58. H?mds?rmelkolloquium (H?Ko-2025) in Innsbruck
On Wednesday, February 26, 2025, parts of the AK Korbers (Paul, Michael) and AG G?rtners (Steffi, Vanessa, Matthias, Jan) took the train to Innsbruck for the 58th H?Ko. For two and a half days there were many exciting lectures and our master students got to know many people from the community. On Wednesday evening, the Innsbruckers hosted a get-together where both savory and sweet dishes were served. On Thursday morning, we were treated to some sunshine, so we took a short tour of the city on our way to the CCB building. Of course, we couldn't miss the Golden Roof.
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After the work was done, there was a conference dinner in the evening, which was accompanied by a brass band including harp and accordion. It felt like being at home :)
The last day started almost immediately with Steffi's talk on golden trielides, in which she presented Melissa and Vanessa's latest results on alkali metal trielides with gold. At noon we unfortunately left the beautiful and sunny Innsbruck by train or Flixbus in the direction of gray Germany.
New master students for AK Korber and AG G?rtner
In January and February, three SynCat students started at AK Korber and AG G?rtner for their master thesis.?
Welcome to the working group Jan, Matthias and Kajetan!
22nd Conference on Inorganic Chemistry by GDCH divisions of Inorganic Chemistry (W?hler-Vereinigung) and Solid-State Chemistry & Materials Research (Festk?rperchemie und Materialforschung)
From the 16.-18th of september the 22nd Conference on Inorganic Chemistry took place at the TUM Research Center in Garching. Together with the two members of AK Korber, Paul and Michael, we joint this conference, where we met old and new friends. While Steffi held a speech on tuesday, we four PhDs presented each our poster on monday or tuesday in the evening. After three days full with interessting talks, the conference ended with the social evening in the AUGUSTINER STAMMHAUS in Munich.
Visit from AK Hoch
On 6th of august four members of the AK Hoch including Tino visited us for the exchange of samples and some new learned techniques. As a surprise also Jan Minár joined our meeting. So the bosses could chat about different topics, while we PhDs worked in the lab. In the afternoon the session was relocated to the castle in Donaustauf and to Steffi?s garden, where she and her husband provided us with food and drinks. That's how we ended the official part in the evening.
Award for Stefanie G?rtner
Steffi was one of three outstanding female academics to be honoured with the Maria Weber Grant from the Hans B?ckler Foundation.
Pressemitteilung Uni Regensurg
Pressemitteilung Hans-B?ckler-Stiftung
Solid State Symposium in Hirschegg
This year we were once again able to take part in the Solid State Symposium in Hirschegg from 13-15 June 2024. After we closed the symposium last year, it is only fair to open this one. With two lectures on alkali metal trielides, we brought new insights into the world of polar intermetallics. This was followed by many more exciting presentations. Friday morning was free time, which most of us used for a hike.
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Visit to the LMU München
On 11 April 2024, we travelled to the Bavarian capital Munich and visited the AK Hoch at LMU Munich. After lunch together, Steffi went to the meetings with the other professors and we were both allowed to participate in a Cs2O presentation, weld silver yolks, prepare crystals in capillaries and get to know many other methods and great machines. The evening was rounded off with a presentation by Steffi, before ending with the post-session at the Gasthaus & Hotel zum ERDINGER Wei?br?u.
32nd Annual Meeting of the DGK in Bayreuth
Bayreuth is just under two hours by train from Regensburg. This was the venue for the 32nd annual conference of the German Society of Crystallography (DGK) from 18-21 March 2024. In addition to four plenary lectures from different disciplines, there were also many exciting microsymposia covering topics such as structural biology, crystallography under extreme conditions, quantum crystallography, aperiodic and disordered structures and much more. Vanessa and Melissa each presented the results of their research in one of the two poster sessions, whereby Melissa was allowed to tease her poster with an additional oral poster presentation.
On the first evening, we went to the Science Slam organised by Stoe, where some presented their own research in a satirical and funny way.
The next day there were three times four Microsymposia and one Plenary Lecture. During the generously calculated lunch break, we had some time to see Bayreuth. We ended the evening at the ‘Get Together’ of the Young Crystallographers, where we met Prof Dr Florian Kleemi? (RWTH Aachen) again.
The last evening was similar to the first. First there was a social evening in the restaurant ‘Liebesbier’ with very good food.
So with plenty of coffee, we were awake and ready for the first session on the last day. The conference ended with a great talk on misarrangements and quasicrystals.
Melissa's Blog Post for the Young Crystallographers
57. Hemds?rmelkolloquium in Stuttgart
In mid-March (14-16 March 2024), Steffi, Vanessa and Michael (AK Korber) travelled to the 57th Shirtsleeve Colloquium, which took place at the Max Planck Institute for Solid State Research in Stuttgart-Vaihingen. Steffi gave a lecture there alongside many other scientists (‘It's all in the mix’). To summarise, there was good food, lots of interesting conversations, discussions and also new contacts.
(Picture 1 from MPI Team, Picture 2 from Prof. Dr. Arno Pfitzner)
Festk?rperpraktikum, Forschungspraktikum und Synthec Versuche
Since December 2023, various internships have again taken place at our department and at Prof Korber's AK.
- On the one hand, we were able to supervise two groups for the 7th semester practical course on preparative methods. In addition to high-temperature solid-state syntheses in tantalum ampoules, they also carried out dissolution experiments in liquid ammonia. In addition, we also segregated potassium for purification and carried out diffraction experiments on single crystals and powders.
