Professor Michael Bowker Project Titles
1. Selective oxidation catalysis
Selective oxidation of simple organic molecules is an important method of upgrading the value of chemicals used in society today. However, they are limited by their selectivity because the thermodynamically favoured products are always those of combustion (carbon dioxide and water). The objective if this research is to find more environmentally-friendly routes to these basic chemicals which results in less CO2 emissions to the atmosphere and in improved economic performance, by studying the factors that dictate selectivity and how to manipulate them.
2. Nanoscience studies of surface structure and reactivity
In this project we will fabricate nanoparticles on surfaces by traditional wet chemical methods, and by less conventional routes such as ALE (atomic layer epitaxy). We will compare the efficacy of such methods by imaging the nanoparticles so produced by using techniques such as STM, AFM to image them and XPS to chemically analyse them. We will also try to fabricate homogeneous arrays of particles and investigate how the particle size affects their behaviour for surface reactions and catalysis