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We are starting a new and exciting Master of Science Programme with entry from the academic year 2022/23. This programme is aimed to develop the specialist chemistry skills that industry, academia and society need for a sustainable world. Find out more and join us at: https://www.sheffield.ac.uk/postgraduate/taught/courses/2022/chemistry-and-sustainability-msc

Zeolite Y was used as a support for the synthesis of Sn and Ga doped zeolites aimed at the isomerization of glucose to fructose. Though these materials are inactive in water, they are active in methanol and we could ascertain a reaction pathway involving a hydride shift for the interconversion of glucose to fructose andContinue reading “Conversion of glucose to fructose over Sn and Ga-doped zeolite Y in methanol and water media”

Our group member Baozhai Han has successfully defended his PhD dissertation entitled: “Silver based catalysts for the selective oxidation of cyclic hydrocarbons under mild conditions”. Well done Dr. Han! The direct selective oxidation of hydrocarbons is an important process both in industry and academia to produce oxygen containing compounds by the transformation of petrochemical feedstock,Continue reading “PhD Award for Baozhai Han”

Our group member Changyan Zhou successuflly defended her PhD dissertation entitled: “Zeolite Catalysts for Water Treatment: Catalytic Wet PeroxideOxidation of Phenol”. Well done Dr. Zhou! The discharge of wastewater into the environment without adequate treatment aggravateswater shortage worldwide, which prompts the development of efficient wastewater treatment technology as an active area of research in recentContinue reading “PhD Award for Changyan Zhou”

Merging hydrogen (H2) evolution with oxidative organic synthesis in a semiconductor-mediated photoredox reaction is extremely attractive because the clean H2 fuel and high-value chemicals can be coproduced under mild conditions using light as the sole energy input. Following this dual-functional photocatalytic strategy, a dreamlike reaction pathway for constructing C-C/C-X (X = C, N, O, S)Continue reading “Cooperative Coupling of Oxidative Organic Synthesis and Hydrogen Production over Semiconductor-Based Photocatalysts”

Granulated aerogels can be of interest in terms of their sound absorption performance in the audio frequency range. However, there is still no thorough understanding of the complex physical phenomena which are responsible for their observed acoustical properties. This work is an attempt to address this gap through advanced material characterization methods and mathematical modelling.Continue reading “The acoustical properties of tetraethyl orthosilicate based granular silica aerogels”

Read about a recent publication in Nature Communications on the synthesis of novel materials capable to capture CO2 and transform it into useful chemicals: The performance of transition metal hydroxides, as cocatalysts for CO2 photoreduction, is significantly limited by their inherent weaknesses of poor conductivity and stacked structure. Herein, we report the rational assembly ofContinue reading “Rationally designed transition metal hydroxide nanosheet arrays on graphene for artificial CO2 reduction”

Our group member James Railson successuflly defended his PhD dissertation entitled: “Developing the synthesis of novel TiO2 and Nb2O5 supports and their applications to the selective oxidation of alkanes”. Well done Dr. Railton! The theme of this project was based on selective alkane oxidation with oxygen as the sole oxidant in a solvent-free system byContinue reading “PhD Award for James Railton”

One of our group members, Changyan Zhou, recently published a paper in Chemical Papers (in press). Some materials that are active heterogeneous catalysts for the breakdown of non-ionic aromatic solutes in water are found to act as potentiometric sensitizers for same solutes. The present work establishes an application for catalysts beyond catalysis itself. The useContinue reading “Sensing aromatic pollutants in water with catalyst-sensitized water-gated transistor”