Materials science in full focus

Meet the materials scientists behind QUT’s most striking research images of 2020

Dr Jun Mei isn’t one to boast, although he has every right to.

The materials scientist’s research quest to harness lab-made photosynthesis has won him two top prizes in the QUT 2020 Science in Focus image competition as well as vital early-career funding.

His winning entry (pictured above) illustrates how zinc oxide nanostructures show promise in efficiently converting light into energy, similar to plant photosynthesis.

Judges were impressed by both the visual appeal and technical proficiency of this image, which was also awarded the inaugural QUT Centre for Materials Science prize, established to promote QUT’s wealth of world-class materials science research.

“These awards give me great encouragement for my current research on advanced materials and sustainable energy applications,” Dr Jun Mei said.

“More importantly, this image illustrates a good example of novel materials design and real-world applications exploration, which are primary goals of our Centre for Materials Science.”

 

Dr Mei is passionate about learning from nature to find potential solutions for the current energy crisis via materials design.

He was recently awarded a $18,841 grant from QUT’s Early Career Researcher Scheme to support his energy storage research.

That project focuses on designing advanced heterostructured interfaces for high-performance energy storage systems, particularly rechargeable batteries.

Competitions like Science in Focus help the public to better understand the science involved in – and the future applications of – QUT’s fundamental research.

The story Dr Mei’s Zinc oxide nanostructures image tells is one of turning sunlight into energy.

His nanostructures were fabricated using a one-step interfacial self-assembly approach and imaged using a scanning electron microscope.

“Inspired by green plants with superior sunlight adsorption and conversion characteristics, my team rationally designed and synthesised hierarchical zinc oxide nanostructures for promoting photo-sensitive properties,” Dr Mei said.

“We aim to embed this new nanostructure into a light-harvesting system, one of the crucial parts in my new integrated energy harvesting and storage device.

“We believe this will easily achieve the direct translation of sunlight into electricity via energy conversion, and we also hope the generated energy can be temporarily stored for future use using an additional energy storage component.”

Dr Mei is one of four Centre for Materials Science researchers among the 2020 Science in Focus competition finalists.

Dr Eleonore Bolle won the People’s Choice Award for her image titled The very hungry macrophages (pictured below). The image shows macrophages, a cell type from the immune system, consuming antibiotic-loaded microspheres.

Completing her PhD at QUT in 2019, the postdoctoral research associate is investigating the use of drug-loaded nanoparticles to treat intracellular chlamydial infections, including synthesising and characterising the nanoparticles.

 

Competition finalist and PhD student Jessica Crawford submitted Crystal growth (pictured below). It shows a large Ag-TCNQ crystal synthesised using the non-toxic liquid metal, gallium.

These large crystal structures of Ag-TCNQ are used to fabricate large memory devices and their large-scale production could be used for large-scale information storage.

Fellow finalist Associate Professor Eric Waclawik submitted Hydrophobic gold (pictured below), a snapshot of the spontaneous aggregation of hydrophobic gold nanoparticles into an organised pattern, floating on an ocean of hydrogen peroxide. A QUT researcher since 2003, he leads a research team investigating the shape-and-size controlled synthesis of inorganic semiconductor nanocrystals and quantum dots, principally by hydrothermal and microwave-based methods.

Science in Focus brings to light the most surprising, beautiful and technically innovative visuals of important QUT research.

Entries offer insight into the unique research processes and objects used by QUT researchers in their pursuit of new knowledge.

View all top 10 finalist entries and their full descriptions.