The group currently comprises 9 people: the principal investigator, 1 research associate, 5 PhD students, 2 visiting PhD students.
PDRA
- Dr. Rebecca Stones (2019 – present), Research Associate, Research area: valorisation of recycled glass for sustainable processes. Project funded by: The Leverhulme Trust. Project partners: Glass Technology Services, University of Newcastle and Leibniz Insitute for Catalysis.
PhD students (alphabetical order)
- Ghadeer Albalawi (2019 – present), Research area: nano and porous materials for water treatment processes. Project funded by: Tabuk University, Saudi Arabia.
- Bahhaj Alshammari (2020 – present), Research area: investigation of hydrocarbon oxidation processes by analytical methods development . Project funded by: Royal Embassy of Saudi Arabia Cultural Bureau.
- Mohamed Kashbor (2019 – present), Research area: hierarchical zeolites for the isomerization of sugars to platform chemicals. Project funded by: Lybian Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research.
- Mengyuan Qian, (2019 – present), Research area: water purification processes for agriculture. Project funded by: UoS Research Institute for Sustainable Food, and Grantham Centre for Sustainable Futures. Project in collaboration with: Department of Civil Engineering at The University of Sheffield. Project partner: Glass Technology Services.
- Dedi Sutarma (2015 – present), Research area: nematic phases for the isomerisation of sugars to platform chemicals. Project funded by: Indonesia Endowment Fund for Education.
Visiting or co-supervised PhD students (alphabetical order)
- Charlie Adams (2019 – present, student based at the Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre, Rotherham, UoS), Reseach area: deposit of carbonaceous products in jet turbines, Project funded by: European Research Council.
- Eleanor O’Doherty (2017 – present, student based at Chemical and Biological Engineering), Research area: waste valorisation of organic by-products, Project funded by: Grantham Centre for Sustainable Futures. Project partner: Entomics Biosystems ltd.
MChem and MSc students (academic year 2021/22)
Pool research technicians
Former group members (in reverse chronological order)
PDRA
- (2019) Dr. Venkata Chodimella, Research Associate, Research area: valorisation of recycled glass for sustainable processes. Project funded by: The Leverhulme Trust.
- (2018) Dr. Preabjot Singh, EPSRC Doctoral Prize Fellow, Research area: photocatalysts for the selective oxidation of aromatic compounds. Project funded by: EPSRC and The University of Sheffield.
PhD students
Hasina Begum (2019 – 2022), Research area: synthesis of vibro-acoustic composites, Project funded by: Grantham Centre for Sustainable Futures.
- (2017 – 2021) Baozhai Han, thesis: “Silver based catalysts for the selective oxidation of cyclic hydrocarbons under mild conditios.” Project funded by: China Scholarship Council and The University of Sheffield.
- (2017 – 2021) Changyan Zhou, thesis: “Zeolite catalysts for water treatment: catalytic wet peroxide oxidation of phenol.” Project funded by: Grantham Centre for Sustainable Futures, in collaboration with: Department of Mechanical Engineering at The University of Sheffield.
- (2016 – 2020), James Railton, thesis: “Developing the synthesis of novel TiO2 and Nb2O5 supports and their applications to the selective oxidation of alkanes”. Project funded by: Chemistry Department, The University of Sheffield.
- (2014-2017) Preabjot Singh, thesis: “Niobium oxide based catalysts for the selective oxidation of hydrocarbons”. Project funded by: EPSRC and The University of Sheffield.
MChem/MSc students
- (2020/2021) Alexander Mee, thesis: “Effect of acidity on the isomerisation of glucose to fructose using heterogeneous acid catalysts in mixed media”
- (2020/2021) Eunpyo Lee, thesis: “The effect of changes of temperature to the conversion of heterogeneously catalyzed reactions”
- (2019/2020) Mubarak Magaji, research area: hydrocarbon oxidation
- (2019/2020) Joshua Dang, thesis: “Using different oxidation states of silver catalysts to achieve selectivity control in hydrocarbon oxidation”
- (2018/2019) Jonathan Gregg, thesis: “Development of bimetallic catalysts for the oxidaiton of cyclooctane to cyclooctanone”
- (2017/2018) Luke Forster, thesis: “Development of novel precious metal catalysts for the production of styrene”
- (2017/2018) Philippa James, thesis: “Development of heterogeneous catalysts for the isomerisation of glucose to fructose and mannose”
- (2016/2017) Chloe Baker, thesis: “Testing of heterogeneous rhodium catalysts for the oxidation of alcohols in a biphasic system”
- (2016/2017) Jamie Bradley, thesis: “Novel silver and gold supported nanoparticle catalysts for selective hydrocarbon oxidation”
- (2016/2017) Conor Wilde, thesis: “Development of supported rhodium nanoparticles for alcohol oxidation”
- (2015/2016) Liam Pratt, thesis: “Rhodium on activated carbon catalysts for the oxidation of alcohols”
- (2014/2015) Ian Firth, thesis: “Rhodium on carbon catalysts as a model system for alcohol oxidation and the development of acoustic impedance methods for microporous materials”
- (2014/2015) Jack Weston, thesis: “Heterogeneous rhodium based catalysts for the oxidative kinetic resolution of 1-phenylethanol”
- (2013/2014) Victoria Oakes, thesis: “Hydrochlorination of acetylene by Au, Pd, and Pt chlorides: a study of the reaction mechanism by DFT”