Tuesday, 7th July Royal Australian Chemical Institute National Congress 2026

Kick-start your conference morning with Coffee Roulette — a casual networking experience connecting delegates over coffee at local cafés near the Perth Convention and Exhibition Centre, designed to spark new conversations, collaborations and connections across the chemistry community.

Location: LouVe, Level 3/58 Mounts Bay Rd, Perth WA 6000

• Molecular Confinement Effects in Self-Assembled Cages - Makoto Fujita

Career Connect is a dedicated networking initiative designed to help students, early-career researchers, and professionals explore career pathways across academia, industry, government, and research sectors.

Participants will have the opportunity to connect directly with conference sponsors and exhibitors, learn about career opportunities, gain insights into different organisations, and discuss skills, recruitment pathways, and professional development with experienced representatives. A dedicated meeting space is be available for more in-depth conversations and networking throughout the Congress.

• Is an Octahedral Beryllium Complex Possible? A computational study. - Atiqa Ihsan
• Informing Student Support Mechanisms through Measurement of student confidence in core chemistry topics - Dylan P. Williams
• Functional glassy metal–organic frameworks - Femida Vayoli
• Development of Functional Gas Shuttles for Catalysis - Jiapei Liu
• Assessing the potential of sulfonated cellulose as a solid electrolyte in CO₂ electrolysers   - Hirusha Jayarathne
• Computational Experiments for the Design and Surface Performance of Oxadiazole Corrosion Inhibitors# - Heshani BALASOORIYA
• DFT Study of Defect-Driven Corrosion Mechanisms on Fe(100) ^# - Heshani BALASOORIYA
• Temporal control of a DNA nanomachine with visible light - Willi R. Berg
• Utilising fluorocarbons in palladium catalysed oxidative transfer fluorination - Chi Bong Eric Chao
• Harnessing Retrograde Axonal Transport Through Simple Protein-Drug Conjugation - Karen Hakobyan
• A comparative study on the impact of amine functionalization on microporous and mesoporous materials for enhanced CO2 adsorption - Ameen Shahid
• Revealing hidden membrane protein regulation via electrostatic switches - Shadreen Fairuz
• Using Molecularly Imprinted Polymer (MIP) Sensors as a Potential Presumptive Test for Nitazenes. - Lauren Reid
• Accurate description of BODIPYs transition energies with spin-scaled double hybrids   - Shebual Sebastian Antony Selvan
• Reversible curling of unmodified DNA origami rectangles into nanoribbons and nanotubes through pH modulation - Diego A. Uehara
• Cation Binding Properties of Diloop Crown Ethers Having Aromatic Junctions - Mikio Ouchi
• Guanidinium macrocycles for anion recognition - Stephen M Butler
• Predicting Electrochemical Polarization from First Principles Calculation - Ling Chen
• Characterization of a D-Allulose 3-Epimerase from Ruania alba. - Seo-Hyeon Kim
• New fluorescent porphyrins with fluorenyl-containing arms designed for two-photon photodynamic therapy and imaging - Christine Paul-Roth
• Iridium (III) and Ruthenium (II) Complexes for Photodynamic Therapy - Max Aspridis
• Synthesis and Radiolabelling of a [64Cu][Cu(NOTA)] Nanobody for Fibroblast Activation Protein Targeting - Sophie Stevens

• Targeting Cell Death Pathways: From Fundamental Biology to First-in-Class Therapeutics - Guillaume Lessene
• Lighting the pathway towards solutions to antimicrobial resistance: antibiotic-derived fluorescent probes - Mark A.T. Blaskovich
• The development of a modular platform for visible-light controlled organelle-targeting photocages - Carla Lin
• Molecular Hybridisation of Corticosteroids and Nitroxides: A Therapeutic Platform for Multifunctional Agents with Tunable Redox Bioactivity - Carl Soltau
• Structural optimization of FRET-PET sensors for pH sensing and imaging in cellular organelles - Chandrapaul Mukherjee

