Chemistry Challenge 2022 results announced

The results of the RSC Belgium Chemistry Challenge 2022 were announced at our event on 29 September with Prof Vincent Lemaitre at the British School of Brussels (BSB) in Tervuren. As for the previous two years, this year's Chemistry Challenge was undertaken as a virtual event in the early summer with the students working remotely at their schools.

For the 2022 Challenge, we received entries from the majority of our group of international and European schools in the Brussels area and beyond and, as ever, the Challenge was designed to test the student's chemical knowledge and initiative. In total entries for 2022 were significantly up on 2021.

The RSC Belgium Chemical Challenge has three sections:

• A chemistry multiple choice paper (Section A)
• A structured questions on chemistry (Section B), and
• A 'Thinking Matters' paper that is not chemistry based (Section C)

The top results were as follows:

Section A - Multiple choice

First prize for this section was won by Olivia Brenninkmeijer from the Antwerp International School (AIS), pictured below, who received a €50 award.

In second place was Giorgia Lucrezia la Cognata from the European School in Mol (ESMol) who won €25 and the third prize of €10 went to Zeynep Ozel of BSB.

Section B - Structured questions

In this section the first prize of €50 was awarded to Kiara Kuralla of BSB with Matei Slavnicu from St.Johns International School (St John’s) picking up the second prize of €25. Two third prizes of €10 were awarded to Siena Ootes of the European School 1 in Luxembourg (ESL1) and Zeynep Ozel of BSB.

Section C - Thinking Matters

For this section the top prize of €50 went to Kheya Sinha of BSB, with BSB's Kalvin Biggs picking up a second prize of €25. Four third places worth €10 were awarded to Simon Guisset and Philipp Weisser of ESL1 and Kiara Kuralla and Naomi Copner from BSB.

The Keith Price Prize

With an outstanding performances in Section B, and receiving an additional €100, this year's Keith Price Prize was claimed by Kiara Kuralla of BSB (pictured below on the far right with some other BSB winners - from left to right Kalvin Biggs, Kheya Sinha, Naomi Copner, Zeynep Ozel and Kiara). 

Well done to everyone who took part in this year's Chemistry Challenge! Every student that entered the competition receives a certificate of participation (see pic from ESL1 below). And, of course, we will be running the Challenge again in 2023 and look forward to further widening participation!

Extreme phenomena in our universe, from the infinitely small to the infinitely large

On the evening of 29 September 2022 RSC Belgium welcomed back, once again, Professor Vincent Lemaitre from Universite Catholique de Louvain to discuss the latest thinking in high energy and astrophysics in a talk on ‘Key experiments probing extreme phenomena in the universe from very small to very large scale structures’. His talk was our first in-person talk since the COVID pandemic and was hosted at the British School of Brussels. This event was also the prize giving ceremony for our Chemistry Challenge 2022 for school students.

Scientific knowledge is forged through observation of nature and the development of scientific theories. The latter must not only explain observations, but they must also make predictions that can be verified by experiments! By construction, and contrary to beliefs, scientific theories are therefore falsifiable by possible observations not predicted or understood by theories. Present theories are therefore doomed to be replaced by new ones, more complete and more efficient. The key element for the development of new theories is therefore our ability to observe nature in its smallest corners and extreme conditions - at different spatial and temporal scales, and at different levels of structural complexity.

In the talk, Prof Lemaitre took us through three recent experiments in physics that allow us to observe (or reproduce the conditions of) extreme phenomena in our universe, from the infinitely small to the infinitely large.

They were:

• The CMS experiment at the LHC (Particle Physics and the discovery of the Higgs boson)
• The LIGO/VIRGO experiments (General Relativity and the discovery of gravitational wave), and
• The ICECUBE/KM3NeT experiments (Physics of Astroparticles and the first observation of Blazers – a form of supermassive black hole - with neutrinos).

After presenting the main result(s) obtained by these significant projects, Vincent briefly discussed some future experimental projects in each of these research fields.

The talk was followed by a networking reception where the discussion continued.

We had hoped to combine the live 'in-person' event with a webinar version but a few technical hitches prevented this and we also were unable to record a video version of the event. Our apologies for this.

