4 February (Tuesday), 2:00pm, AINSE Theatre Arnaud Devred ITER, France "Challenges and Status of the ITER Project"
6 February (Thursday), 11:00am, B83 Conference Room. Hosted by Vanessa Peterson Dr Pamela Whitfield "TOPAS at the SNS – 6 months at the sharp end"
7 February (Friday), 11:00am, B83 Conference Room. Hosted by Robert Robinson Bob Von Dreele "The development of GSAS-II"
18 February (Tuesday), 11:00am, B83 Conference Room Bill David ISIS "Combined X-ray + Neutron Scattering and Computational Studies of Energy Materials"
X-ray and neutron scattering together provide a complementary insight into the structure and behaviour of materials at the atomic and molecular level. In combination with computational studies such as DFT molecular dynamics, it is possible to monitor the performance of a material under realistic operating conditions while, at the same time, probing materials properties at the atomic level to gain a fundamental understanding of process and mechanism.
In this talk, I will discuss three areas of our recent research into energy materials that focus on gas storage in novel MOF materials and reversible lightweight hydrogen and ammonia storage materials.
27 February (Thursday), 11:00am, B83 Conference Room Chin-Wei WANG ANSTO, Taiwan Group "Neutron diffraction study on the multiferroic Co3TeO6"
6 March (Thursday), 11:00am, B83 Conference Room Prof. Peter Battle Inorganic Chemistry Laboratory Oxford "Magnetic Properties of Transition-Metal Compounds"
A large number of mixed-metal oxides show long-range magnetic ordering at relatively low temperatures. Unfortunately, most of them order antiferromagnetically. They are thus fundamentally interesting but of little practical use. Over the years chemists have made a number of attempts to synthesize compounds that order ferromagnetically, for example by trying to induce two magnetic cations with different electron configurations (perhaps d3 and d5) to occupy similar crystallographic sites in a structure in an ordered manner so as to induce the ferromagnetic coupling predicted by the Goodenough - Kanamori Rules. In most cases, nature refuses to go along with the idea and the cations fill the sites in a disordered manner, resulting in antiferromagnetism or spin-glass-like behaviour. Those compounds that do show a spontaneous magnetization often do so only below a relatively low transition temperature, and often as the result of spin-canting in what is essentially an antiferromagnet, rather than with the complete parallel spin alignment found in a true ferromagnet.
This talk will describe our attempts to make ferromagnets and the ways in which we have been frustrated by cation disorder. Perovskites and compounds having the general formula Ln18Li8M4M'O39 will be used as examples. A perovskite system in which cation disorder is responsible for the observation of a large magnetization will also be described in order to show that some good can come out of everything.
11 March (Tuesday), 11:00am, B83 Conference Room. Hosted by Max Avdeev Claude Delmas CNRS, Institut de la Matière Condensée, Bordeaux "New results on layered sodium intercalation compounds"
19 March (Wednesday), 11:00am, B83 Conference Room. Hosted by Dehong Yu Prof. Jiyang WANG State Key Laboratory of Crystal Materials, Shandon "Progress on the Research of Self-Frequency-Doubling Crystals"
19 March (Wednesday), 11:50am, B83 Conference Room. Hosted by Dehong Yu Prof. Ning Ye Fujin Institute of Research on the Structure of M "Nonlinear Optical Crystals with Triangle Structure Units"
27 March (Thursday), 11:00am, B83 Conference Room Anwen Krause-Heuer "[18F]-labelled radiopharmaceuticals for positron emission tomography"
3 April (Thursday), 11:00am, B83 Conference Room. Hosted by Kirrily Rule Britta Willenberg "Ground State Properties and Field Induced Phases in Quasi One-Dimensional Quantum Magnets"
8 April (Tuesday), 11:00am, B83 Conference Room. Hosted by Robert Robinson Andrzej Radlinski "Small Angle Scattering ((U)SANS & (U)SAXS), rocks and energy sources"
Our main energy sources - coal, oil and gas - are mined from the subsurface. Coal is a sedimentary rock itself, whereas oil and gas are found (and generated) in the pore space of various types of rocks, including sandstones, carbonates, mudrocks, shales and coals.