• Molecular Design Rules for Wettability Minimisation on Grafted Cellulose Surfaces through Human-Machine Teaming Optimisation - Tiffany R Walsh
• The complete configuration spaces of arbitrary coordination centres AB_n - unexpected complexity and surprising phenomena revealed - Peter J Canfield
• Spectroscopic and chomatographic tools to understand how molecules interact in complex systems - Alison Rodger
• Ion pairing behaviour in the prenucleation of calcium phosphate coatings for marble artworks             - Ria Stephenson

• Chemical signatures of resistance: rapid phenotypic AMR detection by vibrational spectroscopy.    - Kamila Kochan
• A comprehensive ion chromatography/mass spectrometry (IC/MS) method for saccharide analysis - Natasha L. Hungerford
• Metals in plant-pathogen interactions: a suit of armour or a knife in the back? - Meg Willans
• Characterisation of tunable cuticular wax coatings to investigate plant-pathogen interactions - River Pachulicz
• Alternative light sources for the visualisation of chemical threats - fluorescence signatures as a screening tool - Nastasia I. Bartlett

• Thermochemistry of battery materials and devices. - Neeraj Sharma
• Microemulsion Electrolytes for Electrochemical Energy Storage - Rohan Borah
• Anisotropic Semiconductor Nanocrystal Quantum Dots - Guohua Jia
• Structure-performance relationships of nanostructured copper sulfide films in aqueous zinc-ion batteries - Timothy J Biddle

• Flexible Organic Bioelectronic Platforms: Design and Implementation - Damia Mawad
• Structure design of nitroxide radicals for electrochemical applications - Zhongfan Jia
• Challenges in Aqueous-Phase NaBH₄ Electrosynthesis: A Comparative Analysis of Reported Methods and Replication Studies - Peter O Conghaile
• Mechanochemical method for surface modification of silicon - Abdelrahman Abdelrahman
• Spectroelectrochemical investigations of multi-metallic complexes - Paul J Low

• Closing the loop on silicone through depolymerisation-repolymerisation and vitrimer strategies - Erin M Leitao
• Making and unmaking poly(trisulfides) using pulsed LED irradiation - Thomas P Nicholls
• Thermal imaging using sulfur polymer optics - Justin Chalker
• Sulfonyl fluoride-containing polymers via alternating copolymerisation or C-H functionalisation.  - Joel F Hooper
• Magnetic polymeric sorbents for efficient removal of perfluorinated compounds from landfill leachate - Xiao Tan
• Step by step wavelength resolved analysis of photoinduced Diels-Alder step growth synthesis - Lewis Chambers

• Pyrazole-Carboxylate Functionalised Indium-Based MOFs: Post-Synthetic Metalation and Interpenetration - Mei Tieng Yong
• Synthesis and Studies of Water-Soluble Luminescent Iridium(III) Complexes - Liam Barron
• Charting the chemical space of Siderophores - Samuel V Feeney
• Tuning the reduction potential of fluorescent hypoxia sensors - Manal Alwahsh
• Phosphorescent Iridium Complexes for Photodynamic Detection and Therapy - Emily R McGowan
• Hemilabile Ligands in Iron Half-Sandwich complex formation and C-C cross coupling reactions - Diego Andres Cordova Marino

• Molecular designs and catalysts to enhance NMR signals: Some magnetic moments - Philip L Norcott
• Photocatalytic generation of alkyl carbanions from aryl alkenes - Milena L Czyz
• Microplastics: Towards understanding their environmental effects and forward thinking towards more safe and sustainable solutions - George Vamvounis
• Innovative Cu-catalysed electrochemical atom transfer radical addition (eATRA) for sustainable C–C bond formation - Chuyi Su
• Improving efficiency of electro-organic synthesis with magnetism  - William T McLeod