Norman Lloyd Fundraiser 2022

RSC Belgium members and friends were treated to a sunny afternoon on Saturday 20 August to raise funds for our Dr. Norman Lloyd Scholarships at Cardiff University.

Our hosts for the afternoon were Rita and Peter Woodward and the venue was their beautiful garden in Duisberg.

Assisting with proceedings were are Nina (Nostra Nina Lions from D’Es) and Treeze (Treeze Lions from D’Es) - Rita and Peter's two pedigree Leonbergers. Leonbergers are rather large but very friendly canines, but if they decide to lean on you you know about it! 

Rita and Peter provided a sumptuous spread for their guests including drinks. Tim Reynolds brought along Timm's Pimm's and blackberry sherbet.

A tombola was held with some fine prizes and in total, including donations from people unable to attend, over 900 euros were raised for our Norman Lloyd scholarships.

The Scholarships

The Norman Lloyd scholarship was established by RSC Belgium in cooperation with Cardiff University in memory of our long-term friend and supporter Norman Lloyd.  The Dr Norman C. Lloyd Scholarship provides an annual scholarship of £1,000 for an undergraduate student, usually in their first year of study,  at the Cardiff School of Chemistry. So far eight undergraduates have been recipients of the award. Find out more here.

If you would like to make a donation to the Scholarship fund, you can transfer your contribution to the RSC Belgium ING account BE 91 3630 8144 4876 making sure to include the reference 'Norman Lloyd Scholarship Fund'.

Foreign bodies uncovered

On Saturday 2 July, RSC Belgium members and friends were treated to a fascinating guided walk around the lower town in Brussels led by Dr Paul Snell. Paul specialises in art and architectural tours usually with a particular theme or geographical focus and for our walk he took us on a tour of ‘Foreign Bodies’.

The walk started with a coffee at Le Cirio café in central Brussels. We learnt that this grand and venerable Brussels establishment was originally set up as a canned vegetable store in the 1880s by Italian Francesco Cirio as part of a chain of stores across Europe. You can still spot Cirio tomatoes on the shelves of your local store. The cafe has also been a regular backdrop for films.

The tour then moved on to the Metropole hotel to learn about the Solvay Conferences via the Rodin reliefs on the Bourse and eventually ended at Mont des Arts. Here many of the party enjoyed an optional lunch on the terrace of the Restaurant Albert on the fifth floor of the Belgian Royal Library (KBR).  

Our thanks to Paul for a truly informative and entertaining walk packed with facts and anecdotes: it would be true to say 'we all learned something - in fact several new things' during the excursion! 

My personal favourite was that Jean Neuhaus, inventor (or was it his wife?) of the praline and ballotin box, was another Italian visitor to Belgium (original family name Casanova!) and was a pharmacist. His first pharmacy shop was in Galeries St. Hubert and he started coating his medical pills with chocolate to make them more palatable.

Paul's Foreign Bodies walks explore places associated with various guests, visitors, exiles, invaders and liberators in the capital. Our tour also included historical characters like Jacques-Louis David, Victor Hugo, Karl Marx, Verlaine, and Baudelaire (not a big fan of Brussels).

Preventing breast cancer recurrence and metastasis

On the evening of 19 May 2022 RSC Belgium members and friends tuning in for a webinar event describing a major breakthrough for the prevention of breast cancer recurrences and metastases with Professor Pierre Sonveaux of the Universite catholique de Louvain. The webinar presented the current state of knowledge in cancer research and in particular the recent discovery of a very promising treatment using the drug MitoQ to prevent metastasis: the mechanism(s) by which cancer spreads from an initial or primary site to a different or secondary site within the host's body.

In many ways, cancer can be thought of as a metabolic disease, said Professor Sonveaux, where cancer cells attempt to grow and multiply by gradually depleting locally available food resources. When these resources dwindle to the point of creating cellular starvation and waste accumulates, some cancer cells activate a metastatic programme which, when fully operational, allows them to leave hostile areas to colonise areas that are more welcoming, often in distant organs.

In clinical practice, this process often marks the transition from curative medical interventions to palliative medical interventions. In breast cancer, Professor Pierre Sonveaux ‘s team has demonstrated that it is possible to halt the metastatic process by blocking the activity of metabolic sensors inside cancer cells. One of the most promising molecules, as it can be administered to humans without major side effects at the doses required to have an effect, is MitoQ. 

This drug holds great promise in preventing cancer from spreading and, therefore, increasing recovery rates for patients. Future research will work to convert this hope into a clinical reality. Prof Sonveaux’s work has focused on the use of MitoQ in breast cancer, but he indicated that studies are showing good results for other cancers, including prostate cancer. This very informative presentation was followed by a lively question and answer session. 

The webinar was recorded and can be viewed below or via the RSC Belgium YouTube channel. Apologies for some issues with the sound quality in parts of this video.

About Prof. Pierre Sonveaux

Pierre Sonveaux is Pharmacist by training. After a Diplôme d’Etudes Approfondies in the team of Prof. Benoît Van den Eynde at the Brussels branch of the Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research, he obtained his PhD in Pharmaceutical Sciences (vascular oncology) under the supervision of Prof. Olivier Feron at the Université catholique de Louvain in 2004. As a postdoc, he joined the lab of Prof. Mark W. Dewhirst at Duke University. Back at UCLouvain in 2008, Pierre won an ERC starting grant, was promoted to Assistant Professor, and created his own team of translational research. He is now Research Director of the F.R.S.-FNRS and extra-ordinary Professor at UCLouvain. His team is currently active in three main areas: understanding the oxidative pathway of lactate in cancer; characterising and harnessing the metabolic control of (tissue-specific) cancer metastasis; and unravelling the contribution of cancer and host cell metabolism to chemo- and radio resistance for cancer re-sensitisation. He has authored more than 125 peer-reviewed papers and has nine patent applications.

Nuclear Energy at EU Level - Current State of Play and Outlook

On the evening of Thursday 28 April 2022 RSC Belgium hosted a webinar talk from Andrei Goicea, Policy Director with FORATOM - The Voice of the European Nuclear Industry. The title of Andrei's presentation was 'Nuclear Energy at EU Level - Current State of Play and Outlook'.

Andrei talked about FORATOM and the status of nuclear energy at EU level. He outlined the benefits of nuclear energy and its future at EU level including new developments, such as the European Green Deal that will impact on the nuclear sector.

He looked at the potential of nuclear for sustainable hydrogen production and its role in European industrial strategy. Other topics included that were covered included security of energy supply, energy pricing and the potential of small modular reactors (SMRs).

The nuclear energy sector currently includes a fleet of over 100 reactors in the EU that supports over 1 million jobs and produces around 25% of the EU's electricity – the highest single source of electricity. Andrei highlighted that nuclear is an option for decarbonization and that few EU nations will achieve the 2030 carbon emissions targets with their current mix of power production. The exceptions being nations like France and Sweden with higher contributions of nuclear power.

In terms of its potential for hydrogen production, the characteristics of nuclear power production are well suited to running electrolysers at greater capacity than other low-carbon options, so so-called 'pink hydrogen' ('green hydrogen' is defined as hydrogen generated by renewable power - solar, wind etc) has better economics.

The very informative presentation was followed by a lively question and answer session. You can download Andrei's presentation here and a recording of the webinar can be viewed below or via our RSC Belgium YouTube channel.

About the speaker

Andrei Goicea graduated in 2002 from both the University Politehnica of Bucharest - Faculty of Power Engineering as a nuclear engineer and the “Spiru Haret” University, Marketing and Foreign Trade Faculty as an economist. He also holds a masters degree from the University Politehnica of Bucharest - Faculty of Power Engineering in nuclear safety and radiological protection from 2003.

He started work with FORATOM - The Voice of the European Nuclear Industry - in May 2015 and is currently Policy Director. He previously worked at Nuclearelectrica in Romania (2003 – 2013) and on the Mochovce Units 3 and 4 Project in Slovakia (2013-2015).

Chemical recycling: Enabling plastic waste to become a valuable resource

On the evening of Thursday 31 March 2022 RSC Belgium members and friends enjoyed a highly informative talk on 'Chemical recycling: Enabling plastic waste to become a valuable resource' with Henk Pool from Cefic – the European Chemical Industries Association.

