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Research Topics

Research Topics

The research in my group can be loosely characterised as ‘wet’ surface chemistry. We are motivated by two general questions: What is the relationship between the microscopic structure of a thin film and the molecular structure of its constituent molecules? How do the microscopic properties of an interface determine the macroscopic behaviour of a system? Our focus is on fundamental physical chemistry, but the systems we study have potential applications in areas such as lubrication, food processing, printing and coating technology, process engineering and pathology. Systems are chosen to be sufficiently complex to capture the essential behaviour of real applications, yet simple enough to permit a determination of the structure of the interface.

We use a wide range of TECHNIQUES, including linear and nonlinear vibrational spectroscopy, ellipsometry, neutron reflection, light scattering, tensiometry and optical tweezers. The development of new methodology plays an important part in our research.

The research group maintains an active portfolio of exploratory projects, some of which may develop into long-term research programmes. Current developmental projects are in two areas: biophysical chemistry and optical tweezers. The former includes evanescent wave Raman scattering from peptides in planar supported lipid bilayers, mesoporous supports for lipid bilayers, and aggregation of fibrillogenic peptides. The latter includes oscillating tweezers to study colloidal interactions and array formation in evanescent optical fields.

You can find more information about my research by following these links: