We handed the keys of @ChemCambridge to PhD student Sonja Osbild to celebrate both the Chemistry Open Day and the Cambridge Festival. Osbild researches structural colours in cellulose materials in the Bio-Inspired photonics lab.
Some highlights of the week include:
Time for food (for thought 💭) – how can we use food waste to make #bioinspired #materials that bring us one step closer to a #circulareconomy? 🔄 We’ll show you two examples from our #research @VignoliniLab today! pic.twitter.com/lLWIFKxpvV
— Cambridge Chemistry (@ChemCambridge) April 5, 2022
Bacterial #cellulose🧫 (BC) is a natural biofilm. It contains over 99% of water💧 within its network while keeping its superior mechanical performance. BC could be useful for many applications in our everyday life, such as wound dressings, living textiles or photobioreactors. pic.twitter.com/5h7rjmawft
— Cambridge Chemistry (@ChemCambridge) April 5, 2022
Stay tuned for our Open Day for @Cambridge_Fest this Saturday!🤩What will the soap bubble and a grassy box teach you about our #research at @VignoliniLab❓ #CamFest #bioinspired #photonics #womeninSTEM pic.twitter.com/93Zk9wz7Dt
— Cambridge Chemistry (@ChemCambridge) April 6, 2022
The secret no chemist👩🏾🔬 wants you to know:
Doing chemical reactions is not "A+B ➡️C". There is a often lengthy process called #purification involved😨
Here: Drying samples of modified monomer for growing conductive polymers from #cellulose #nanocrystals. pic.twitter.com/3NPrIxKL7e— Cambridge Chemistry (@ChemCambridge) April 7, 2022
About Sonja
Osbild has been with the University of Cambridge since 2020 and, with experience in dyes, wanted to approach colours from a sustainable angle. In Silvia Vignolini's group, she is working on structural colours which rely on their molecular arrangement to determine their colours as opposed to pigments or dyes.
Using plant fibres, cellulose, as the building blocks for this work, Osbild works on ways to create these structures with a focus on optimising their creation.
Chemistry Open Day
The Open day is a historically bustling event at the Yusuf Hamied Department of Chemistry and we were excited to ressurect it after two years of lockdown. Even though restrictions meant that things were a little quieter than usual, the atmosphere was bubbling, fizzing, shining, and brimming with chemical reactions.
pH indicators turning green to purple at our Open Day #CamFest #ChemFun pic.twitter.com/BxkFUVh3F6
— Cambridge Chemistry (@ChemCambridge) April 9, 2022
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