“Every year, Europeans generate 25 million tonnes of plastic waste, but less than 30% is collected for recycling” states the 2018 European Plastics Strategy. Henk showed us how EU regulation and chemical innovation is ensuring that recycling and reuse can minimise waste and build a circular economy for plastics in Europe.

EU initiatives

The EU Green Deal is at the heart of the EU’s ambitions of becoming a climate-neutral continent. To meet these ambitious European objectives, much more plastic waste needs to be collected, sorted and prepared for recycling and a broader range of markets need to be supplied with plastic products containing recycled content.

The European ambition to transition from a linear economy towards a sustainable circular economy calls for an array of complementary innovative recycling solutions and business models. Chemical recycling enables the production of chemicals including plastics from End-of-Life plastic waste streams that are currently incinerated, placed in landfill or exported.

Over the last decades, recycling of plastics has been mostly limited to plastic waste streams which were relatively easy to collect and recycle through mechanical recycling. For packaging this led to overall plastic recycling rate of 41%. Yet still today, a large part of plastic waste ends up in landfill or incineration.

Chemical innovation

To further increase plastic recycling, other and complementary recycling routes will be required to process plastics that are difficult to be handled in mechanical recycling processes. Chemical recycling can therefore fill a void in the plastics recycling loop, conserve valuable resources, and contribute to the creation of a low-carbon circular economy.

Chemical recycling technologies allow the use of plastic waste as feedstock for the chemical industry and replace fossil feedstock materials to produce new chemicals including plastics. Chemical recycling can upgrade the quality and produce secondary feedstock materials that are equivalent to virgin resources. Chemical recycling also has the potential to remove undesired additives and impurities allowing the use as recycled content in high-demanding applications such as food contact materials or medical applications.

During the webinar Henk clarified the different recycling options and routes for plastic waste; took us through the EU policy framework and its developments; and discussed the progress made and the need for further collaboration in technology development, value chain – market developments, and policy development to hit the EU’s ambitious targets.

More information

You can access the slides that Henk presented here and much more information on initiatives in this area can be found on Cefic’s Chemical Recycling Website.

Green and Sustainable Chemistry

On the evening of Thursday 24 February 2022 RSC Belgium opened its 2022 programme with a webinar talk from RSC President Professor Tom Welton OBE on Green and Sustainable Chemistry.

In the presentation Tom discussed the development of the complimentary ideas of Green Chemistry and Sustainable Chemistry. He showed how regulation has led to innovation, how ideas of the scale of anthropogenic impacts on the environment have changed, and how Green Chemistry and Sustainable Chemistry relate to each other.

From a Belgian perspective it was interesting that Tom highlighted the Solvay process to produce Soda-Ash as one of the first examples of  sustainable chemistry. In 1861, Belgian industrial chemist Ernest Solvay turned his attention to the expensive and highly polluting existing process to produce this precursor to soap. Solvay's process was more economical and with its recycling of ammonia, less polluting. The Solvay's constructed a plant in Couillet, today a suburb of Charleroi, and when on to build up an immense fortune based on chemistry.

Tom argued that sustainable chemistry is vital to achieving the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and that the future for chemistry lay in 'Safe and Sustainable by Design chemicals'.

Professor Tom Welton OBE FRSC CChem FCGI is Professor of Sustainable Chemistry at Imperial College London. He served as Head of Imperial’s Department of Chemistry from 2007 to 2014 and as Dean of the Faculty of Natural Science from 2015 to 2019. He is a Fellow and the current President of the Royal Society of Chemistry and previously connected with RSC Belgium during our 2021 AGM. Tom's research focuses on sustainable chemistry, with particular focus on ionic liquids and on solvent effects on chemical reactions. 

You can relive the full webinar below or via the RSC Belgium YouTube Channel.

RSC Belgium 2022 AGM

The 2022 Annual General Meeting (AGM) of the Royal Society of Chemistry's Belgium International section (RSC Belgium) took place on the evening of  Friday 14 January 2022 via webinar meeting on Microsoft Teams.

