Conference 1: 124th General Meeting of the Korean Chemical Society

• Where: Changwon Exhibition Convention Center

• When: Oct. 16th ~ 18th, 2019

It was my first time to participate in a conference! I really appreciate my current adviser Dr. Jeong for giving me this opportunity to go to the Chemistry Conference, and study topics that I am interested in. It was a huge event, and almost all the oral presenters were professors. So the topics were particular and profound. But, I still enjoyed listening to state-of-art research topics not only about the current project at KIST (Korea Institute of Science and Technology) but also about energy conversion and storage.

Several presentations that I really enjoyed listening or astonished by were as follows:

(These are just based on my memories & understanding and please contact me if there's any problem posting these things below.)

First, there was a topic about controlling shapes of nanocrystals and their chiralities. I was surprised by how precise the shapes could be controlled using biomolecules having chirality. The synthesized nanocrystals having high index planes could polarize the incident light and change the color of the transmitted light. For me, the inquires of physics are always astonishing.

Second, there was a topic about biobased and biodegradable plastics. Thanks to what I studied for my thesis paper, I could understand this presentation! Also, it helped me know what kinds of researches were going on in the field of biodegradable polymers. They increased the mechanical strengths of PBS by adding some biobased nanomaterials and developed a new biobased PC with a new monomer. (I don't think I could write down any details :)

Third, it was interesting to listen to the whole journey to find new Li-conducting material. The presenter first referenced Pauling's rules to understand the crystal structure of oxides materials. Then, he listed up the known materials by their Oh to Td ratio. From this table, he realized that there was a missing composition and decided to synthesize it. Including all the characterizations that he did, I learned one way of finding out new material.

The fourth topic about 'Energy Catalysts Design' was one that I was highly interested in. His introduction to the carbon-free energy process - starting from photochemical water-splitting to fuel cell - was so helpful in having a holistic view of this topic. I also made up my mind to read some books that he introduced :). Moreover, there was research on platinum single-atom catalysts on CNT and tandem catalytic system, 'Photo - Electro - Biocatalytic System,' which I have dreamed of!

Lastly, I became interested in the Localized Surface Plasmon Resonance (LSPR). I could have a clear understanding of what LSPR is and how the presenter controlled this effect by synthesizing nanorods with specific composition and shape. He could switch on and off LSPR by aligning the nanorods as he wanted and applied to medicinal sensors. I could feel his passion for his research and learn how he finds new topics.