University of Groningen
Novel proton and metal-ion conducting polymers and block copolymers
Viviani, Marco
DOI:
10.33612/diss.156496098
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Publication date: 2021
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Viviani, M. (2021). Novel proton and metal-ion conducting polymers and block copolymers. University of Groningen. https://doi.org/10.33612/diss.156496098
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Acknowledgements
I finally reached the end of my PhD. It took me more than expected, by all means, but it has been a meaningful experience for me. I had the opportunity to share this experience with several people that I would like to thank for their contribution to this work and to my personal life.
I want to thank my promotor, Prof. Dr. Katja Loos, for the freedom and the support provided me during these years. I am grateful for your patience and availability, especially in the last steps of my PhD. Your door was always open to me, and you were always willing to listen and help, I much appreciated our discussions.
Dr. Giuseppe Portale thank you for giving me the opportunity to pursue my PhD on such exciting topics and join the group as your very first PhD student. Your enthusiasm in my research and support with X-ray techniques have been fundamental for the success and quality of this thesis. I am grateful to you for always being optimistic about my research and patient on my results. Thank you also for guiding me through these years, especially the last one marked by unexpected challenges. I also want to express my sincere gratitude for your encouragement and openness to discussion.
I would like to sincerely thank the members of the assessment committee: Prof. Dr. Francesco Picchioni, Prof. Dr. Marleen Kamperman and Dr. Habil. Cristina Iojoiu for taking the time to read this thesis and providing me with valuable comments.
A PhD thesis is never a solo-work, and this is no exception. I want to thank all the people that directly or indirectly contributed to the success of this work and the research activities I performed.
I would like to express my gratitude to Pieter van der Muelen and Johan Kemmink, for their patience and valuable discussions, which adds on the appreciation that I (we) must owe to them for keeping the NMR-lab working at high efficiency. I sincerely acknowledge Marc Stuart for his TEM training and his support with the instruments anytime and for any issue making things run smoothly and easy, Prof. Ryan Chiechi for his permission to use the microtome and the metal vapor deposition instruments, Prof. Maria Antonietta Loi for her permission to access the glove-boxes in her clean rooms and using the profilometer, Jacob Baas for assisting me with wiring and capacitance measurements, Arjen Kamp and Teodor Zaharia for their training and support in the use of clean-rooms and glove-boxes, Johan van der Velde for the elemental analysis, and the guys of the workshops (electrical, mechanical, glass blower) and the store for their help along these years.
Prof. Shirin Faraji, thank you for your interest and precious discussions on DFT simulations related to our EXAFS experiments for which I would like to extend my sincere gratitude to
Acknowledgement
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the team of the BM28 X-Mas UK-CRG beamline at the ESRF, Laurence Bouchenoire, Paul Thompson, Oier Bikondoa and Didier Wermeille for their help before, during and after the restless beamtimes, Alessandro Longo from the BM26 Dutch Belgian Beamline (DUBBLE) at the ESRF for his strong contribution in the interpretation of the EXAFS data and Francesco Carla (ID03) for providing me with the access to the glove-box and the electrochemical laboratory. I would like to thank all the team of the Dutch and Belgian Beamline (DUBBLE) Daniel Hermida Merino, Aleksei Bytchkov, Sarah Saidi, Michela Brunelli and Florian Ledrappier for their support and constant help during day and night time while measuring at BM26; Paola Lova, Enrico Carmeli and Marco Olivieri for helping during the crucial measurements of Chapter 2 and Paola for the interpretation of the optical data, Diego Pontoni and Pierre Lloira of the Partnership for Soft Condensed Matter (PSCM) at ESRF for the assistance with the humidity controller and access to the plasma cleaner. Special thanks to Dr. Habil. Klaus Dieter-Kreuer for his hospitality during our visit at the MPI in Stuttgart. The discussion and activities performed there, in collaboration with Torben and Andreas, were incredibly precious for my PhD.