The meeting commenced at 19:35. Tweleve section members attended the meeting online: Bob Crichton (Chair), Tim Reynolds (Secretary), Julie Tuppeny (Treasurer), David Terrell, Fabio Lucaccioni, Rita Woodward, Susan Schamp, Dharmjeet Madhav, Ricky Payen, Ari Koskinen, Geoffrey Knight and Richard Green.

Also in attendance were co-opted Committee members: Bo Dahlqvist and Jonathan Norris.

Twelve section members who were unable to attend the AGM sent their apologies and had asked the Chair to act as their proxy for the meeting if a vote was required. These members were: Deepak Pant, Brian Sutcliffe, Filip du Prez, Steven De Feyter, Lance Smallshaw, Albert Dijkstra, Marie-Beatrice Madec, Eveline Volcke, Joshua Holloway, Catherine Cazin, Tracey Ehiwe and Colin McCarney.

1. Apologies for absence

There no further apologies were noted.

2. Approval of Minutes of 2021 AGM

No corrections were suggested, and the meeting moved (Rita Woodward), seconded (Susan Schamp) and hence unanimously adopted the minutes.

4. Committee Report on the Section’s 2021 Activities (Tim Reynolds – Secretary)

The Secretary presented the 2021 report.

“As in 2020 the activities of the section have been significantly impacted by the continuing COVID crisis. However, building on our success in 2020 in initiating webinar-based activities RSC Belgium was able to run a comprehensive programme of activities. During 2021 RSC Belgium managed to organise seven public lecture webinars, our AGM, a fund raising social, and our two annual school outreach events: the Chemistry Challenge and the Top of the Bench ‘European Eliminator’. We also welcomed our eighth Norman Lloyd scholarship recipient at Cardiff University.

Our 2021 AGM was run as a webinar event on Microsoft Teams on the evening of 29 January and we were fortunate to be joined over the ether by RSC President Professor Tom Welton of Imperial College London and RSC CEO Dr Helen Pain. The AGM was recorded and is now available, along with many of our webinar events, on our own dedicated YouTube channel. Please note that our first lecture event of 2022 will be given by Prof Welton on 24 February 2022 on the topic of 'Sustainable Chemistry'.

We kicked our lecture programme in 2021 on 11 February with Prof James Durrant also from Imperial College on developments in Sustainable Solar Fuels. This was followed on 18 March with a fascinating talk from Professor Annemie Bogaerts of the University of Antwerp on plasma-based catalysis and processes in particular for CO2 conversion.

On 22 April members and friends of the section enjoyed a talk on ‘Edible Oils and Fats’ from long-time section member Dr Albert Dijkstra a well-known expert in this field and on 27 May we welcomed back Professor Nick Lane from University College London to explore the question: How does chemistry come alive?

During the summer, while COVID restrictions were more relaxed, the section was once again able to hold an appropriately socially distanced fundraising event for our Norman Lloyd Scholarships at Setsuko Lloyd’s house in Lasne. A very sunny and enjoyable afternoon raised a total of €860 for the fund.

During the year, our seventh recipient of a Norman Lloyd scholarship at Cardiff University, Cara Watkins, worked hard and enjoyed the 1^st year of her chemistry degree and at the end of the year we received news of eighth recipient, MartimGouveia Pereira, who started his degree course in the Autumn term. After the deduction of £1,000 for Martim’s award and including the funds raised in 2021 the Norman C Lloyd Scholarship Fund currently stands at £1,278.62.

September saw the results of our 2021 Chemistry Challenge announced. As for the previous year we had to organise a virtual event but received entries from the majority of our group of international and European schools in the Brussels area and beyond. The prize-winners from the Challenge, including this year’s overall winner and recipient of the coveted Keith Price Award, were announced at a very entertaining and informative webinar event with Dr John O'Donoghue of Trinity College Dublin on 'Chemistry in the Movies' on the evening of 23 September.

On the evening of  21 October RSC Belgium members and friends were treated to an inspiring webinar talk from regular Chemistry World columnist and author Dr Philip Ball on The Beauty of Chemistry.

Our final lecture event of the year was on 25 November with Professor Jean-François Gohy from the Université Catholique de Louvain on advances and opportunities for future battery technologies.