• The Pursuit of Low-Dimensional Diamond - Sam Chen
• Designing Improved Photocatalysts and Electrocatalysts for Cleaner Energy and a Healthier Environment - Rachel A Caruso
• Halogen assisted diamond growth at atmospheric pressure - Sadeepa Amarathunga
• Sustainable Carbon-Supported ORR Electrocatalysts: Bridging Performance, Scalability, and Environmental Responsibility - Naba Dutta

• Singlet–triplet gaps for evaluating thermally activated delayed fluorescence: which one is the (b)E_ST?   - Andrew Danos
• Sustainable strategies for high-performance hydrogels: biomimetic network design and light-driven fabrication - Jing Zhang
• Synthesis of biomedical polyurethanes in flow guided by Bayesian reaction optimisation - Max J. H. Worthington

• Simulated drug-discovery workshops: a C/PBL (authentic) activity to replace an AI-vulnerable essay and improve course utility. - Richard A. R. Blackburn
• From Minerals to Materials: A Research-Led Framework for Engineering Education - Yijun Zhong
• KNexions in chemistry through transforming toys into tools for teaching porous materials chemistry - Christopher Marsh
• Computational insights into chlorine generation from PhICl₂ - Harini A. Sivakumar
• Substrate dependent peroxidase mimicking activity of noble metal decorated hybrid superparamagnetic iron oxide nanozymes - Faizan Z Simnani
• Understanding the colour and structure of polydopamine using UV-Vis and TD-DFT modelling - Sophie A Crouch
• Mechanochemical Nanoarchitectonics for the Synthesis of Enzyme-Based Hydrogen-Bonded Organic Frameworks - Vahide oskoei
• Effect of structural corrugation on interlayer coupling and photocatalytic activity in g-C₃N₄/Janus PtSSe heterostructures - Gbemi F Abass
• Synthesis of β,β'-linked bispyrrolyl chalcones - Zhiyuan Zhang
• The synthesis of 5H-pyrimido[5,4-b]indole and 5H-pyridazino[4,5-b]indole - Dane Tregeagle
• The chemical make-up of one of the world’s deepest dwelling animals - Charmaine Chin
• Conformational Dynamics as a Determinant of Catalytic Performance in Polyphenol Organocatalysts - Vanessa Ambatsa
• 5,7-Membered cyclometallated gold(III) complexes with pyridine-phenyl-oxazoline N^C^N ligands as catalysts for organic transformation reactions under silver-free conditions - Yosephine Tania Limanto
• Decomposition of hydrofluoroolefins in low nox environments - Matthew Taylor
• Machine learning the universal density functional through exposure to diverse chemical properties - Peter Halat
• Expanding the Chemical Inventory of Space: Gas – Phase Phosphorus Reactions - Stephanie J McGoldrick
• The electron density as an alternative metric for benchmarking electronic structure calculations - Dale R Lonsdale
• Emu: High-resolution neutron backscattering for molecular dynamics studies - Alice Klapproth
• Self-Assembly of Lauramidopropyl Zwitterionic Surfactants: A Multi-Technique Characterisation by SANS, DLS, and Molecular Dynamics Simulations - Ramya Khandika
• An in-depth investigation of adsorption behavior of N₂ and CH₄ in SWCNTs - Yixuan Zhang
• Bio-based crosslinked PVA membranes using furfural and sulfosuccinic acid for enhanced acid resistance and thermal stability in electrochemical applications. - Pablo Cuello
• Metastable photoacids for direct air capture - Todd M Hartshorn
• Tuning the fluorescent response in Metal-Organic Framework glasses through ligand control - Kaleb L Miller
• Selective recognition of phosphatidic acid using a Zn(II)-8-hydroxyquinoline peptide Probe - Ramraj Kameriya
• A rapid screening approach for Assessing the Recyclability of post-consumer Medical Plastics - Chloe Broeckelmann
• Rhenium(V) and Technetium(V)-Oxo Complexes with functionalised SHYNIC Ligands for the Diagnostic Imaging and Targeted Radiotherapy of Cancer - Joe Hill

Join us for a series of interactive workshops covering professional development, career pathways, industry engagement, and skills for success.

 Pegah Varamini - Traditional vs Entrepreneurial Academic Pathways: Navigating Career Choices for ECRs

• Fluorescent Strategies for Nanoscale Biological Imaging - Amandeep Kaur
• Developments in thiosemicarbazone and semicarbazone chelator design for radiopharmaceuticals - Brett M Paterson
• Investigating the therapeutic potential of synthesised TA/TMIO hybrids for age-related macular degeneration  - Neil Delos Reyes
• 1,8-Naphthalimide lipid droplet imaging agents and their application in cell biology - Shane Hickey

• Theoretical studies of radical boron heterocycles - David Wilson
• Assignment of the triplet to triplet absorption spectrum of pyrene - Jeffrey Reimers
• Protons as radical initiators - Asja A. Kroeger

• Applications of Magnetic Metal-Organic Frameworks for Micro/Nanoplastics Separation and Analysis - Fernando Maya Alejandro
• Electrochemical Eyes on Water   - Shaneel Chandra
• The use of near-infrared (NIR) spectroscopy to screen for microplastic contamination in the value chain of black soldier fly larvae (BSFL) valorisation of food waste - Adam Kolobaric
• High-resolution electrochemical imaging and microscale printing of porous conducting polymers - Kevin Krause
• Improving LC–MS/MS Detection of Plastic-Associated Endocrine Disruptors Using Ammonium Fluoride as a Mobile-Phase Modifier. - Jaya Ajay Singh

• Metal Phenolic Network Nanolayer Coatings on Anode and Cathode Active materials for Lithium Ion Battery Performance - Amanda Ellis
• Development of aptasensors for detection of diseases and pathogens - Renee V Goreham
• Synthesis of low-cost fused-ring acceptor molecules for high-performing organic solar cells. - Mats R. Andersson

• Electrochemical Upgrading of Carbon Dioxide - Jie Zhang
• Unveiling the material’s photo/electrochemical properties correlated with its electronic structures - Dawei Su
• Examining the Effects of Hydrophobicity in the Design of Cathode GDE for Gas-Fed, Zero Gap CO2 Electrolyser - YUEN LEONG CHOW
• Thickness dependent effects of plasma treatment on wo3 photoanodes for solar water splitting - Elham Jassemi Zargani

• Direct Fabrication of Hierarchical Nanostructured Materials via Controlled 3D Photopolymerization - Bastien LUZEL
• Brushing It Off: Subtractive Photopatterning of Polymer Brushe   - Hendrik Frisch
• Highly Efficient and Cytocompatible Photoinitiators for Photopolymerization and Additive Manufacturing - Pu Xiao

Panel:

Prof Justin Chalker

Dr Marck Norret

Dr Brad Sleebs

Prof Guohua Jia

• Advances in C–H functionalisation: new catalytic strategies for chemical synthesis - Daniel Priebbenow
• Aza-BODIPY Photosensitizers for Photodynamic Therapy - Kathryn E Fairfull-Smith
• Aqueous Nucleotide Lipidation Driving Self-Assembly - Anastasiia S Mozhegova
• The chemical make-up of one of the world’s deepest dwelling animals - Charmaine Chin
• Conformational Dynamics as a Determinant of Catalytic Performance in Polyphenol Organocatalysts - Vanessa Ambatsa

• Large-area transfer of nanometre-thin C₆₀ films - Jack Hogan
• Dynamic Self-assembly meets Additive Manufacturing-Multiscale Design of 2D Carbon material-Block Copolymer assembly - Namita Roy Choudhury
• Molecular Confinement Effects on Pressure-Driven Structural Evolution of C₆₀ - Chengyi Liu

