Ms.Surabhi Gupta, (2nd year doctral student in Matsumi lab. of Materials Chemistry Area) Energy & Environmental Science Poster Prize, Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC), UK in The 16th International Symposium on Polymer Electrolytes (ISPE-16).

ISPE is an international symposium on polymer electrolytes which deal with various advanced topics such as energy devices etc. ISPE takes place every other year, and 30 years had passed since the first ISPE was held in UK in 1987. In this occasion, it was second time for Japan to host ISPE after it was hosted in Yokohama 20 years ago. Board members of this conference includes Prof. Wight who discovered ionic conduction behavior of poly(ethylene oxide), Prof. Armand who suggested concept of Li ion secondary batteries in the earliest stage of the research field. This series of conference have been providing a precious platform to interact with the highest level of scientists in the related fields.

■Date Awarded
June 28, 2018

■Title
Gold NPs Incorporated Thermo-sensitive Materials Using PNIPAM and Polymerizable Ionic Liquids (Surabhi Gupta and Noriyoshi Matsumi)

■Abstract
Thermosensitive polymers such as poly(N-isopropylacrylamide) (PNIPAM) have been applied for sensors, drug-delivery systems, smart materials and so forth due to its LCST behavior. We reported that incorporation of ionic liquid structure to PNIPAM resulted in tuning of LCST temperature. In the present work, we further found that gold nanoparticle deposition on PNIPAM-polymerized ionic liquids copolymers results in further changes of LCST temperature to provide a novel protocol for control of LCST behavior. Gold nanoparticle deposition in the polymer had retarded the conformational changes of polymer chain, which resulted in higher LCST temperature. This design concept will be applied further for various LCST showing polymer/metal nano particles.

■Comment
I am pleased, honored and humbled to accept the Best Poster ISPE 2018 award, given by RSC, making it more special. This is my first appreciation of research and I am feeling extremely happy. I dedicate this award to my Professor Noriyoshi Matsumi, at JAIST who is the best teacher and an extremely supportive guide. A heartfelt thanks to my husband Dr. Ankit Singh and my families who is my encouragement and support-system. This award inspires me to be more focused and dedicated to work for more fruitful science.

July 5, 2018