During my PhD thesis, I had the chance to supervise six students: Rahul Sasikumar, Isotta Tullini, Abraham Mora, Ni Luh Putu Ananda Saraswati (Nanda), Sebastiaan Pieter Fluitman (Bas) and Faudillah Alhumairah (Dillah). I am grateful to all of them for their contribution and for the efforts they put in their projects.
Rahul, although we met after only one month from my arrival, it was nice to supervise you, and you accelerate my impedance learning curve. Abraham, your relaxed and happy mood were a bit hard to refrain, but, in the end, I enjoyed working with you and helping you accomplish your master project.
Isotta, your hard work and commitment to the project was impressive and produced a nice publication together with the other co-authors. Thank you for your help and conversation in the office.
Nanda you have been one of the nicest persons I met in these years, and I had the luck to supervise. Your dedication and discipline were remarkable, and I am happy we had the occasion to work together and publish a paper. I am even gladder that you found a position as a permanent lecturer! I wish you all the best.
Bas even though we collaborated only in the last year, your contribution to this thesis has been undoubtedly valuable. Over the nine months spent together, you made consistent progress both inside and outside the lab, exceeding my expectations. Your endurance and positive attitude helped a lot in the last months of your project(s) providing us with useful results, some of which already published. On top of that, you are also a nice person, and it was my pleasure to work with you. I wish you all the best in your future career.
Dillah, thanks for your patience and contribution. I much appreciated your collaboration and your dedication to the project.
My sincere gratitude goes to Albert J. J. Woortman and Jur van Dijken for their constant technical support and for helping with all the lab issues.
Albert, I sincerely thank you for your help with GPC analysis and all the brainstorming about my issues with charged polymers. You were always patient and available for my (urgent) analysis. Thanks for your assistance also with external collaborations and your support in tough times. Your competences are topped only by your passion for Alfa Romeo: Albert, you are a real Alfista!!! Your screen savers always made me feel better
Jur, thanks for your help with all the thermal measurements and in the press-lab. I am sorry for (regularly) not returning the micrometre…now is safe!
I am grateful to all the present and former members of Macromolecular Chemistry and New Polymeric Material, Polymer Chemistry and Polymer Chemistry and Bioengineering groups for making these years pleasant and cheerful.
First of all, I would like to express my gratitude to Xu Jin, my first officemate and friend in the group. I feel lucky to have known you. Your supportiveness and kindness despite your heavy workload were noteworthy, and I appreciated them a lot. I am very happy for your success, and I felt honoured of being your paranymph. I wish you all the best and success in your life.
Federico and Aldo, my paranymphs, no need to write here how valuable was meeting you. You arrived in the last two years of my PhD, and it was a real pleasure to get to know you. Although focused on different projects, I enjoyed our scientific discussions and even more the non-scientific ones. Thank you for all the good memories, including the various conferences.
Dong Jingjin, we shared almost all the way through our PhD in the same group. I am glad we met each other, and I appreciated your positive attitude in every occasion, despite the late hours and the hard work. I wish you all the best in finishing your PhD and in your future career.
Apostolos, your contagious enthusiasm, combined with your hard-working style, was admirable. I enjoyed our discussions, and I am glad you found your dream job in Munich. Niels, although I did not manage to teach you how to pronounce “Frutti di mare” I would like to express my gratitude for your scientific collaboration and your substantial contribution for Chapter 5. Ivan, thank you for your help in the lab at the beginning of my PhD and your intensive lessons on Serbian music. Qi Chen, thanks for your support and collaboration with the calcination and SEM analysis of my samples. I hope they will find a spot in your thesis. I am sure your hard work will pay off! Renato, it was a pleasure to meet you and get to know each other during the PTN RPK-D course and all the train trips. I wish you all the best for your PhD and further in your career. Annemarie, thank you for bringing enthusiasm and positive attitude during your master project in our sub-group. A special thanks for taking care of the translation of the Summary of this thesis, really appreciated, and I wish you success in your PhD. Anton, thanks for all the discussion on block copolymers and charged polymers, your insights helped to find useful strategies in my work.
