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Alan G. MacDiarmid was an inorganic chemist by training who pioneered the field of synthetic metals. He grew up in a family that lived frugally, and he had to work in the Chemistry Department of the Victoria University of Wellington as a laboratory assistant before he could undertake part-time degree studies. He was awarded a Fulbright Scholarship to the University of Wisconsin, where he completed his first PhD with Norris Hall. The desire to receive a higher degree in the UK led to a Shell Scholarship to complete a second doctorate with Harry Emeléus FRS. After a sojourn at the University of St Andrews, Alan MacDiarmid was appointed to an academic position at the University of Pennsylvania, where he remained essentially for his whole career. His early research was based on the properties of silicon hydrides, but he also became interested in poly(sulfur nitride). This led to a search in collaboration with Alan J. Heeger for intrinsically conducting non-metallic materials. A chance meeting with Hideki Shirakawa at the University of Tokyo led to MacDiarmid being shown thin metallic-like films of poly(acetylene) made in Shirakawa's laboratory. Shirakawa travelled to Philadelphia to collaborate with MacDiarmid and Heeger on the halogen ‘doping’ of poly(acetylene), which led to the discovery that the doped material was an excellent conductor. Thus, the field of synthetic metals was born. This paradigm-shifting work in which a polymer was shown to be a conductor led to the award of the 2000 Nobel Prize in Chemistry to these three individuals. MacDiarmid went on to study in great detail the properties of polyaniline; the fact that it could be processed from solution and further modified by oxidative and protonic doping led to all sorts of potentially interesting opportunities in optoelectronics. From all this research, the modern field of organic electronic materials emerged as an important disruptive technology whose advancement depended on an entirely new branch of interdisciplinary science.

The intramolecular Diels-Alder reaction has been used as a powerful method to access the tricyclic core of the eunicellin natural products from a number of 9-membered-ring precursors. The endo/exo selectivity of this reaction can be controlled through a remarkable organocatalylic approach, employing MacMillan's imidazolidinone catalysts, although the mechanistic origin of this selectivity remains unclear. We present a combined experimental and density functional theory investigation, providing insight into the effects of medium-ring constraints on the organocatalyzed intramolecular Diels-Alder reaction to form the isobenzofuran core of the eunicellins.

The study of the environmental fate of nanoscale TiO2 (n-TiO2) is a major recent research focus which requires a rapid and accurate on-site concentration determination method. Inductively coupled plasma mass spectroscopy (ICP-MS) has been the most widely used method for determining the concentration of n-TiO2 in environmental samples; however, poses many challenges, such as hazardous hydrofluoric acid pre-treatment and clear limitations in mobile on-site measurement and monitoring. This study demonstrates that industrial wastewater containing natural organic matter (NOM) can present a major challenge to the analysis of n-TiO2 by ICP-MS, and introduces a spectrophotometry technique that can be used as an alternative. The results suggest that spectrophotometry methods can be more accurate than slurry nebulization ICP-MS for measuring the concentrations of n-TiO2 in wastewater containing NOM under low salt conditions. Furthermore, this study demonstrates the use of a portable flow-through spectrophotometer for use in applications of wastewater treatment and environmental monitoring with real-time feedback of n-TiO2 concentrations. The ability to detect and monitor n-TiO2 will greatly assist in improving the understanding of hazards and risks that emerging nanomaterials pose to the environment and the public health.

The study of the environmental fate of nanoscale TiO2 (n-TiO2) is a major recent research focus which requires a rapid and accurate on-site concentration determination method. Inductively coupled plasma mass spectroscopy (ICP-MS) has been the most widely used method for determining the concentration of n-TiO2 in environmental samples; however, poses many challenges, such as hazardous hydrofluoric acid pre-treatment and clear limitations in mobile on-site measurement and monitoring. This study demonstrates that industrial wastewater containing natural organic matter (NOM) can present a major challenge to the analysis of n-TiO2 by ICP-MS, and introduces a spectrophotometry technique that can be used as an alternative. The results suggest that spectrophotometry methods can be more accurate than slurry nebulization ICP-MS for measuring the concentrations of n-TiO2 in wastewater containing NOM under low salt conditions. Furthermore, this study demonstrates the use of a portable flow-through spectrophotometer for use in applications of wastewater treatment and environmental monitoring with real-time feedback of n-TiO2 concentrations. The ability to detect and monitor n-TiO2 will greatly assist in improving the understanding of hazards and risks that emerging nanomaterials pose to the environment and the public health.

The study of the environmental fate of nanoscale TiO2 (n-TiO2) is a major recent research focus which requires a rapid and accurate on-site concentration determination method. Inductively coupled plasma mass spectroscopy (ICP-MS) has been the most widely used method for determining the concentration of n-TiO2 in environmental samples; however, poses many challenges, such as hazardous hydrofluoric acid pre-treatment and clear limitations in mobile on-site measurement and monitoring. This study demonstrates that industrial wastewater containing natural organic matter (NOM) can present a major challenge to the analysis of n-TiO2 by ICP-MS, and introduces a spectrophotometry technique that can be used as an alternative. The results suggest that spectrophotometry methods can be more accurate than slurry nebulization ICP-MS for measuring the concentrations of n-TiO2 in wastewater containing NOM under low salt conditions. Furthermore, this study demonstrates the use of a portable flow-through spectrophotometer for use in applications of wastewater treatment and environmental monitoring with real-time feedback of n-TiO2 concentrations. The ability to detect and monitor n-TiO2 will greatly assist in improving the understanding of hazards and risks that emerging nanomaterials pose to the environment and the public health.