Tag: Department of Chemistry

Beyond the news: filming documentaries and features

While much of the media coverage of the College is generated by time-specific and research-led news and features, often with so much going on and so many interesting and exciting people at Imperial, there is scope for something a little more personal to feature.

PhD researcher and bride-to-be (now a newlywed) Kallie Heap (Chemistry) took part in the filming of an episode of Don’t Tell the Bride for BBC3’s hit programme, where the groom plans the wedding and hopes for the best! Most of the filming took place at home and with her friends, but on Thursday 6 June the programme came to film her in labs at Imperial.

Imperial in the news: chemical detection

Researchers from the College have developed a technique which could be used in devices to detect tiny concentrations of chemicals by police or security staff.

Postgraduate researchers Michael Cecchini, Jack Paget and Vladimir Turek, led by Dr Joshua Edel and Professor Alexei Kornyshev (all from the Department of Chemistry) have created a self-assembling sheet of metal nanoparticles to capture ‘harmful’ molecules and identify them using Surface Enhanced Raman Scattering (SERS) of light – a technique that has been well understood since the 1970s. The new system is effective at identifying the trace amounts of different chemicals and is an improvement on current technologies to create nanoparticle sheets, the solid structures of which are difficult to manufacture.