As the year comes to an end, we have successfully completed the first PHC Polonium project in our group! The program aimed to foster scientific exchange between French and Polish research teams by supporting newly established collaboration between dr Alina Brzeczek-Szafran and dr Nicolas Brun.

Thanks to funding from NAWA (Polish National Agency for Academic Exchange), our PhD students Bartłomiej Gaida and Magdalena Gwóźdź completed two-week internships at the Institut Charles Gerhardt Montpellier (CNRS, Centre national de la recherche scientifique) in southern France. Their research focused on the hydrothermal carbonization of carbon aerogels for CO₂ capture and bioconversion. At the end of the year, Dr. Alina Brzęczek-Szafran also visited the Institute, delivering a lecture on the potential of sugars in the synthesis of functional materials.

But that’s not all! We also had the pleasure of hosting our French partners at the Faculty of Chemistry, Silesian University of Technology. Dr. Nicolas Brun, leader of the French team, shared insights into carbon material synthesis from biomass during his June lecture, “Ionic Liquids for Biomass Processing: From Dissolution to Carbonization” and Dr. Peter Hesemann, the Institute’s Scientific Director, presented an exciting talk on hybrid materials combining ionic liquids and silica, “From Ionic Liquids to Nanostructured Ionic Solids: Ionosilicas as ‘Designer Materials’.” We also hosted Ludivine Onillon, a PhD student from the French team, who worked under the guidance of our specialists to develop sugar-based ionic liquids.
Fingers crossed for the next steps in this fantastic collaboration and big thanks to the French Partners for their hospitality during our visits in France!