Kirill Monakhov Seminar

"My journey through polyoxometalate research: From the discovery of room-temperature multilevel switches to life-inspired inorganic machinery"

13:00-14:00 | Thursday 3 April | PS1.28 | Tea, coffee and biscuits provided

Abstract

I will discuss the latest developments, challenges, and future work in nanotechnology and nanophysics research on chemically synthesized molecular nanooxides (polyoxometalates). The talk will focus in particular on the unique properties of solution-processable vanadium-containing polyoxoanions, which behave as multilevel capacitors, memristors, and inorganic neuromimetics at room temperature. The importance of ligand derivatization at the periphery of these polyoxoanions, the use of countercations and photoinduced electron transfer for electronic communication between the anions in different states of matter, and the formation of stable and switchable films on various surfaces will be presented.

Biography

Kirill Monakhov is head of the Switchable Molecularly Functionalized Surfaces Group at the Leibniz Institute of Surface Engineering (IOM). Prior to his appointment in Leipzig in 2018, he was leader of an Emmy Noether Junior Research Group at the RWTH Aachen University. He spent several years as a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Strasbourg (group of Pierre Braunstein) and at the RWTH Aachen University (group of Paul Kögerler). He holds a PhD in Chemistry from the Heidelberg University (2010), where he was a member of the Graduate College 850 «Molecular Modeling» of DFG and a scientific co-worker at the Institute of Inorganic Chemistry (group of Gerald Linti). He is an Emmy Noether alumni, the recipient of the Academia Europaea Burgen Scholarship (2011) and part of the Young European Talent network since 2017. From 2023 to 2024 he was a mentor in the mentoring program of the International Younger Chemists Network. His work focuses on inorganic synthesis and the engineering of molecule-surface interfaces for bio-/life-/neuro-inspired electronics, spintonics & photonics and diagnostics applications.