Employees of Voronezh State University presented their reports at the annual conference IWSN 2023 (The International School for Young Researchers Synchrotron Radiation and Smart Nanomaterials). The academic meeting took place at the Smart Materials Research Institute of the Southern Federal University at the Centre for Science-Based Engineering in Rostov-on-Don. The conference was held between 14 and 16 September. The conference was chaired by Professor Alexander Soldatov, Head of Smart Materials Research Institute of the Southern Federal University.
Head of the Department of General Physics Sergey Turishchev presented his report “Electronic structure and phase composition of Ni rod arrays formed in silicon dioxide matrix by synchrotron spectromicroscopy studies” and spoke about high-precision measurements as part of the project of the federal scientific and technical programme of development of synchrotron and neutron techniques and research infrastructure for 2019–2027.
Sofia Titova, a lecturer from the Faculty of Physics, presented the results of her work on studying porous silicon nanoparticles in her report “XANES investigation of the effect of the drying method on the composition and structure of porous silicon nanoparticles”. Porous silicon nanostructures have been widely used in the field of medicine over the last decade, in particular, in therapy and the area of diagnostics called theranostics. The conference participants were really interested in the report and asked many unusual questions.
Yulia Kakulia, lecturer from the Faculty of Physics, presented her report “Copper nanocrystals immobilization in porous SiO2 matrix by electron microscopy and synchrotron XANES studies”. In her report she emphasised the importance of studying the structures that are active in the field of surface-enhanced Raman light scattering when creating sensors. Such sensors can be used in various modern science-based fields, such as healthcare, diagnostics, and modern nanoelectronics.
Maxim Manyakin, PhD in Physics and Mathematics, researcher at the joint scientific and educational laboratory “Atomic and Electronic Structure of Functional Materials” of VSU and the National Research Centre “Kurchatov Institute”, talked about metal-oxide materials with a spatial structure of the rutile type. Such materials are widely used in various industrial fields, including electronics, chemistry, energy, and others.
All the presentations entailed active discussions among the conference participants. Reports by Sergey Turishchev, Sofia Titova, and Yulia Kakulia were prepared as part of the federal scientific and technical programme’s project “Distributed infrastructure of precision diagnostic methods in ultra-soft X-ray spectrum of synchrotron radiation for functional materials and nanoscale structures, including nano-, bio-, and hybrid materials, for the benefit of promising technologies and technical systems: from education technologies and fundamental research to practical application”. Maxim Manyakin expressed his gratitude for the support of the performed studies to the Russian Science Foundation (project No. 22-72-00145).
