

M. Lux, and J. Haase, “75As NMR study of overdoped

CeFeAsO0.8

F0.2

”, Journal of Physics: Condensed Matter

25, 315701 (2013).

S. Janssens, G. V. M. Williams, and D. Clarke, “Synthesis

and characterization of rare earth and transition metal

doped BaMgF4 nanoparticles”, J. Lumin. 134, 277 (2013).

P. P. Murmu, J. Kennedy, G. V. M. Williams, B. J. Ruck, S.

Granville, and S. Chong, “Observation of magnetism, low

resistivity, and magnetoresistance in the near-surface

region of Gd implanted ZnO”, Appl. Phys. Lett. 101,

082408 (2012).


James Storey

Research Students

Christin Gaedtke, PhD

Jethro Donaldson, PhD

Jibu Stevens, PhD

Sebastian Sambale, PhD

Tushara Prakash, PhD

PROFILE 2014 109

Associate Professor M (Bill) Williams,

BSc(Hons), PhD, CPhys, MInstP, MNZIP



Bill Williams obtained an Honours degree in Physics

with Astrophysics from Leeds University, UK and then

undertook a PhD in NMR relaxation behaviour at the

Open University. He went on to spend a number of years

as a Postdoctoral Fellow in The Chemistry Department

at York University, UK, working on various aspects of

biological polymers. Subsequently he spent 4 years

with Unilever Research, before returning to academia

in March 2003, with a position in The Institute of

Fundamental Sciences at Massey University, NZ, where

he is working on biophysics and soft-matter. (www.

biophysics.ac.nz)

Bill is a fellow and currently secretary of the New

Zealand Institute of Physics (NZIoP), and is the New

Zealand representative in the International Union of

Pure Applied Biophysics (IUPAB) He was an invited

participant at the Soft Meets Biology Gordon Research

Conference in 2009, and was the Theme leader for the

Soft Materials Theme of The MacDiarmid Institute from

2006 to 2011. He was an invited speaker at the 2010

International Hydrocolloids Conference, Co-chair and

organiser of a Pectin Symposium at Pacifichem, and was

recently invited to give the prestigious Pilnik Lecture at

the 2011 Hydrocolloids conference in Wageningen.

He is also leading the PGP FSD Project Real-Time

Measurement of Particle-Particle Formation and Growth

Kinetics

Research Interests





E. Schuster, L. Lundin and M.A.K. Williams, Investigating

the relationship between network mechanics and single-

chain extension using biomimetic polysaccharide gels,

Macromolecules, 45, 4863-4869, 2012.

Chris Lepper, Parick J.B. Edwards, R. Dykstra and Martin

A.K. Williams,Rheo-NMR studies of a nematic worm-

like micelle system in a high-shear-rate regime, Soft

Matter,7(21), 10291-10298, 2011.

Erich Schuster, Aurelie Cucheval, Leif Lundin and

Martin A.K. Williams, Using SAXS to Reveal the

Degree of Bundling in the Polysaccharide Junction

Zones of Microrheologically Distinct Pectin Gels,

Biomacromolecules,12(7), 2583-2590, 2011.

C. Lepper,P.J.B. Edwards, E. Schuster, J. R. Brown, R.

Dykstra, P.T. Callaghan, and M.A.K. Williams,Rheo-NMR

studies of the behaviour of a nematic liquid crystal in

a low-shear-rate regime: the transition from director

alignment to reorientation, Phys. Rev. E, 82, 4, 041712,

2010.

P.J.B. Edwards, M. Kakubayashi, R. Dykstra, S.M. Pascal

and M.A.K. Williams,Rheo-NMR Studies of an Enzymatic

Reaction: Evidence of a Shear-Stable Macromolecular

System, Biophysical Journal, 98(9), 1-9, 2010.

R.R. Vincent, A.Cucheval, Y.Hemar and M.A.K.Williams,

Bio-inspired network optimization in soft materials -

Insights from the plant cell wall, Eur Phys J E, 28(1),

79-87, 2009.


Allan Raudsepp

Luigi Sasso

Rob Ward

Sandy Suei

Research Students

Amir Irani, PhD

Brad Mansel, PhD

Christina Efthyymiou, PhD

Chris Lepper, PhD

Ian Lim, PhD

Jessie Owen, PhD

Marjorie Griffiths, PhD

Pablo Hernandez Cerdan, PhD

Ben Munro, MSc

Lily Lian, MSc

Technical Assistant

Lisa Kent


Dr Geoff Willmott, PhD (Cantab)

The Departments of Physics and Chemistry The University of Auckland Private Bag 92019 Auckland, New Zealand

Phone: 09 3737599 ext 89998 E-mail: [email protected]

Geoff grew up in Auckland and studied at the

University of Cambridge, obtaining a PhD in shock

physics in 2005. The following year he returned to

New Zealand and Industrial Research Limited, where

he worked in the Nano and Micro Fluidics team for

8 years, before joining the University of Auckland in

2013. Geoff has collaborated with industrial partners

including Qinetiq, de Beers and Izon Science, and has

previously worked in management consultancy. He

currently leads the Institute’s “Bionano/Nanobio and

Soft Matter” Theme and was awarded a Rutherford

Discovery Fellowship in 2012.

Research Interests



Nanofluidics is the study and application of fluid

flow in and around nanoscale structures, inspired by

microfluidics, nanoscience and biotechnology. The

range of tools available to researchers who wish to

manipulate fluids at the nanoscale is presently limited.

We use theory and experimentation to develop novel

tools for harnessing nanofluidic transport. Key research

topics include tunable nanopores, capillarity and motion

of phase boundaries, and drop splashes on water-

repellent surfaces.


Vogel, R., Willmott, G. R., Roberts, G. S., Anderson, W.,

Kozak, D., Groenewegen, L., Glossop, B., Barnett, A.,

Turner, A. and Trau, M., “Quantitative Sizing of Nano/

Microparticles with a Tunable Elastomeric Pore Sensor,”

Anal. Chem. 83, 3499–3506 (2011).

Vogel, R., Anderson, W., Eldridge, J. E., Glossop, B.

and Willmott, G. R., “A Variable Pressure Method for

Characterising Nanoparticle Surface Charge using Pore

Sensors,” Anal. Chem. 84, 3125-3132 (2012).

Willmott, G. R., Neto, C. and Hendy, S. C., “Uptake of

Water Droplets by Nonwetting Capillaries,” Soft Matter

7, 2357-2363 (2011) – [issue cover image].

Willmott, G. R., Vogel, R., Yu, S. S. C., Groenewegen, L.

G., Roberts, G. S., Kozak, D., Anderson, W. and Trau, M.

“Use of Tunable Nanopore Blockade Rates to Investigate

Colloidal Dispersions,” J. Phys.: Condens. Matter 22,

454116 (2010).

Willmott, G. R., “Slip-Induced Dynamics of Patterned and

Janus-like Spheres in Laminar Flows,” Phys. Rev. E 79,

066309 (2009).

Alsager, O. A., Kumar, S., Willmott, G. R., McNatty, K.

P. and Hodgkiss, J. M. “Small Molecule Detection in

Solution Via the Size Contraction Response of Aptamer

Functionalized Nanoparticles,” Biosens. Bioelectron.,

DOI:10.1016/j.bios.2014.02.004 (2014).

Postdoctoral Fellow

Evgeny Bogomolny

Research Students

Eva Weatherall, PhD

James Eldridge, PhD

Peter Hauer, PhD

PROFILE 2014 111

Professor Ulrich Zuelicke,

Diplomphysiker Leipzig PhD Indiana



Uli Zuelicke is a Professor of Physics at Victoria

University of Wellington and has been a Principal

Investigator at the MacDiarmid Institute since 2004.

After obtaining his Ph.D. from Indiana University in 1998,

he undertook postdoctoral research at the University

of Karlsruhe in Germany and has held permanent

academic positions at Massey University from 2003

until 2011.

His current research is focused on the

theoretical description of mesoscopic and low-

dimensional systems, spins in semiconductors, and

graphene. Uli has been awarded the 2008 Research

Medal of the New Zealand Association of Scientists and

is a Fellow of the New Zealand Institute of Physics.

Research Interests



and devices


at the nanoscale


L. Pratley, U. Zülicke, Valley filter from magneto-

tunneling between single and bi-layer graphene, Applied

Physics Letters 104, 082401 (2014)

R.P. Tiwari, U. Zülicke, C. Bruder, Majorana fermions

from Landau quantization in a superconductor–

topological-insulator hybrid structure, Physical Review

Letters 110, 186805 (2013)

T. Kernreiter, M. Governale, U. Zülicke, Carrier-density-

controlled anisotropic spin susceptibility of two-

dimensional hole systems, Physical Review Letters 110,

026803 (2013)

O. Fialko, J, Brand, U. Zülicke, Soliton magnetization

dynamics in spin-orbit coupled Bose-Einstein

condensates, Physical Review A 85, 051605(R) (2012)

T. Kernreiter, M. Governale, U. Zülicke, A.R. Hamilton,

Charge transport by modulating spin-orbit gauge fields

for quasi-one-dimensional holes, Applied Physics Letters

98, 152101 (2011)