Economic viability of a particular mining activity depends on the physical characteristcs of the energy carrier and its rock environment, often quantified using exotic-sounding engineering terms. The technical language is usually specific to the particular sub-branch of science or engineering, with a focus on precise communication with other specialists in the field.
(U)SANS and (U)SAXS results on sedimentary rocks accumulated over the last three decades offer another - and unified - perspective. Coal measures, coalbed gas, conventional gas and oil accumulations, shale gas and tight gas deposits are all seen as natural porous media saturated with geological fluids.
Pore size distribution of ex-situ rocks is now routinely determined in (often valid) two-phase approximation, and the consequent calculated values of total porosity, specific surface area, mercury injection, gas sorption characteristics, etc. compared with (and tested against) independently measured values.
The following step has been to develop environmental SAXS and SANS pressure cells to investigate sorption of geological fluids (CO2, CH4, He, brine) in sedimentary rocks at the subsurface (p,T) conditions. In case of compressible gases, these are essentially contrast-variation experiments. In some experiments deuterated fluids were used specifically to achieve full contrast match with the rock matrix and thus determine the size distribution of inaccessible pores.
In my presentation I will provide a brief illustration of these results as well as a commentary on their meaning for science and the natural resource industry.
17 April (Thursday), 11:00am, AINSE Theatre. Hosted by Robert Robinson Cathy Foley CSIRO "Women in Science"
6 May (Tuesday), 11:00am, B83 Conference Room. Hosted by Elliot Gilbert Andrew Jackson ESS "SANS and Soft Matter at ESS"
8 May (Thursday), 11:00am, B83 Conference Room Simon Clark Macquarie University/ANSTO "Polyamorphism: Fact or Fiction?"
9 May (Friday), 11:00am, B83 Conference Room. Hosted by James Hester Sydney R. Hall University of Western Australia "Metadata, methods and ontologies: Preserving the evolution and time-dependency of information"
15 May (Thursday), 11:00am, B83 Conference Room. Hosted by Chris Garvey Andreas Stadler Forschungszentrum Juelich "Observation of Nanosecond Dynamics in the Intrinsically Disordered Myelin Basic Protein by Neutron Spin-Echo Spectroscopy"
23 May (Friday), 11:00am, B21, ground floor conference room Franceco Spinozzi - NB: talk in B21 ground floor Università Politecnica delle Marche "Complementarity of small-angle x-ray and neutron scattering: solvation effects and quaternary structure of proteins in solution"
29 May (Thursday), 11:00am, B83 Conference Room Mark Reid "Some experimental facilities at the University of Wollongong, in particular the High Temperature Laser Scanning Confocal Microscope"
4 June (Wednesday), 11:00am, B83 Conference Room Prof. Heloisa Bordallo "Exploiting the use of quasi-elastic neutron scattering to understand confinement: From water motion in cement pastes and clays to molecular drugs"
5 June (Thursday), 11:00am, B83 Conference Room Klaus-Dieter Liss "Metals under Complex Conditions: In-situ and real-time Information Revealed by Neutron and Synchrotron X-Ray Diffraction"
6 June (Friday), 11:00am, B83 Conference Room. Hosted by Garry McIntyre Dimitri Argyriou Director for Science, European Spallation Source "Launching the construction and defining the science programme of the European Spallation Source"
12 June (Thursday), 11:00am, B83 Conference Room. Hosted by Robert Robinson Susanna Guatelli University of Wollongong "Geant4 capability for neutron detection modelling"
Geant4 is a Monte Carlo simulation Toolkit describing the interactions of particles with matter, used in applications spanning from High Energy Physics and accelerator physics to space science and medical physics. Geant4 can be used to study neutron interactions and related technology thanks to its advanced capability in accelerator modeling coupled with extensive functionality in the physics component. Geant4 is in continuous evolution and is benchmarked by both developers and users working in different research domains. At the Center For Medical Radiation Physics (CMRP), University of Wollongong, Geant4 is used to characterise and optimize novel radiation detectors for radiotherapy Quality Assurance and radiation protection.
