Chemistry Students Research Society Faculty of Chemistry

December 2025 is full of events and scientific achievements, especially when they are represented by our Society members.

From December 6 to 8, the 9th edition of the Silesian Science Festival Katowice took place, and we couldn't miss it. Our Society supervisor, PhD Anna Byczek-Wyrostek, together with the coordinator of the popular science section, Filip Wojtas, gave lectures entitled “Colors of the world – when science meets the rainbow.” Participants had the opportunity to learn about the world of colors, which is not the easiest to understand from a chemical point of view. The lecture included colorful chemical experiments related to flame tests and redox reactions.
The second lecture, entitled “The carbon cycle in nature – the role of carbon dioxide in global warming. Fact or myth?”, debunked frequently repeated fake news with an explanation of the role of greenhouse gases and carbon – not only coal – in the natural environment and in our lives. All in all, organic chemistry is based on carbon compounds!

Staying in a scientific mood, we can boast three new publications by our members! The first one, entitled “Antimicrobial Activity of 1,3,4-Thiadiazole Derivatives,” is the work of Sebastian Górecki, who is conducting his research under the supervision of Prof. Agnieszka Kudelko. As always, the colorful world of thiadiazoles surprises us with new applications. We invite you to read it 🙂

The other two publications belong to our Club President, Mateusz Pilszek. In the first one, entitled “Development of a process for obtaining ε-caprolactone from cyclohexanone and hydrogen peroxide,” he was the first author to describe the optimization of the ε-caprolactone production process in terms of, among other things, the selection of solvents, temperature, and many other factors. For more information, we encourage you to read the publication.
The second publication, entitled “Design of modern biocatalysts for ε-caprolactone synthesis,” co-authored by Mateusz, addresses a very similar topic, but in relation to obtaining ε-caprolactone in biocatalytic processes. We encourage you to read it!