Our Top of the Bench (TOTB)regional heat was also, again, a virtual affair taking place in late November and early December. In 2021 only four teams from two schools had been able to complete and return results in our first attempt at a COVID-proof TOTB, but this year 13 teams from seven schools were involved – returning participation to pre-COVID levels – and including for the first-time teams from the European Schools in Luxembourg. For 2021 online written and hands-on practical exercises were set by RSC Belgium committee members Rita Woodward and Susan Schamp. As ever the competition was very close with some notable individual performances and excellent teamwork, but the overall winner was the Titanium team from St Georges International School – that school’s third win a row - who will be representing RSC Belgium at the TOTB finals in March 2022.

We hope to be running a full programme of events during 2022 – either virtual or physical depending on the evolving COVID situation – and look forward to seeing many members and friends on screen or face-to-face during the year. Details of forthcoming events can always be found on the RSC Belgium blog.

As mentioned, our next programmed event is with Professor Tom Welton on 24 February 2022 on the topic of 'Sustainable Chemistry'. Further events will be announced.”

There were no questions on the report, and it was unanimously approved.

5. Financial Report of 2020 (Julie Tuppeny – Treasurer)

The treasurer presented the 2021 financial report and accounts.

“Like previous years 2021 was planned to be another busy year, until restrictions due to the Covid-19 pandemic saw cancellations and lectures moved online for RSC Belgium Section (RSCB) and its committee.

Our two annual competitions for schools, the Chemistry Challenge Competition were well attended with 68 students taking part, and the Top of the Bench (TOTB) Eliminator Round.

On 1^st January 2021, the net assets of RSC Belgium Section were €10,709. 91 The Annual Grant for 2021 was received in July 2021 from RSC UK of € 2,626.25 which was less than the 4,952.50 that was asked for.

Major items of expenditure during the year are listed below.

• € 706 to organise the Chemistry Challenge of which €620 was prize money.
• € 236.97  to organise the TOTB eliminator round.

For the Year ending 31 December 2021, the net assets of RSC Belgium Section amount to €9,563.98 in the current account and €2,101.30 in the Savings account giving a total of €11,665.28.

Bearing in mind Belgian Law, the status of the RSC Belgium Section holds the three Officers personally liable for debts arising from the activities of the Belgium Section. A grant of €2,000 will be requested from RSC UK to cover all the activities planned for 2022.”

The meeting unanimously adopted the Treasurer’s report.

6. Chair’s Remarks (Bob Crichton)

The Chair thanked all members of the committee for their hard work and support during another difficult year. In particular he thanked Fabio for his technical support in running our successful webinars.

Bob hoped that the section would be able to run more face-to-face events in 2022, however the section needed to follow guidelines from RSC HQ as well as the local rules and we awaited their instructions.

7. Election of committee members and section officers

Two nominations had been received for election to the committee as ordinary members.

• David Terrell
• Dharmjeet Madhav

As the number of nominations equalled the number of vacant positions, both candidates were elected to the committee for a period of two years.

At the first committee meeting of 2022 Bo Dahlqvist and Jonathan Norris were co-opted onto the committee. Full details of the 2022 committee membership are available here.

8. Auditing arrangements for 2022

Julie confirmed that accounts must be prepared and submitted to RSC HQ by 7 February 2022. These accounts did not require a formal audit prior to submission. If a review/ audit was required section member Lance Smallshaw had agreed to assist.

9. Any Other Business

As noted previously the first event of the 2022 programme will be on Thursday 24 February 2022 via Teams with Prof. Tom Welton of Imperial College London on 24 February 2022 on the topic of 'Green and Sustainable Chemistry'.

A question on the funding of the section by HQ was asked by Geoffrey Knight. Bob and Julie confirmed that the funding was through an annual grant and that this was not a loan, and the section did not have any debts.

The meeting Adjourned at 19:50. The first meeting of the 2022 committee took place on Tuesday 18 January 2022.

Eighth Norman Lloyd Scholar announced!

Martim Rodrigo (pictured below) has been selected as the eighth recipient of a Dr Norman C. Lloyd Scholarship at Cardiff University. Martim is in his first year at Cardiff on a MCheM degree course. The Norman Lloyd Scholarship is given to a new student in the Cardiff School of Chemistry who is of high academic standing and resident in Wales.