• Innovative RF-sputtered catalysts for selective CO₂ reduction to ethylene. - Kurt Macri
• Catalytic upgrading of furfural using Rh catalysts supported on activated carbon derived from forestry biomass residues - Doris Ruiz
• From atmosphere to stone: integrated direct air capture and mineralisation of CO₂ utilising aqueous amino acid salt solutions - Sofia Lazareva
• Enhancing mineral carbonation through molecular simulations on mineral surfaces - Jessica Jein White

• Integrating interactive 3D models to enhance student understanding of stereoselectivity in the reduction of camphor - Finn M Holman
• Metal-organic frameworks with tunable pore sizes for critical element separation - Danyang Pan
• Dynamic evolution and interfacial synergy in CeO2-supported Pt catalysts revealed by machine learning-accelerated DFT - Jun Wang
• Orientation-Dependent Vortex Fluidic Shear Processing of Aqueous Alkali Lignin for Anisotropic Nanostructure Formation - Emad Alzahrani
• Ball-milling as the innovative and effective method of merging thiols with heteroallenes - Kamil Hanek
• A CONCISE SYNTHESIS OF AN L-ALTRURONIC ACID GLYCOSYL DONOR - Ajay Sharma S
• The hunt to uncover bioactives in Australian arid zone flora - Geordie Thomson
• Redox active butafulvene-based macrocycles - Ingrid Dell
• The effect of heteroatom doping on the ammonia decomposition catalyzed by Ru single atoms supported on Sumanene - li Zhao
• Towards more accurate non-covalent interactions with TD-DFT - Ariel Jones
• Ion pairing behaviour in the prenucleation of calcium phosphate coatings for marble artworks             - Ria Stephenson
• Structure and transport in polymer electrolytes for electrochemical devices - Tanika Duivenvoorden
• Visible-light photocatalysts for transformation of hexose sugars into biobased platform chemicals - Huai-Yong ZHU
• A dual receptor fluorescent peptide for the selective detection of phosphatidylethanolamine - Nian Kee Tan
• Dual-responsive chiroptical properties in a cofacial TTF-based metal-organic framework - Katelyn Clutterbuck
• Pyridine and N-Pyridinium Macrocycles Show High Affinity for Aqueous Sulfate via Charge Assisted H-bond Donors - Thomas Salmon
• Ethylene Uptake of Zinc Phenolic Carboxylate Based Coordination Polymer Containing Square Channels - Tony Wang
• Measuring the Hydrogen Permeability of Metals and Ceramics at Room Temperature - Joshua Butson
• Discretisation of continuum-configuration Chemical Spaces and their graph representation - Peter J Canfield
• Pyrazole-Carboxylate Functionalised Indium-Based MOFs: Post-Synthetic Metalation and Interpenetration - Mei Tieng Yong
• Synthesis and Studies of Water-Soluble Luminescent Iridium(III) Complexes - Liam Barron
• Charting the chemical space of Siderophores - Samuel Feeney
• Tuning the reduction potential of fluorescent hypoxia sensors - Manal Alwahsh
• Phosphorescent Iridium Complexes for Photodynamic Detection and Therapy - Emily McGowan
• Hemilabile Ligands in Iron Half-Sandwich complex formation and C-C cross coupling reactions - Diego Andres Cordova Marino

• RNA dynamic covalent chemistry - Albert C. Fahrenbach
• Peptide display screening for guiding fragment-based and covalent inhibitor discovery - Yu Heng Lau
• Multiplexing and multivariate approaches to studying the complex chemistry of biological systems - Elizabeth J New

• Laying the foundations for future chemistry simulations through DFT for (nearly) everything - Tim Gould
• Time-dependent range-separated double-hybrids with spin scaling for difficult excited-state problems - Lars Goerigk

• Homogenous antibody-metal conjugates for quantitative elemental-mass spectrometry imaging - Andrew McDonagh
• Light-initiated degradation of per- or polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS)  - Rachael K Matthews
• Photoreductive Mineralization of PFAS under Natural Sunlight using ZnS - Mabel L Day
• Portable LC-MS as a tool for multi‑matrix PFAS assessment and time‑critical field‑based decision‑making - Ibraam Mikhail
• Double PNA-LNA molecular switch LAMP for extraction-free direct zygosity determination of single nucleotide polymorphism - Fatema Zerin Farhana

