Dr. Naureen Khanam successfully defended her PhD thesis on 7 May 2025, obtaining an excellent qualification on her thesis Synthesis and characterization of ultra-high anisotropy magnetic ferrites. She was supervised by Dr. Martí Gich.

Dr. Nanthilde Malandain successfully defended her PhD thesis on 3 February 2025, obtaining an excellent qualification. She defended her thesis on Biotechnology, which was supervised by the NN Group doctors Prof. Anna Roig and Dr. Anna Laromaine, and Dr. Jorge Otero Diaz, from the University of Barcelona.

On November 22, the members of the Nanoparticles and Nanocomposites Group gathered in a traditional Catalan masia for the autumn 2024 Group Activity.

It was a teambuilding day in which the members cooked and ate paella, spent a day together out of the labs, played some cards, hunted mushrooms, and simply had an opportunity to just get to know each others in a different atmosphere.

See the photographs here!

N&N group members Xuesong Zhang, Pablo Guardia and Anna Roig published a new paper in the Journal of Materials Chemistry A. It introduces a new method to create efficient hydrogen-producing catalysts using gold-platinum (AuPt) nanostructures. This research has been conducted alongside the former N&N member Miquel Torras, as well as the authors from the Catalan Institute for Energy Research (IREC) Jesús Chacón Borrero, Ren He and Andreu Cabot (the latter, also from ICREA).

Hydrogen is crucial for clean energy but needs cost-effective, efficient production methods. This study shows a path forward in this objective by offering a solution to a problem within the field: Platinum, commonly used for hydrogen production, is rare and costly. However, this method maximizes its use by forming a core-shell structure, where a gold core is covered by a platinum shell.