Martim was incredibly grateful to receive the scholarship and has sent us the following message of thanks.

"I am deeply honoured by this nomination. After learning more about Dr Norman C Lloyd, I became inspired by his success in life despite the early-life adversities. I faced many academic and personal adversities during secondary school. With resilience I was able to overcome these and thrive academically. I hope that with the scholarship, I will be able to not only focus more on my degree but also to continue sharing my passion for Chemistry with others.

I had the privilege to be taught by passionate individuals. They helped me close gaps in my understanding: a product of academic adversities. I overcame these adversities thanks to their dedication which included teaching me undergraduate-level Chemistry in their breaks. 

Their efforts in addition to my further reading led me to gaining two gold awards at the RSC Chemistry Olympiad. Furthermore, I was one of the top 36/7160 students in the United Kingdom that were invited to the IChO selection camp. There, I was exposed other undergraduate-level approaches and met like-minded individuals. 

My experience and success in the field compelled me to study Chemistry at university. 

I have four dreams: join the RSC Olympiad Committee, use my knowledge of Chemistry in a medical career, make my start-up (Reach) successful, and get involved in politics. 

I am passionate about languages and cultures. In my spare time, I enjoy gaming, socialising, travelling, tutoring, playing sports, and working on Reach. 

My vision is that Reach provides the best 16-18 education to the public. It is possible to create a profitable yet sustainable and ethical company that makes the best education widely available. Reach will help students to reach success, regardless of school or postcode."

We wish Martim every success at Cardiff and in his wider ambitions. We will watch his progress with keen interest! 

The scholarship

Our current link at Cardiff is Sarah Morgan-Davies in the Development & Alumni Relations department. She stated: 

"We are so grateful for your continued support and I do hope Cara’s report and Martim’s letter of thanks show the incredible difference that the Dr Norman C Lloyd scholarship is making to students here at Cardiff University."

The Norman Lloyd scholarship was set up by RSC Belgium in collaboration with Norman’s family and Cardiff University in memory of our old friend and supporter Norman Lloyd. Norman was himself a student at an institution that is now part of the university. The funds raised provide an annual scholarship of £1,000 for an undergraduate student, usually in their first year of study, at the Cardiff School of Chemistry.

St Georges retain TOTB trophy again

Despite the continuing challenges and restrictions due to COVID, RSC Belgium successfully organised and ran its annual 'international eliminator' for the Royal Society of Chemistry's Top of the Bench (TOTB) competition in late 2021. And this year more teams than ever were involved with 13 teams from seven international and European schools taking part. The results are now in and the winning team, who will now represent Belgium in the TOTB grand final in Spring 2022, is Team Titanium (pictured below) from St. Georges International School in Luxembourg. The school therefore retains the Keith Price Cup and makes it three years in a row as RSC Belgium TOTB champs!

Once again, the competition had to be run remotely during late November and early December with the results evaluated over the Christmas holiday period by our TOTB team: Rita Woodward and Susan Schamp.

Our 2021 TOTB eliminator again retained the usual elements of the competition: a written test component for individual team members and a practical group exercise.

This year the written element was a 30-minute online Chemistry Quiz with questions tailored to the three age groups in each team and the practical element requiring input from all four team members based around a simple 'Everyday Chemistry Around You' scenario that could be carried out at school or at home depending on COVID restrictions in place at the time.

TOTB teams are composed of four students with two students from Year 9 (UK equivalent to 3rd year or Grade 8), one student from Year 10 UK (4th year or Grade 9) and one student from Year 11 (5th year or Grade 10).

Online quiz

The online quiz was worked up by Susan. “The quiz worked very well considering it was our first try with this format allowing us to set a wider range of questions than would have been possible with just a pen and paper,” says Susan. “For example, there was a video round where students watched a short video clip showing a chemical transformation or technique, which they then answered questions on.”

The quizzes consisted of 40 questions and students had 30 minutes to complete as many questions as they could before the quiz automatically submitted. “One school did have some technical problems which we will need to solve before running our next TOTB event,” notes Susan.