R. Winkler, U. Zülicke, Invariant expansion for the

trigonal band structure of graphene, Physical Review B

82, 245313:1–9 (2010)


Thomas Kernreiter

Research Students

Hani Hatami, PhD

Luke Pratley, MSc


Emeritus Investigators

Professor Alan Kaiser, MSc Well, PhD

Lond, FRSNZ



Alan Kaiser received his MSc in Physics and BA in

Economics from Victoria University of Wellington,

and his PhD in Solid State Physics from the Imperial

College of Science and Technology, London. He has

been a research assistant at Stanford University,

Alexander von Humboldt Fellow at the Max-Planck

Institut für Festkörperforschung, Stuttgart, Royal

Society (U.K.) Bursar at the University of Leeds, and

McCarthy Fellow at the University of Michigan. He was

elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of New Zealand

in 1998 and was awarded the Shorland Medal in 2009.

His main research interest is electronic conduction

and related properties of novel materials, including

graphene, carbon nanotubes, conducting polymers,

superconductors and glassy metals.

Research Interests




Current research interests are in understanding the

electronic properties of novel materials (especially

those with nanoscale dimensions), focusing on how the

electronic conduction process occurs in different types

of material. The materials we investigate include:

Graphene: We are investigating the conductance

and related properties of graphene (sheets of carbon

with thickness of only one atom) in collaboration with

German experimentalists.

Carbon nanotubes and cupric oxide thin films and

nanowires: Properties of thin transparent films of

carbon nanotubes, and cupric oxide thin films and

nanowires, have been measured by Shrividya Ravi and

Chris Bumby and are being analyzed to understand

these unusual materials


A. B. Kaiser and V. Skákalová, Electronic conduction in

polymers, carbon nanotubes and graphene, Chemical

Society Reviews, 40, 3786 - 3801, (2011)

A. Hewitt, A. B. Kaiser, S. Roth, M. Craps, R. Czerw and

D. L. Carroll, Varying the concentration of single walled

carbon nanotubes in thin film polymer composites, and

its effect on thermoelectric power, Applied Physics

Letters, 98, 183110, (2011)

S. Ravi, A. B. Kaiser and C. W. Bumby, Improved

conduction in transparent single walled carbon

nanotube networks drop-cast from volatile amine

dispersions, Chemical Physics Letters, 496, 80-85, 2010.

K. K. Mahelona, A.B. Kaiser and V. Skákalová, Resistance

and mesoscopic fluctuations in graphene, Physica

Status Solidi B, 247, 2983-2987, 2010.

A.B. Kaiser, C. Gomez-Navarro, R.S. Sundaram,

M. Burghard and K. Kern, “Electrical conduction

mechanism in chemically derived graphene

monolayers”, Nano Letters, 7,1787-1792, 2009.

V. Skákalová, A.B. Kaiser, J.S. Yoo, D. Obergfell and S.

Roth, “Correlation between resistance fluctuations

and temperature dependence of conductivity in

graphene”,Physical Review B, 80,153404, 2009.

Research Student

Chun Cheah, PhD

PROFILE 2014 113

Professor Ken MacKenzie, PhD, DSc,

FRSNZ, FICeram



Ken MacKenzie is the Professor of Materials Chemistry

at Victoria University. He is an alumnus of Victoria

University, and has 45 years research experience in

advanced inorganic materials (ceramics, cements,

glasses, inorganic polymers), specialising in the

development of new inorganic materials and their

structural investigation by multinuclear solid-state

NMR spectroscopy, of which he is an acknowledged

expert. He has published more than 350 research

papers in international journals and his research has

been recognised by the award of numerous medals

including the Easterfield Medal, the Shorland Medal

and the Hector Medal. He is a Fellow of the Royal

Society of NZ and has held a James Cook Fellowship

to Oxford University where he wrote an authoritative

textbook on solid-state NMR. He has also been elected

as an academician of the science division of the World

Academy of Ceramics.

Research Interests

Molecular Materials

Advanced inorganic materials, solid state chemistry,

solid-state NMR spectroscopy

Development and structure of novel advanced inorganic

materials for applications as catalysts, engineering

and structural ceramics, electroceramics, bioceramics

and ecologically-friendly materials for remediation

of pollution. Investigation of these materials by X-ray

diffraction, thermal analysis, electron microscopy,

Mossbauer spectroscopy and solid-state NMR.

Development of hybrid organic-inorganic materials for

structural applications.


