A 2nd year graduate student in the group of Luciano Marchio at the University of Parma, Italy, was awarded the NJC Poster Prize at the 5th EuCheMS Conference on Nitrogen Ligands held in Granada, Spain, last week.
Irene Bassenetti‘s winning poster dealt with silver(I) complexes used as lubricants. Pure silver has long been known to be a good lubricant. The trick is to obtain these pure silver layers, without organic contaminants from the ligands. The new bimetallic complexes gave high purity layers that showed excellent results on stainless steel.
The synthesis and characterization of the compounds was carried out in Parma. The analysis of the silver layers formed upon decomposition of the complex and the tribological properties when the complex was added to an oil were studied at Northwestern University in a collaboration with the group of Tobin Marks and the US Army.