Valentina and Francesco the “next-door” guys, it was a pleasure to know you although you both left too early. Valentina, it has always been nice to speak to you during the ups and downs of our PhD. I wish you all the best for your future. Francesco (Mec), thank you for
Acknowledgement
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being always supportive and your useful insights both academic and non. I enjoyed the time spent together and our “motor-talk”. I wish you all the best in The U.K. Chao, thank you for your collaboration and all the efforts put into making the impedance measurements works on your “breath-sensitive” samples. It has been a pleasure to work with you.
Thanks also to all other members and students of the group, Dina, Csaba, Yassaroh, Masyitha, Martijn, Pia, Larissa, Chongnan, Judith, Laura, Crystal, Maryam, Peter, Antonis, Azis, Theophile, Yassaroh, Abednego, Harm, Vincent, Myleidi, Viviana, Maho, Fitrilla Matteo, Jian Wu, Eliza, Chloe, Gurudas, Avishek, Elisa, Luisa, Claudio, Rahul, Gabor, Gianni, Francesca, Federica, Alessia, Angelica, Anny, Sven, Leon, Milad and Evgeny. Karin, thanks for your good vibes and your essential help with all the forms, constantly speeding-up the procedures.
Augusto my “organic master”, needless to say, how important was meeting you during my PhD, you are admirable both as a person and as a scientist. I wish you a lot of (well deserved) success in your life and career.
I would randomly want to thanks all the academic colleagues I had the chance to come across and shared a few moments or training: Dima, Anastasija, Daniel, Lena, Theodosis, Yingfen Wei, Yanxi, Saurabh, Victor, Yuru, Silvia, Jane, Jorge and Oscar. Thanks to all the Pisani (and non) Mattia, Matteo, Alessandra, Gregorio, Riccardo, Nicola, Francesco, and Laura for partially sharing this experience and enjoying some relaxing time together. I wish you all the best in finishing your PhDs and in your lives.
Although limited in time, life outside the lab was essential to keep going, and I have to thank some people for making that time valuable.
Yağiz we met while our building was going on fire, literally, no doubt that our friendship was going to be special!! Thank you for all the nights at Café the Crown, and the nice moments spent together during these years. I wish all the best and happiness to you, Nour and your lovely Ayla.
Alberto, Giulia, Francesco G., Leo and Sheina thank you for being more than just a good company during dinners and evening together. I only have good memories about moments spent together, and I hope I did not annoy you too much with all the scientific issues Luca, Carmen and Oreste, knowing you meant a lot to me. Our evenings were always a pleasure and helped a lot in our last years in Groningen. I wish you all the best and “a-rivederci”!! Oreste you deserve a special mention for your constant support and encouraging spirit, inside and outside “Zernike”. Our “caffé al 18 o all’entrata” were necessary moments both scientifically and personally. I am sure your efforts and hard-work will bring you the deserved success.
Tieme, the most Italian Dutch friend I could ever meet. Unfortunately, you had to leave quite soon from Groningen, but spending time with you has been (and it is) always a worthwhile experience. I wish all the best to you, Maraje and the new coming baby!
A particular thanks to all the members of the Bao-Trieu Sports Centre. Earl and James, you are true masters and examples for everybody.
Random thanks also to the other people I had the chance to meet in Groningen who contributed to alleviate the evenings in Groningen, Gabriele, Stefano, Tommaso, Fabiola, Marina, Elisabetta and Elena.
Special thanks to all my Italian Friends for being who they are. Someone said “Friends are the family you chose” and I love all the members of my extended family! Guys, having you through these years, despite the distance, was an incomparable relief and happiness source. Babbo e Teo, “the family”, your constant support and love made me feel capable of reaching the target. No words can explain the value of your contribution and my appreciation for having you next to me.
No doubt that the most significant and exceptional thank goes to my wife, Bianca. Anything would have been possible without your patience and support over these years. You trusted me more than I did myself; you are a blessing to me. Things went rough and painful, not so much went as expected, but we managed to go through all the bad and still be happy together. I love you!
