Press

• Perovskites promise to be the next star material for solar cells, but the reason of their high efficiency is still unknown.
• Researchers at the Institute of Materials Science in Barcelona (ICMAB-CSIC) and the Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin für Materialien und Energie (Germany) have demonstrated with a new microscopy technique that perovskites are not ferroelectric, as was thought.
• The new technique, patented by CSIC in 2017, is the direct piezoelectric force microscopy (DPFM) which, for the first time, is used in lead halide perovskite solar cells.

• The new Nature Index 2019 is out, and the data confirm the expected: ICMAB is the first CSIC center in research outputs per capita in the ranking, and the second in terms of research outputs.
• CSIC is the first research institute in Spain, and is ranked the 54th research institution worldwide, and the 4th government institution, in terms of research outputs. 

• Material engineering at the nanoscale can be successfully employed in the design of a new type of materials: this is the case of superlattices formed by layers the same material with different crystal structure.
• The study, published in Nano Letters, paves the way for efficient thermoelectric and nanoelectronic devices, which require high quality materials without defects within their structure and interfaces.

Published in Advanced Materials Technologies a Review on the recent progress on the use of organic semiconductors blended with insulating binding polymers as active materials in organic transistors. This route leads to more reliable, less expensive devices with enhanced electrical performance. A great work by Sergi Riera-Galindo, Francesca Leonardi, Raphael Pfattner and Marta Mas-Torrent. 

Published in Physical Review X a study which, by combining the “long-wave method,” a mainstay of condensed-matter theory since the 50s, with modern electronic-structure techniques, researchers obtain highly accurate predictions of physical responses of crystals to nonhomogenous external perturbations. A great work by Miquel Royo and Massimiliano Stengel! 

ICMAB researchers have collaborated in a study led by ICIQ researchers that look in detail at the interfaces in perovskite solar cells to understand the differences observed in their performance.

One of the seven awarded photos in this year's edition of FOTCIENCIA, the photo from our PhD fellow, Cristiano Matricardi, "Trampa de luz" is the star of the HERALDO newspaper article "Juegos de luces entre la naturaleza y el laboratorio" by María Pilar Perla Mateo. You can read here the article. 

One of our workshops for primary school students called "Become a Materials Detective" is the star of the TV children's show "Catacrak" from Barcelona Televisió (betevé), showcasted on Sunday 31 March 2019! Students from the school "Escola Mestre Morera" from Barcelona came to ICMAB to participate in the activity, in which they are introduced to the nanoworld and to the daily life of minerals. Do you want to see the video?

The Nature Chemistry journal celebrates its 10th anniversary asking some scientists working in different areas fo chemistry what did they think about the future development of their main field of research: the most amazing, exciting, important or challenging aspects they think are the most relevant. 

On 29 March 2019, the Presidency of the CSIC signed the institutional mandate of Open Access. It is a strong impulse for the open access of different types of CSIC research results, including peer-reviewed publications and associated research data, through the DIGITAL.CSIC repository.

Many of the people (researchers, students, technicians, administrative staff) that have worked at ICMAB since its foundation in 1986, are now developing their career and continuing their training in leading academic institutions and industries all over the world. Are you one of them? Would you like to keep in touch with your former colleagues? Then continue reading...

The online website "Motor Pasion" about the cars and motor word, opens their site today with a news post about the electric vehicle and the future batteries. M. Rosa Palacín, researcher at ICMAB, was consulted by the author of the article, Victoria Fuentes, and appers in the article giving her point of view and state of the art. Read it to know more about it! 

• A recently published study presents a new method to prevent infection by plant pathogens using bacterial cellulose and silver nanoparticles hybrid patches
• The study is the result of the collaborative work between two research groups belonging to ICMAB and CRAG, both Severo Ochoa Centers of Excellence at the UAB Campus

In last RECERCAT newsletter, our vice-director and researcher, M. Rosa Palacín, was interviewed. She talked about her research in batteries, about the arrival of the electric vehicle, about gender equality in reserach and about materials science in general. Read the interview here!

A new laser-based technique developed by the Institute of Materials Science (ICMAB-CSIC) uses urea, a common substance in the chemical industry and a low-cost alternative to noble metal co-catalysts, to enable a more efficient, one-step production of hybrid graphene-based organic-inorganic composite layers for environmental remediation; photodegradation of antibiotic contaminants from wastewater. The composition and chemical bonds of the urea-enriched thin layers were studied in detail using synchrotron light at the ALBA Synchrotron.

Arántzazu González, researcher from the ICMAB-CSIC, went on 11 February to a Primary School (Can Maiol) to talk to the students and visibilize women scientists, within the initative "Nuestras científicas: Jornada de investigadoras actuales y futuras" of the CSIC-Catalunya. The initiative appeared on the TVE1 news programme "L'informatiu" at 2 pm on 11 February 2019. Look at it here, from minute 16:04! 

The students of physics and chemistry of 4th ESO of the highschool "La Tordera" in Santa Maria de Palautordera received the visit on 6 February 2019 of Anna Laromaine, researcher at ICMAB. Anna visited the highschool in the framework of the #11F2019, the International Day of Women and Girls in Science, in which many researchers gave talks in primary and secondary schools during that week. 

Anna Laromaine, researcher at the N&N group at ICMAB, was interviewed by People First, a platform where people from different institutions and enterprises are highlighted. Anna, included in the Top 100 Women more influent in Spain, and awarded in 2016 with the L'Oréal-Unesco For Women in Science Research Award, describes her work as a researcher in nanomedicine, talks about the future of nanotechnology and women in science, about her role models in life, and about being a researcher, a university teacher and an entrepreneur at the same time. 