K. Katsumata, X. Hou, M. Sakai, A. Nakajima, A.

Fujishima, N. Matsushita, K. J.D. MacKenzie, K. Okada.

Visible-light-driven photodegradation of acetaldehyde

gas catalyzed by aluminosilicate nanotubes and Cu(II)-

grafted TiO2 composites. Applied Catalysis B 138-9

(2013) 243-52. DOI: org/10.1016/j.apcatb.2013.03.004

P.N. Lemougna, K.J.D. MacKenzie, G.N.L. Jameson, H.

Rahier, U.F. Chinje Melo, The role of iron in the formation

of inorganic polymers (geopolymers) from volcanic

ash: a 57Fe Mössbauer spectroscopic study. Journal

of Materials Science 48 (2013) 5280-6. DOI:10.1007/

s10853-013-7319-4

M. Alzeer, R. A. Keyzers, K. J.D. MacKenzie, Inorganic

polymers as novel chromatographic stationary phase

media. Ceramics International 40, (2013) 3553-60. DOI:

10.1016/j.ceramint.09.073

K.J.D. MacKenzie, N. Rahner, M.E. Smith and A. Wong,

‘Calcium-containing inorganic polymers as potential

bioactive materials’, Journal of Materials Science, 45,

(2010) 999-1007.

S.J. O’Connor, K.J.D. MacKenzie, M.E. Smith and J.V.

Hanna, ‘Ion exchange in the charge-balancing sites of

aluminosilicate inorganic polymers’, Journal of Materials

Chemistry, 20, (2010) 10234-40.

K.J.D. MacKenzie, ‘Inorganic polymers for

environmental protection applications’, Materials

Science and Engineering, Institute of Physics Conference

Series, 18 (2011) DOI:10.1088/1757-899X/18/17/172001

Research Students

Joanne Rogers, PhD

Mahroo Falah Poorsichani, PhD

Mohammad Alzeer, PhD


Professor Jim Metson, BSc(Hons) PhD

(Well) FNZIC MRSNZ MAIME

University of Auckland School of Chemical Sciences Private Bag 92 019 Auckland 1142

Phone: 09 373 7599 x 83877 Email: [email protected]

Professor Jim Metson graduated with PhD in Chemistry

from Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand in

1980, before taking up a position at Surface Science

Western, University of Western Ontario, Canada. He

then moved to the University of Auckland, New Zealand,

where he has held several positions including a term

as Associate Deputy Vice Chancellor (Research). He

is currently Head of the School of Chemical Sciences

and an Associate Director of the Light Metals Research

Centre. His research interests are in materials and

particularly surface science, with an emphasis on metal

oxides and applications in the aluminium industry.

Research Interests



and devices


J. Leveneur, G. I. N. Waterhouse, J. Kennedy,J. B.

Metson and D. R. G. Mitchell. Nucleation and Growth of

Fe Nanoparticles in SiO2: A TEM, XPS, and Fe L-Edge

XANES Investigation. J Phys Chem.C. 115(43), 20978-

20985. (2011).

C. Rohmann, J. B Metson and H. Idriss. DFT study of

Carbon Monoxide Adsorption on �-Al2O

3(0001). Surface

Science 605(17-18):1694-1703 2011

M. Murdoch, G.I.N. Waterhouse, M.A. Nadeem, J.B.

Metson, M.A. Keane, R.F. Howe, J. Llorca and H.

Idriss, The effect of gold loading and particle size on

photocatalytic hydrogen production from ethanol over

Au/TiO2 nanoparticles. Nature, Chemistry: 3(6), 489-

492. (2011),

Allen, M.W., Zemlyanov, D.Y., Waterhouse, G.I.N., Metson

J.B., Veal, T.D, McConville, C.F., Durbin, S.M., Polarity

effects in the X-ray photoemission of ZnO and other

wurtzite semiconductors. Appl Phys Lett. 98(10): Article

number 101906 (2011)

M. Nadeem, J. M. R. Muir, K. A. Connelly, B. T. Adamson,

J. B. Metson and H. Idriss. Ethanol photo-oxidation on

a rutile TiO2(110) single crystal surface. Phys. Chem.

Chem. Phys., (2011), 13, 7637-7643.

C.W. Zou, X.D. Yan, J. Han, R.Q. Chen, W. Gao and J.

Metson. Study of a Nitrogen Doped ZnO film with

Synchrotron Radiation. Applied Physics Letters. 94(17),

171903/1-171903/3 (2009).

Research Students

Akihiro Shimamura, PhD

Gordon Agbenyegah, PhD

Hasini Wijayaratne, PhD

Jingjing Liu, PhD

www.macdiarmid.ac.nz

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