The first part of the seminar will consist in an overview of Geant4 capability addressed to research in neutron detection and dosimetry. The second part will focus on the Geant4-based characterisation of some novel detectors developed at CMRP for radiation protection in neutron fields (silicon and diamond microdosimeters, PIN diodes and Medipix).
13 June (Friday), 11:00am, B83 Conference Room. Hosted by Dehong Yu Yun Liu Australian National University "A new colossal dielectric constant material"
13 June (Friday), 11:40am, B83 Conference Room. Hosted by Dehong Yu Adam Berlie "A Study of Organic Based Materials Using Muon Spectroscopy"
24 June (Tuesday), 1:30pm, B83 Conference Room Mike Whitney "Sydney Weekender"
10 July (Thursday), 11:00am, B83 Conference Room Liliana de Campo "The quest for complex liquid crystal geometries based on small star-shaped molecules"
17 July (Thursday), 11:00am, B83 Conference Room. Hosted by James Hester Qinfen Gu Australian Synchrotron "Energy-related materials studies using Powder Diffraction at the Australian Synchrotron"
24 July (Thursday), 11:00am, B83 Conference Room Tommy Nylander Lund University "Structural effects of the dispersing agent on lipid-based liquid crystalline nanoparticles"
24 July (Thursday), 2:00pm, B83 Conference Room. Hosted by Sergey Danilkin G Jeffrey Snyder California Institute of Technology "The potential of Copper and Silver Chalcogenides for thermoelectric applications"
15 August (Friday), 11:00am, AINSE Theatre Prof. Warrick Couch "The Australian Astronomical Observatory: a case study in remaining internationally relevant in cosmology, galaxy formation, and the discovery of other worlds"
28 August (Thursday), 10:30am, B83 Conference Room. Hosted by Robert Robinson Paul Mulvaney University of Melbourne "Town Hall Meeting for Chemistry Decadal Plan"
4 September (Thursday), 3:00pm, B83 Conference Room. Hosted by Elliot Gilbert Yong-Cheng Shi Kansas State University "Preparation, Structure and Digestibility of A- and B-type Starch Crystals through Controlled Assembly of Short-Linear alpha-Glucans"
11 September (Thursday), 11:00am, B83 Conference Room. Hosted by Andrew Nelson Lilo D. Pozzo Associate Professor, University of Washington "Neutron-Aided Optimization of Polymeric Energy Materials"
18 September (Thursday), 11:00am, B83 Conference Room Filomena Floriana Salvemini Bragg Institute, ANSTO "Development of innovative methodologies for non-invasive characterization of metal artefacts of archaeological, historical, and industrial interest (...)"
25 September (Thursday), 11:00am, B83 Conference Room Andrew Whitten ANSTO "Understanding a Key interaction in Exocytosis Using Small-Angle Scattering"
8 October (Wednesday), 3:00pm, B83 Conference Room. Hosted by Nicolas de Souza Quentin Berrod Laboratory Léon Brillouin – CEA "Structure-transport interplay in membranes and model materials for fuel cells"
9 October (Thursday), 11:00am, B83 Conference Room. Hosted by Stephen Holt Boris Martinac Victor Chang Cardiac Research Institute "Bacterial mechanosensitive channels as a paradigm for mechanosensory transduction"
16 October (Thursday), 11:00am, B83 Conference Room Anna Leung Deuteration Facility, ANSTO. "The synthesis of cytotoxic natural products"
13 November (Thursday), 11:00am, B83 Conference Room Alice Vrielink University of Western Australia "X-ray and Neutron Diffraction Studies of Cholesterol Oxidase. A Study of Flavin Mediated Oxidative Catalysis"
4 December (Thursday), 11:00am, B83 Conference Room Andrew Venter and Deon Marais "Modernisation of the SAFARI-1 beam-line facilities"
18 December (Thursday), 11:00am, B83 Conference Room Matthew Tate Bragg Institute, ANSTO "Bi(III)-containing oxide ion conductors and their structure-property relationships"
