We study self-assembled, self-organised and nanoscale materials, often based on renewable resources, and apply these materials in next-generation technologies – from opto-electronics to tissue engineering.

Molecular-scale building blocks are produced using simple synthetic methods or extracted from bio-waste and programmed to form soft nanoscale materials by non-covalent interactions ‘from the bottom up’, directing the resulting materials behaviour. This gives rise to highly tunable, multi-component, multi-functional soft materials such as liquid crystals, micelles, vesicles, gels, ionic liquids, and nanoparticles, with wide-ranging real-world applications.

Collaboration

In this multidisciplinary research area we collaborate with colleagues from the Departments of Biology (old) and Physics, which supports the translation of fundamental materials chemistry into a variety of applications.

Staff

NameExpertise
Alyssa-Jennifer Avestro
  • Multi-dimensionally conjugated supra(macro)molecular materials

Martin Bates
  • Simulation of liquid crystals and complex systems
Duncan Bruce
  • Materials chemistry
Victor Chechik
  • EPR and nanoscale chemistry
Peter Karadakov
  • Modern valence-bond theory and chemical reactivity
  • Ab initio calculation of NMR properties
John Moore
  • Spectroscopy and photochemistry in solution
Seishi Shimizu
  • Solvents, solvation, and solubility
  • Statistical thermodynamics of biomolecules, drugs and food
John Slattery
  • Ionic liquids
  • Computational chemistry
  • Main-group chemistry
David Smith
  • Dendrimer, supramolecular and nanoscale chemistry
Chris Spicer
  • Biomaterials and tissue engineering