START Prize for Miriam Unterlass

Chemist Miriam Unterlass has been awarded the Austrian Science Fund (FWF) START Prize for her work developing new production methods for high-performance materials. Many organic high-performance materials, which are needed, for example, for batteries, photovoltaic systems and the filtration of exhaust gas, involve very complex production processes, which often require a lot of effort and the use of highly toxic additives. However, Miriam Unterlass from the Institute of Materials Chemistry at TU Wien and her research group take a rather different approach. This scientist has managed to use a process modelled on those that take place deep in the earth's crust to create these kinds of materials under high pressure in hot water. She has now been awarded the prestigious START Prize by the Austrian Science Fund (FWF) for this work. Synthesis in a pressure cooker - "We work with high temperatures and high pressure," explains Miriam Unterlass. "This is actually an unconventional approach when it comes to the synthesis of organic structures.