• Continuous flow hydrothermal synthesis for precision synthesis of metal oxide nanoparticles and oxygen carrier property for chemical looping processes - Akira Yoko
• Liquid-liquid Phase Separation-Guided Orientational Assembly of Nanocarbons - Lei Bao

• Keeping Sensors Clean: Tetra-PEG Hydrogels for Stable In-Matrix Electrochemical Detection - Saimon Moraes Silva
• Electrochemical detection of nucleic acid biomarkers via cathodic potential–induced adsorption - Muhammad J. A. Shiddiky
• Turning Fouling into Function: Boosting Electrochemical Rates and Selectivity with Perfluorinated and Chiral Oil droplets on electrodes - Shane S.W Werry
• Refining the electrode-biomolecule-electrolyte interfaces to enhance analytical biosensing of circulating cancer biomarkers - Kevin M Koo

• Fluoropolymers for Energy Harvesting and Advanced Membrane Technologies - Amanda V Ellis
• Revealing the role of varied quaternary ammonium groups for capturing per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances. - Kehan Liu
• Strategies to Overcome Radical Penetration Barriers in RAFT Emulsion Polymerization of High Glass Transition Temperature Multiblock Copolymers - ALIREZA KHATIBI
• Micelle enhanced ultrafiltration with self-sourced MXene@MOF composite for PFAS and endocrine-disruptive behavior molecules removal - Roham Ghanbari

• Terbium-161 Radiochemistry and Radiopharmaceuticals - Benjamin H Fraser
• Fluorescent Sensor Arrays for the Detection of Metals in Biology and the Environment: A Multivariate Approach - Muhammad Tahir Waseem
• Sb(V) aryl anthraquinone complexes: Enhanced stability and antileishmanial activity of a fluorescent anthracycline system - Rebekah N Duffin

• Ball-milling as the innovative and effective method of merging thiols with heteroallenes - Kamil Hanek
• A CONCISE SYNTHESIS OF AN L-ALTRURONIC ACID GLYCOSYL DONOR - Ajay Sharma S
• One- and two-photon absorption for simple and effective fluoride recognition in organic and aqueous media - Frédéric Paul
• The hunt to uncover bioactives in Australian arid zone flora - Geordie M Thomson
• Redox active butafulvene-based macrocycles - Ingrid Y Dell
• Temporal control of a DNA nanomachine with visible light - Willi Berg
• Origami with small molecules: Enhancing the properties of bioactive molecules through stereoselective fluorination - Luke Hunter

• Sustainable Carbon Materials for Catalytic Applications - Yuan Chen
• Thermochemical Transformation of Graphene Oxide for Engineering the Future of Sustainable Technologies - Mainak MM Majumder

Take a break from the conference program and join fellow delegates for a relaxed and fun-filled evening at the RACI 2026 ECR Quiz Night, courtesy of the ACS.

Designed to encourage networking in a casual setting, this social event is the perfect opportunity to meet new people, reconnect with colleagues, and unwind after a busy conference day. Expect a light-hearted trivia competition, plenty of laughs, and a welcoming atmosphere for students, ECRs, and delegates from across all chemistry disciplines.

Come along with your friends and organise a table ahead of time or register solo and we’ll help place you in a team on the night — making it easy to meet new people and expand your conference network.

The evening will include:

• Trivia-style quiz with team participation
• Relaxed networking opportunities
• Light dinner, with drinks available for purchase.
• A welcoming environment for both students and professionals

Whether you’re competitive or just there for the social side, the ECR Quiz Night is set to be one of the most enjoyable networking events of the conference week.

This event has been made possible through the support of the ACS Younger Chemists Committee.