On 29 December 2018 the article "Martí Gich rep dos milions d'euros per investigar el 5G", written by the journalist Núria Jar, was published in the printed version of the "Diari de Sabadell", a local newspaper from the near city of Sabadell.

Núvol, the digital newspaper about culture, published on 28 December 2018 an article entitled "Escletxes per incloure la dona en la ciència" about our participation in the "Science & Tech Girls Vallès" event, which took pace on 17 November 2018 at the Biblioteca Vapor Badia (Sabadell).

Would you like to know which are the 10 most cited articles of all time published by ICMAB researchers? Well, we have done the job for you. After looking the Web of Science-Core collection, we obtain the following results: 

On 19 December 2018, Nora Ventosa and the other new IEC numerary members were invited to the morning radio programme "El matí de Catalunya Ràdio" to participate in the roundtable "La Tertúlia" with Monica Terribas. 

After another year, we look back and see how was this year's scientific research. More than 200 articles, which makes a total of more than 5,200 publications (remember that we reached the 5,000 this last February?) and more than 140,000 citations since the Institue's foundation, in 1986, which makes an average of more than 13,300 citations per year, and 27 citations per article.

The most cited articles of 2018 are shown in this post. Do you want to know which ones are they?

During 2018, ICMAB researchers have written more than 200 articles in international peer-review science journals of various disciplines: chemistry, physics, materials, nanotechnology, photonics, energy, superconductivity, biochemistry, etc. We have selected in this post the journals with the highest Impact Factor (IF) in which the researchers have published an article. Do you want to know which they are?

• Researchers at the Polytechnic University of Valencia, the Institute of Materials Science of Barcelona and the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility have characterized the structural, electronic and magnetic behavior of nanoparticles of a rare phase of iron oxide, the epsilon phase, under extreme pressure conditions, emulating the conditions of the interior of the Earth.
• The study, published in Nature Communications, concludes that the presence of this rare phase of iron oxide in the inner Earth is possible, and that under these conditions there is a new iron oxide phase, epsilon prime, with magnetic properties radically different from those known so far.

Ferran Macià, researcher at the MULFOX group at ICMAB, and at the University of Barcelona (Fundamental Physics Department) is co-author of the article "Subnanosecond magnetization dynamics driven by strain waves" published in the MRS Bulletin, the monthly Material Science publication with technical theme topics, news, reviews, and commentary. 

M. Rosa Palacín, researcher at ICMAB-CSIC and coordinator of the CARBAT project on the development of rechargeable calcium-based batteries appears in this news post in Business Insider, written by Raúl Salinas on the future batteries for electric vehicles. Read the whole text here:

Teresa Puig was on November 15, 2018, on the radio! The program "La Nit Estèrica" from Terrassa Digital (95.2 FM) interviewed Teresa Puig, ICMAB researcher from Terrassa. They talked about superconducting materials and about the begining of Teresa Puig in the superconducting world, about her current projects, and many more things!

• According to Nature Index, ICMAB is the first CSIC center in research outputs per capita in the ranking, and the second in terms of research outputs.
• CSIC is the first research institute in Spain, and is ranked the 50th research institution worldwide, and the 4th government institution, in terms of research outputs. 

On Tuesday, 6 November, the "Consejo de Política Científica, Tecnológica y de Innovación" (CPTI) from the Spanish Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities updated the new Map of the Singular Scientific and Technological Infrastructures (ICTS) for 2017-2020. NANBIOSIS, whose Director is Prof. Jaume Veciana from the ICMAB, and in which the ICMAB and many CSIC institutes participate, is one of these 29 ICTS that renewed its accreditation.

On Saturday, 17 November 2018, we participated in the "Science Tech Girls Vallès" event, in the Library Vapor Badia in Sabadell. The event was planned as a morning full of science and technology for girls between 8 and 18 years old. Boys could also participate, but it was an action to encourage the participation of girls in science. The morning started at 10 am with the dramatised reading, created and performed by ICMAB women, "Madame du Châtelet and her Instagram followers", which wants to visibilize the women scientists throughout history. 

• Researchers from the Institute of Materials Science of Barcelona (ICMAB-CSIC) have successfully demonstrated a combinatorial platform that evaluates how good an organic material is for photovoltaic applications.
• The platform method is 50 times faster and saves about 90 % of material compared to the conventional evaluation protocols.
• The study has been published in Advanced Electronic Materials, where it has been back cover, and is performed in the framework of the ERC project FOREMAT from Dr. Mariano Campoy-Quiles

ICMAB researchers Gervasi Herranz, Blai Casals and Rafael Cichelero, from the MULFOX group, have contributed to a study led by the group of Manuel Bibes, from Unité Mixte de Physique CNRS/Thales (France), published in Nature Physics on October 15, 2018. The study, entitled "Giant topological Hall effect in correlated oxide thin films" describes the discovery of a giant topological Hall effect arising from the topology of spatial distribution of spin textures. 

On Thursday 11 October 2018, the programme "Els Matins de TV3", directed by Lídia Heredia, interviewed researcher Teresa Puig about the superconducting materials, in their section devoted to science, and presented by Daniel Arbós. The section, of more than 18 minutes long, explains what superconducting materials are, what are their main applications, and shows the levitation experiment. 

The last issue of the Revista Española de Física (RdF) of the RSEF contains five articles written by the winners of the XII edition of the Research Awards "For Women in Science" from L'Oréal-UNESCO. The Editorial Committee decided to invite them to write an article about their research for the section "Temas de Física". Mariona Coll, from the ICMAB, has written the article "Oxides and low-cost chemical methods: New perspectives for photovoltaics".

Watch here the video of the e-GAMES project, the ERC Starting Grant project awarded to Marta Mas-Torrent, explained here in plain words for everyone to understand!