Formation, Organisation & Response of Materials
This year we are lucky enough to be joined by Hannah Blakiston and Sophie Ray to do their MSci research projects with the group.
Sophie will be working on isolation and characterisation of intermediate clusters in MOF synthesis, while Hannah will be investigating phase behaviour and compositional trends in hybrid perovskites.
Sam and Harry’s paper on MDABCO-based ABX3 perovskites is now out in CrystEngComm!
These materials are very promising candidates for ferroelectric applications, owing to their ease of synthesis, flexibility and properties that rival existing materials, such as BaTiO3. Sam and Harry discovered the single crystal structures of three new compositions, which help to define the design limits within which the ferroelectric pseudo-cubic perovskite phases form.
Congratulations Sam and Harry and thanks to all contributing authors!
Read the paper, which features in the 2022 New Talent Special Issue (Open Access) here.
Update: new cover art available too!
We are excited to offer a PhD studentship to start in October 2022, on a project joint with scientists at Diamond Light Source, the UK’s national synchrotron facility. Please note that funding for fees is available for home (UK) students only and this re-advertised position will close as soon as a suitable candidate is found.
Recently, MOFs with hierarchical structure–on multiple length scales–have been created that give rise to unprecedented properties and emergent phenomena, such as structural colour. This project will develop the necessary protocols and expertise to perform and analyse tandem in-situ X-ray scattering experiments across beamlines I22 and I15-1 at Diamond, to probe the key length scales and timescales involved in hierarchical MOF formation.
The student will spend time at Birmingham and Diamond, co-supervised by leading experts in small-angle scattering and total scattering measurements, Dr Andy Smith and Dr Phil Chater, respectively. They will have an allowance up to £3000 per year for conferences, training and travel, and will receive additional training in transferable skills such as Python, scientific writing and presentations.
For more details and to apply see FindAPhD.
Today after a gourmet calzone group lunch at the Plough, Harborne, we bid farewell to our MSci project students this year, Matt Liddle and Sam Gale.
Matt investigated the phase behaviour of the BIRM-1 family of carboxyphosphonate MOFs, mapping out which phases formed under different synthetic conditions. He discovered at least one new material and showed that, like BIRM-1, it underwent structural collapse and then recrystallisation upon drying and resolvation. Matt goes on to PhD research in the group of Prof Ross Forgan at the University of Glasgow.
Sam investigated structural and compositional variations in the MDABCO-based halide perovskites. He found several new structures––some wonderfully unintended!––that pushed the limits of phase behaviour, broke the rules (that we wrote!) and showed that paraelectric–ferroelectric phase transitions are highly dependent on sample history. We’re currently writing up his work so watch this space for a paper in the near future… Sam is taking a year out and will be looking for PhD opportunities for 2023.
Farewell and good luck for your final exams, Matt and Sam!
A warm welcome to Suzie Hughes, who joins us this month to start her PhD looking into MOFs and hybrid perovskites for sensing. She got a 1st from Bath University and has experience from her Masters project on adsorption and release using flexible MOFs. We’re really excited for this science and to work with Suzie over the next few years!!
Yeung Research Group at UoB 