EPSRC Fellowship in
Design and green manufacturing of functional nanomaterials

Overview    Background    Aims   Themes   Updates
Overview
This fellowship aims to apply bioinspired routes to deliver sustainable ("green"), low cost and scalable manufacturing of high value functional nanomaterials.
  • For the bioinspired synthesis we have developed, the correlations between mixing and reaction timescales are unknown, let alone their validation and use in scale-up.
  • We aim to develop the fundamental science of scale-up by a combination of experimental and computational approach.
  • Silica, titania and zinc oxide will be considered as three technologically important nanomaterials.
Background
Aims
This fellowship aims to apply bioinspired routes to deliver sustainable ("green"), low cost and scalable technologies for manufacturing high value functional nanomaterials. In particular, the aims are to:

1. develop the fundamental science of scale-up by measuring and designing the correlations between timescales of mixing and particle formation.
2. validate these models and develop scale-up rules.
3. design industry relevant nanomaterials using a bioinspired synthesis.
4. demonstrate pathways for larger-scale manufacturing.

For details, see https://gow.epsrc.ukri.org/NGBOViewGrant.aspx?GrantRef=EP/R025983/1.
Themes and work packages
Progress updates
Publications and presentations
Also see other publications here
  1. A co-authored book is now published, called “GREEN NANOMATERIALS: From Bioinspired Synthesis to Sustainable Manufacturing of Inorganic Nanomaterials”. See more details here: https://greennanobook.com/
  2. In the Lab: Bespoke Green Nanomaterials: Discovery, Design, Applications and Manufacture, Johnson Matthey Technology Review, 63(3), 152, 2019.
  3. Bioinspired synthesis as a potential green method for the preparation of nanomaterials: Opportunities and challenges, Current Opinion in Green and Sustainable Chemistry, 12, 110-116, 2018.
  4. Mimicking bio-sintering: The identification of highly condensed surfaces in bioinspired silica materials, Langmuir, 37, 561, 2021.
  5. Designing bioinspired green nanosilicas using statistical and machine learning approaches, Mol. Sys. Des. Eng., 6, 293, 2021.
  6. Unified mechanistic interpretation of amine-assisted silica synthesis methods to enable design of more complex materials, a part of “Nature-Inspired Solutions for Engineering” issues of Molecular Systems Design & Engineering, 6, 170, 2021.
  7. Plate spinning: a beginner's guide to surviving and thriving as an engineering/science academic, book published by the University of Sheffield.
  8. Decontamination of Anthraquinone Dyes Polluted Water Using Bioinspired Silica as a Sustainable Sorbent, Silicon, 14, 1235, 2022.
  9. Green Nanosilicas for Monoaromatic Hydrocarbons Removal from Air, Silicon, 14, 1447, 2022.
  10. A Comparison of Environmental Impact of Various Silicas Using a Green Chemistry Evaluator, ACS Sustainable Chem. Eng. 2022, published online.
  11. Submitted a paper "A novel method for understanding the mixing mechanisms to enable sustainable manufacturing of bioinspired silica". We have used a combination of monitoring the reaction using a pH indicator and high-speed cameras. Global and local mixing dynamics and kinetics are measured and correlation developed between mixing and Re for bioinspired silica synthesis to enable scale-up.
  12. Submitted a review "Recent advances in enabling green manufacture of functional nanomaterials: a case study of bioinspired silica". The novelty  of this review is that it presents an integrative System-based Product Design (SPD) mind-set for parallel and responsive progression of multiple and dependent research strands, according to need, opportunities and emergent knowledge.
Conferences
  1. 6 talks at the Fall 2019 ACS conference in San Diego.
  2. one invited talk at the ECI conference on Nature-Inspired Engineering (2019).
  3. Organising committee member for the 15th International conference on materials chemistry (MC15, July 2021).
  4. International webinar in the ACS webinar series on “Discovery to market pipeline for bioinspired nanomaterials”, June 2021.
  5. Invited talk on “Designing bioinspired green nanosilicas using statistical and machine learning approaches” at AIChE’s Trends in Invigoration of Manufacturing and Engineering (July 2021) and at MSDE Symposium 2021: Frontiers in Molecular Engineering (June 2021).
  6. Organising committee member for the RSC Process Chemistry and Technology Group's annual symposium on "How can Process Chemistry and Technology Enable Sustainability?"
  7. We presented 3 posters (see below) at the ChemEngDay UK conference in April 2022, held in London.
Other updates
People
- Dr. Yahaya Baba, an expert in experimental fluid dynamics, is coming to the end of his contract (June 2022).

- Amber Keegan, a PhD student, is working on developing ways to monitor the formation pathways using colorimetric method and exploring the potential for using dielectric spectroscopy. This work is in collaboration with Dr. Dimitrakis from University of Nottingham. Amber was awarded Ashok Kumar Fellowship for a three-month placement with the UK Parliamentary Office for Science and Technology (POST). She will return to her PhD in May 2022.

- We have recruited a new technician, Dr. Gwen Chimonides, to support the experimental work. See Group page for details.

- Still looking for applications for a PhD position to pursue product design theme and a PDRA in CFD.

Technical
- We have recently invented a new technology for mesoporous silicas. Details can be found here. We secured commercialisation funding from Innovate UK's ICURe programme and National Productivity Investment Fund to develop this technology. Information on other inventions can be found here.

- Started a new company Sipat Consulting and Training.

- We have designed a multi-inlet vortex mixer to study the reactions under a range of mixing scenarios (in collaboration with Prof. Marchisio, Politecnico di Torino). 

- On materials design side, we established a novel design of Experiments (DoE) approach to connect synthesis, structure and properties for the materials produced. This is also complemented by machine learning (in collaboration with Dr. Brown, University of Sheffield).
Progress in other areas relevant to Fellowship

  • Using the materials produced in this Fellowship, we have discovered a scalable and economical process for battery-grade porous silicon. We have now obtained funding from the Faraday Institution and industry to progress and commercialise this discovery. Read published work here: paper 1, paper 2 and paper 3.
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