2024 Prize Winner - Stefan Paporakis.

Lyotropic liquid crystal phases arising from the self assembly of lipids represent a complex disordered class of materials. As a result, monoolein based liquid crystal phases have been studied for biological applications including pharmaceuticals and drug delivery. Room temperature liquid salts called protic ionic liquids have demonstrated their abilities as tailorable solvent in mediating the self assembly process. While individual contributions of ionic liquids, monoolein and liquid crystal phases have been studied, a comprehensive understanding of phase monoolein formation in ionic liquids is lacking, especially at a nanoscale level. Stefans project characterised the nanostructure of lyotropic liquid crystal phases mediated by protic ionic liquids using novel diffraction methods and analytical tools. During his candidature, Stefan studied the practical thermal stability of a series of protic ionic liquids, investigated the liquid crystal phases of monoolein in these ionic liquids at varying solvent concentration and temperatures. From this fundamental work, Stefan then developed and employed novel microfocused small angle x-ray scattering methods to detail spatial mapping, angular intensity correlation analysis and real-space interpretation of liquid crystal phases via the use of advanced statistical mechanics modelling. Stefans work modelled the nanostructure of various liquid crystal phases in previously unobtainable detail, providing pathways for targeted solvent and nanostructure characterisation based on real-space investigations.

During his candidature, Stefan published four first-author publications and two co-authored publications:

First author:

1. Paporakis, S., Hasset, M. J., Adams, P., Binns, J., Kewish, C. M., Christofferson, A., Greaves, T. L. & Martin, A. V. Real-space nanostructure via correlation analysis of scanning microfocus x-ray diffraction data.APMC13,e208(2025).

2. Paporakis, S., Liu, K. T. C., Brown, S. J., Harper, J. B., Martin, A. V. & Greaves, T. L. Thermal Stability of Protic Ionic Liquids.Journal of Physical Chemistry B128, 4208–4219 (2024).

3. Paporakis, S., Brown, S. J., Darmanin, C., Seibt, S., Adams, P., Hassett, M., Martin, A.V. & Greaves, T. L. Lyotropic liquid crystal phases of monoolein in protic ionic liquids.The Journal of chemical physics160, (2024).

4. Paporakis, S., Binns, J., Yalcin, D., Drummond, C. J., Greaves, T. L. & Martin, A. V. Automation of liquid crystal phase analysis for SAXS, including the rapid production of novel phase diagrams for SDS-water-PIL systems.Journal of Chemical Physics158,(2023).

Contributions:

1. Binns, J., Darmanin, C., Kewish, C. M., Pathirannahalge, S. K., Berntsen, P., Adams, P. L. R.,Paporakis, S.,Wells, D., Roque, F. G., Abbey, B., Bryant, G., Conn, C. E., Mudie, S. T., Hawley, A. M., Ryan, T. M., Greaves, T. L. & Martin, A. V. Preferred orientation and its effects on intensity-correlation measurements.IUCrJ9, 231–242 (2022).

2. Chia, E. S. H., Berberich, T. B., Sobolev, E., Koliyadu, J. C. P., Adams, P., André, T., Antonia, F. D., Cardoch, S., De Santis, E., Formosa, A., Hammarström, B., Hassett, M. P., Kim, S., Kloos, M., Letrun, R., Malka, J., Melo, D.,Paporakis, S.,Sato, T., Schmidt, P., Turkot, O., Vakili, M., Valerio, J., Yenupuri, T. V., You, T., de Wijn, R., Park, G. S., Abbey, B., Darmanin, C., Bajt, S., Chapman, H. N., Bielecki, J., Maia, F. R. N. C., Timneanu, N., Caleman, C., Martin, A. V., Kurta, R. P., Sellberg, J. A. & Loh, N. te D. Coarse-Graining and Classifying Massive High-Throughput XFEL Datasets of Crystallization in Supercooled Water.Crystals 2025, Vol. 15, Page 73415, 734 (2025).