Javier Castells (left) and Víctor Rubio
The doctoral theses of the researchers Víctor Rubio Giménez and Javier Castells Gil, developed at the Institute of Molecular Science of the University of Valencia, have been recognised as the best works of 2019 and 2020, respectively, in the field of nanoscience. These are the GENAM awards, convened annually within the RSEQ and RSEF.
The Specialised Group for Nanoscience and Molecular Materials (GENAM), created in 2003 by scientists from the Royal Spanish Society of Chemistry (RSEQ) and its counterpart the Royal Spanish Physics Society (RSEF), annually announces these awards for the best doctoral theses presented by members of both scientific societies.
On the 22nd, the researcher Víctor Rubio Giménez received the award for the best thesis of 2019 for his work “Ultrathin films of layered coordination polymers: charge transport and spin crossover at the nanoscale”. Directed by Carlos Martí Gastaldo (ICMol) and Eugenio Coronado, professor of Inorganic Chemistry and researcher at ICMol, the thesis describes the preparation of nanometric films of various metal-organic coordination materials – MOFs – using advanced manufacturing techniques that allow the construction of materials layer by layer. The research has generated 10 articles in high-impact journals and has also received the extraordinary doctorate award from the University of Valencia. The high-quality nanofilms obtained have been used to study the electronic and magnetic properties of these materials.
Víctor Rubio is currently a postdoctoral researcher at the Centre for Membrane Separations, Adsorption, Catalysis and Spectroscopy for Sustainable Solutions (cMACS) at KU Leuven (Belgium), where he has obtained two consecutive Research Foundation-Flanders (FWO) fellowships. His work in Rob Ameloot’s group focuses on the preparation of vapour phase MOFs for electronic devices.
Best 2020 thesis
Metal-Organic Frameworks (MOF) are crystalline materials formed by organic ligands and metal ions that give rise to nanostructured porous networks with a very wide range of properties. MOFs are already being exploited in fields such as the environment, catalysis, harvesting water from the atmosphere, drug delivery, or even in electronic applications.
Regarding 2020, the GENAM has recognised as the best thesis of the year 2020 that of the researcher Javier Castells-Gil, also developed within the ICMol under the direction of the same researcher, Carlos Martí-Gastaldo, head of the Functional Inorganic Materials group (FuniMAT) of said research centre of the University of Valencia. Titled “Photoactivity and Chemical Reactivity in Titanium (IV) -Organic Frameworks”, the work seeks to improve the water stability of MOFs.
Javier Castells is currently in the first year of a postdoctoral stay at the Solid State Unit of the Faculty of Chemistry (University of Birmingham), where he works on the evolution of materials for cathodes that improve the reversibility possibilities of lithium ion batteries.
GENAM was established as a group within the RSEQ in 2001 to try to strengthen a research area with broad development perspectives, such as Nanoscience and Molecular Materials at that time. In 2003 the group became associated with the Royal Spanish Physical Society, thereby consolidating a multidisciplinary group that, among other activities, has been organised since 1992 by the National School of Molecular Materials (ENMM).