- ?Since the beginning of February, we have also had a research intern who is supporting Melissa in the investigation of mixed indidene thallides. She is also familiarising herself with our working methods, such as solid-state syntheses, dissolution experiments and diffraction experiments.
- ?As part of the synthesis techniques practical, Vanessa offers a reduction of RbCl with Ca to obtain elemental rubidium according to Hackspill.
Visit in Pilsen
We had all been looking forward to our visit to Pilsen, but Covid put a spanner in the works, at least for Steffi and Vanessa. Melissa and Jan-Malte therefore travelled to the Czech Republic alone. From 23.10.2023 to 25.10.2023, they visited the New Technologies Research Centre at the University of West Bohemia, where Prof. Dr Ján Minár's working group carried out the first XPS measurements on our alkali metal cadmium halides as part of the KKR and Wien2K workshop. This huge machine is really impressive, as in addition to XPS, ARPES measurements, a spin analysis and time-resolved photoemission can also be carried out. Melissa and Jan-Malte rounded off the fantastic visit together with the scientists from Pilsen in the L?K?RNA restaurant with delicious, traditional Czech food. Another trip to Pilsen is planned, and hopefully Vanessa and Steffi will be able to join them.
Front Cover for ZAAC
DOI: 10.1002/zaac.202300211
M. Janesch, V.F. Schwinghammer, I.G. Shenderovich, S. G?rtner, Z. Anorg. Allg. Chem. 2023, 649, e202300112. DOI:10.1002/zaac.202300112
KKR and Wien2K Workshop Part 1 in Regensburg
From 24-27.07.2023 we had a visit from the working group around Prof. Dr. Ján Minár from the New Technologies Research Centre of the University of West Bohemia in Pilsen. Ján Minár and his colleagues showed us new theoretical methods (KKR and Wien2K) and their equipment in the laboratory, with which we try to clarify questions about the ternary alkali metal trielides. We also showed them our working methods for solid-state production, laboratory facilities and single-crystal X-ray diffractometers in the ZA.
18th European Conference on Solid State Chemistry in Prag
The 18th European Solid State Conference ECSSC took place in an old Benedictine monastery in the west of Prague from 9-12 July 2023. In addition to exciting lectures on perovskites, battery materials, investigation methods and much more, we were also able to present our own results at one of the two poster sessions. After the informative but at the same time exhausting conference days at approx. 37°C, we were able to enjoy the golden city at night together with other conference participants.
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Visit from AK Hoch?
After Steffi and Constantin Hoch (LMU) met for the first time in persona at the DGK in Frankfurt am Main in March, Tino was invited to give a lecture at the AC Colloquium. On 29 June 2023, the time had come.
As the reception committee, Steffi and Vanessa picked up the AK Hoch (Tino, Daniel, Lukas, Irina and Timo) from the train station in Regensburg. A tight programme then began for the five of them. While Tino spent most of the time talking to other professors, we visited our laboratories and demonstrated working techniques from the Korber/ G?rtner working group, such as cesium visualisation according to Hackspill, tantalum welding, condensing ammonia and searching for crystals under nitrogen cooling.
After Tino's super interesting lecture, the evening ended with the first AC summer party in the chemistry beer garden.
Solid State Symposium in Hirschegg
After around 15 years, we took part in the Solid State Symposium in Hirschegg again from 8-11 June 2023 as the Regensburg representative. It was also (presumably) the 50th anniversary, which was celebrated with a special dinner on Friday after the hike. There were a total of 34 short lectures, the last of which was given by Vanessa. The evening lecture by PD Constantin Hoch (LMU) was dedicated to the history of ammonium amalgam.
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31st Annual Meeting of the DGK in Frankfurt (Main)
After a Germany-wide local and long-distance transport strike took place on Monday 27 March 2023 and the 31st annual conference of the German Crystallographic Society started in Frankfurt am Main, we spontaneously travelled by car instead of by ICE from Regensburg to Frankfurt. As a result, the conference was still somewhat sparsely attended on Monday, but this changed over the following days. After a day full of exciting talks, Tuesday ended with the first poster session, in which we presented our posters. On Wednesday, Steffi gave a talk in the Inorganic Structural Chemistry session. The day was rounded off with the Social Evening in Schuch's Restaurant. On the last day of the conference, Melissa was awarded one of three poster prizes for her poster on ‘Investigating the Role of Alkali Metals in the Structure Type K14Cd9Tl21’. She received a cash prize of �200 and a huge bouquet of flowers. In the afternoon, we visited Rigaku during a lab tour in Neu-Isenburg before travelling back to Regensurg by ICE.
Poster?Melissa, Poster Vanessa, Vortrag Steffi
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21st Conference on Inorganic Chemistry by GDCH divisions of Inorganic Chemistry (W?hler-Vereinigung) and Solid-State Chemistry & Materials Research (Festk?rperchemie und Materialforschung)
Together with the rest of the AK Korber, we (Melissa, Vanessa, AG G?rtner) went to Marburg from 26-28 September 2022 for the 21st Conference for Inorganic Chemistry of the GDCH departments W?hler-Vereinigung and Solid State Chemistry and Materials Research. We (almost) all presented a poster. The conference was rounded off with a social evening at the Hotel Restaurant Dammühle.
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30th Annual Meeting of DGK
The 30th Annual Meeting of the German Crystallographic Society was held as an online conference from 14-17 March 2022, after a face-to-face event in Munich was not possible due to the pandemic. Nevertheless, we were able to present a joint poster on the ternary compound Na7RbTl4. In addition, Steffi gave a talk on the alkali metal-thallide compounds in the approximate alkali metal to thallium ratio of 1:2.
