Abstract

Programme pressures at many major conferences generally result in very limited opportunity for extended public discussion of the papers. Materials Chemistry Discussions provide a valuable forum for debate of this type, and will play an important role in the future development of the subject. Such discussion has three valuable functions: it provides authors with balanced feedback and the opportunity for this to be questioned, supported or refuted by additional comments; it provides a forum for experts in the field to develop the themes of papers on a wider scale, presenting additional material from their own research and broadening perspectives; and for younger scientists it sets standards, inspires enthusiasm and even offers opportunities for the bold to challenge the views of established figures. The discussions at MD2 fulfilled all of these functions. The purpose of the following summaries is to make available on a wider scale the principal content and flavours of these discussions.

Each discussion session was planned around a themed group of papers, and each section of the summary is prefaced by the titles and authors (the name underlined in each case is that of the presenting author) of the papers in the session, in the order in which they were covered in the discussion. Readers may find it helpful to read the papers from each session first, followed by the discussion summary for that session.