<![CDATA[De Bo Research Group - News]]>Mon, 18 May 2026 04:14:50 +0100Weebly<![CDATA[Qianqian wins the Faculty Photography competition!]]>Thu, 30 Apr 2026 23:00:00 GMThttps://www.deboresearchgroup.com/news/qianqian-wins-the-faculty-photography-competitionMany congratulations to Qianqian who won the Faculty of Science and Engineering Photography Competition 2026 with the image 'Forging a Galaxy with Force'!

​This image shows the microscopic cavitation bubbles generated by the ultrasound probe.
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]]><![CDATA[We say goodbye to James]]>Thu, 16 Apr 2026 23:00:00 GMThttps://www.deboresearchgroup.com/news/we-say-goodbye-to-jamesToday we say goodbye to James after 4.5 years in the group as a Phd student and, more recently, a postdoc. We thank him for his hard work and contributions to the group, and we wish him the very best in his new role in group of Michael Lerch.
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]]><![CDATA[Student/mentor awards for Lei and Guillaume]]>Fri, 06 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://www.deboresearchgroup.com/news/studentmentor-awards-for-lei-and-guillaumeLei and Guillaume have respectively been awarded the 2026 ACS Global Outstanding Graduate Student and Mentor Awards in Polymer Science and Engineering. The ACS Global Outstanding Student and Mentor Awards in Polymer Science and Engineering recognizes the latest knowledge of polymer research of students and their mentors, one from United States and one from anywhere in the world. The award is sponsored by Chemical Marketing & Economics, Inc. (CME) and co-organized by CME and the Polymeric Materials: Science and Engineering (PMSE) Division of the American Chemical Society.
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]]><![CDATA[Goodbye Lei]]>Fri, 16 Jan 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://www.deboresearchgroup.com/news/goodbye-to-leiIt's the end of an era with the last day of Lei in the group. We thank Lei for his incredible contribution to the group over the past 6 years, first as a PhD student then as a postdoc. Lei is heading back to China where he will take a position of Professor in the College of Chemistry, Chemical Engineering, and Materials Science at Soochow University. We wish him all the best for the future!
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]]><![CDATA[Congratulations Dr Ieong and Dr Ormson]]>Sat, 29 Nov 2025 09:50:53 GMThttps://www.deboresearchgroup.com/news/congratulations-dr-ieong-and-dr-ormsonIt was an eventful week in the group as we celebrate our newly minted PhD: Dr Ieong and Dr Ormson. Many congratulations to Alice and James, who have defended their theses with brio in front of Dr Deborah Crawford and Dr Michael James, and Dr Nick Evans and Prof. Simon Webb respectively! We wish them all the best for the future. 
]]><![CDATA[Goodbye Tomás]]>Mon, 29 Sep 2025 23:00:00 GMThttps://www.deboresearchgroup.com/news/goodbye-tomasToday was the last day of Tomás in the group. Tomás is now heading back to the University of Murcia in Spain. We thank Tomás for his hard work over the past couple of year and wish him all the best in his future endeavors.
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]]><![CDATA[ACS poster prize for Rob at the MACRO group UK meeting]]>Mon, 08 Sep 2025 23:00:00 GMThttps://www.deboresearchgroup.com/news/acs-poster-prize-for-rob-at-the-macro-group-uk-meetingCongratulations to Rob who won the ACS poster prize at the Macro group UK annual conference!
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]]><![CDATA[Guillaume delivers his award lecture at ACS Fall 2025]]>Tue, 19 Aug 2025 23:00:00 GMThttps://www.deboresearchgroup.com/news/guillaume-delivers-his-award-lecture-at-acs-fall-2025Guillaume has delivered his award lecture in a special symposium at the ACS Fall meeting 2025 in Washington DC. The symposium was organised to celebrate the recipients of the 2025 ACS Macro Letters/Macromolecules/Biomacromolecules Young Investigated Award: Julia Kalow and Guillaume. Julia and Guillaume had the opportunity to invite friends and collaborators to speak at the symposium, which made for a memorable occasion.
]]><![CDATA[Best presentation prize for Qianqian!]]>Fri, 20 Jun 2025 16:43:55 GMThttps://www.deboresearchgroup.com/news/best-presentation-prize-for-qianqianMany congratulations to Qianqian who won the best Organic Talk at the Postgraduate conference this summer.
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]]><![CDATA[The De Bo group at the Universally Manchester Festival 2025]]>Fri, 13 Jun 2025 23:00:00 GMThttps://www.deboresearchgroup.com/news/the-de-bo-group-at-the-universally-manchester-festival-2025Having spent most of my time in the research lab during my PhD, I am grateful to have been selected to organise a tabletop activity and enjoy a day outside the lab to share our science with the public. On Saturday 14th June at the 2025 Universally Manchester Festival, along with James Ormson, Oswald Philipsen, Ronak Singha and Dr Robert Nixon, we delivered interactive demonstrations and poster presentations to showcase how our research in the field of polymer mechanochemistry can contribute to addressing challenges in the development of new materials. We are delighted that the interactive activities have attracted considerable interest and attention from the public.

We started with the hands-on activities letting the audience stretch, hammer, or write with an inkless pen on a piece of PDMS material (a type of silicone) containing  spiropyran mechanophores (force-sensitive molecules) and observe a striking reversible colour change from pale-yellow to deep purple. This demonstration allowed us to use the spiropyran ring-opening chemistry to introduce core concepts in our field of polymer mechanochemistry. The audience then repeated the activities using materials made with a nitrated spiropyran, which exhibited faster reversible colour change and helped to illustrate the idea that strategic mechanophore design can alter a materials response to force to give desired properties.
In addition to the wonderful demonstrations, we displayed two posters showcasing our group’s research and how it contributes to solve real-world challenges. The first poster, we provide an overview of the place of our research on improving polymer lifecycle by designing better polymers, including smart polymers that allow damage detection, self-healing at the usage stage, or controlled degradation at the recycling stage. On the second poster, we discuss our research mission in more detail, showing how altering material properties, designing new mechanophores and integrating the concept of supramolecular chemistry has the potential to reach beyond material applications and can advance synthesis, catalysis, biomedical devices, and much more.

Finally, we demonstrated to our 'future scientists' how we conduct experiments in our lab, using an ultrasonication probe and bath, taking them through the process from design to practice and optimisation. The festival was a great success, and we had a good time engaging with the community. We were privileged to have received keen interest and suggestions from the audience on potential real-life applications which our research could address. The public's voice and appreciation serve as ongoing motivation and innovation to our research, and we look forward to the next outreach engagement activities. Finally, we want to express our greatest gratitude to Kathryn Downey for organising the event, Professor Guillaume De Bo and the GDB team for their incredible support, and the University of Manchester for providing us with this opportunity.

Alice Weng Ieong

Acknowledgements:
Big shout out to Dr. Robert Nixon on preparing PDMS materials. Ronak Singha, Dr. Robert Nixon, Alice Weng Ieong on poster 1, James Ormson and Philipsen on poster 2. Freshly made coffee from Qianqian Cheng.

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From left to right: James Ormson, Alice Weng Ieong, and Ronak Singha
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From left to right: Robert Nixon, Oswald Philipsen, and Alice Weng Ieong.
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