Practical element

Rita oversaw the practical element that also included a taster video introduction to get the teams thinking about de-gassing fizzy drinks – the subject of the experiment. “The practical task looked to be simple but deceptively proved to be more challenging than for previous years,” says Rita. “Excellent time management, organisation and thinking outside the box were required. This year’s practical was certainly tricky, but many students thoroughly enjoyed the task!”

Alejandro Perez, the coordinating chemistry teacher at St. Georges International School for their teams commented: “We do not appreciate how much more challenging it is to plan a full investigation than to follow instructions in a practical activity, and the event has given our students the opportunity experience the scientific method put into practice.”

Challenging event

In 2021 only four teams from two schools were able to complete and return results in our first attempt at a COVID-proof event, but this year 13 teams from seven schools were involved – returning participation to pre-COVID levels. Teams were entered by Antwerp International School (AIS), the British School of Brussels (BSB), European Schools I and II in Luxembourg, the International School of Flanders (ISF) in Waterloo, St. John’s International School in Waterloo and St. George's International School in Luxembourg.

As ever the competition was very close with some notable individual performances and excellent teamwork, but the overall winner was the Titanium team from St Georges thanks to ranking first in the written part and a top three placement in the practical. Runners up were Team Chromium from BSB with top marks in the practical test and a top three placement in the written section.

Our congratulations to Team Titanium who will go forward to represent RSC Belgium at the RSC’s TOTB final in 2022. And our thanks to everyone who took part in the TOTB eliminator this year. RSC Belgium goodies are on the way to the winning team and all participating team members will receive certificates.

Many thanks to St. George's for providing photos of the winning Titanium team.

Beyond Li-ion: challenges and opportunities for future battery technology

On the evening of 25 November 2021 RSC Belgium hosted the last of its webinars for the year with a talk from Prof Jean-François Gohy from the Institute of Condensed Matter and Nanosciences at the Université catholique de Louvain. Prof Gohy had previously presented to the section on advances in energy storage and this new talk focused on recent advances and opportunities for future battery technologies. 

The improvement in performance and cost of lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) over the past few years have made them the technology of choice for electrical energy storage. While established battery chemistries and cell architectures for LIBs achieve good power and energy density, Jean-Francois indicated that LIBs are unlikely to meet all the performance, cost, and scaling targets required for future energy storage, in particular, in large-scale applications such as electrified transportation and grids. 

The demand to further reduce cost and/or increase energy density, as well as the growing concerns related to natural resource needs for Li-ion technologies have accelerated the investigation of so-called “beyond Li-ion” technologies. In his talk Prof Gohy discussed recent achievements, challenges, and opportunities for some of these “beyond Li-ion” technologies. While it is unlikely that any given new technology will fully replace Li-ion in the near future, “beyond Li-ion” technologies should be thought of as opportunities for energy storage to grow into mid/large-scale applications.

Range of options

Prof Gohy took the audience through a range of options for promising battery technologies that could provide the required energy density safely and at reasonable cost. Costs for LIBs had dramatically dropped from over $1000 per KWh to less that $150 and this trend was continuing thanks to massive investment LIBs by the car industry.

But next generation technologies were required. Lithium metal batteries are part of the family of All Solid State Batteries (ASSB) and previous significant safety concerns had now been partially solved. Other potential technologies included Li-S, Li-air, Sodium and Potassium ion batteries.

Li-metal based ASSBs could provide a path to achieve high volumetric energy density using established Li-ion cathode technology.

Sodium (NIB) and Potassium (KIB) batteries that rely on naturally abundant sodium and potassium resources are likely to provide a significant advantage in terms of cost for larger stationary applications such as storage for power grid management. 

Magnesium-metal batteries are a wild card technology that could potentially provide a unique combination of high energy density and low cost as a "beyond Li-ion" battery technology. Mg metal as an anode is less prone to failure due to dendritic growth, but the most significant technical barrier to this technology is the achievement of high energy density Mg cathodes.

RSC video at COP26

During the COP26 meeting in Glasgow the RSC held a panel discussion on this topic that debated the cutting edge chemistry underlying next generation battery innovations, their potential, their limitations and their pathways to mass adoption.

The video was part of an initiative demonstrating chemistry’s role in understanding and tackling climate change covering next-generation batteries, hydrogen, agriculture, carbon dioxide utilisation, and more.