Dr Thomas Slater
Lecturer
- Ar gael fel goruchwyliwr ôl-raddedig
Trosolwg
I am an electron microscopist with a focus on the characterisation of nanomaterials and heterogeneous catalysts. I use aberration-corrected scanning transmission electron microscopy to determine the atomic structure of a wide range of materials systems. Characterising the structure of materials down to the atomic scale allows a much greater understanding of their properties. I am particularly interested in determining the surface structure of materials to understand catalytic properties.
I have a particular interest in the three-dimensional imaging of nanomaterials, determining the 3D structure and elemental distribution within nanoparticles. I also have interests in imaging heterogeneous catalysts during reactions in-situ, and in combining different characterisation techniques with electron microscopy to better understand material properties.
For more information on the electron microscopy facilities within the school of chemistry, see here.
Bywgraffiad
MPhys in Physics (2011) at The University of Manchester.
PhD in Electron Microscopy of Nanomaterials (2015) at The University of Manchester, supervised by Sarah Haigh.
Research Associate (2015-2018) at The University of Manchester.
Electron Microscopy Scientist (2018-2022) at the electron Physical Sciences Imaging Centre (ePSIC) at Diamond Light Source.
Appointed Lecturer at Cardiff University (2022).
Cyhoeddiadau
2023
- Qiu, C., Odarchenko, Y., Lezcano-Gonzalez, I., Meng, Q., Slater, T., Xu, S. and Beale, A. M. 2023. Visualising Co nanoparticle aggregation and encapsulation in Co/TiO2 catalysts and its mitigation through surfactant residues. Journal of Catalysis 419, pp. 58-67. (10.1016/j.jcat.2023.02.002)
- Sharma, P., Sharma, M., Dearg, M., Wilding, M., Slater, T. J. A. and Catlow, C. R. A. 2023. Cd/Pt Precursor Solution for Solar H 2 Production and in situ Photochemical Synthesis of Pt Single‐atom Decorated CdS Nanoparticles. Angewandte Chemie International Edition, article number: e202301239. (10.1002/anie.202301239)
- Treder, K. P. et al. 2023. nNPipe: a neural network pipeline for automated analysis of morphologically diverse catalyst systems. npj Computational Materials 9(1), article number: 18. (10.1038/s41524-022-00949-7)
- Vernieres, J., Tarrat, N., Lethbridge, S., Watchorn-Rokutan, E., Slater, T., Loffreda, D. and Palmer, R. E. 2023. Influence of air exposure on structural isomers of silver nanoparticles. Communications Chemistry 6, article number: 19. (10.1038/s42004-023-00813-9)
- Bousser, E. et al. 2023. Phase transitions in alumina films during post-sparking anodising of Al alloys. Acta Materialia 244, article number: 118587. (10.1016/j.actamat.2022.118587)
2022
- Bell, C. G., Treder, K. P., Kim, J. S., Schuster, M. E., Kirkland, A. I. and Slater, T. J. A. 2022. Trainable segmentation for transmission electron microscope images of inorganic nanoparticles. Journal of Microscopy 288(3), pp. 169-184. (10.1111/jmi.13110)
- Xu, S. et al. 2022. Developing silicalite-1 encapsulated Ni nanoparticles as sintering-/coking-resistant catalysts for dry reforming of methane. Chemical Engineering Journal 446(5), article number: 137439. (10.1016/j.cej.2022.137439)
- Sharma, P., Slater, T. J. A., Sharma, M., Bowker, M. and Catlow, C. R. A. 2022. Enhanced H2O2 production via photocatalytic O2 reduction over structurally-modified poly(heptazine imide). Chemistry of Materials 34(12), pp. 5511-5521. (10.1021/acs.chemmater.2c00528)
- Lawes, N. et al. 2022. Methanol synthesis from CO2 and H2 using supported Pd alloy catalysts.. Faraday Discussions (10.1039/D2FD00119E)
- Bowker, M. et al. 2022. The critical role of βPdZn alloy in Pd/ZnO catalysts for the hydrogenation of carbon dioxide to methanol. ACS Catalysis 12(9), pp. 5371-5379. (10.1021/acscatal.2c00552)
- Makgae, O. A. et al. 2022. Atomic structure and valence state of cobalt nanocrystals on carbon under syngas versus hydrogen reduction. Journal of Physical Chemistry C 126(14), pp. 6325-6333. (10.1021/acs.jpcc.2c00482)
2021
- Kohlrausch, E. C. et al. 2021. A high-throughput, solvent free method for dispersing metal atoms directly onto supports. Journal of Materials Chemistry A: materials for energy and sustainability 9(47), pp. 26676-26679. (10.1039/D1TA08372D)
- Rodrigues, M. P. d. S. et al. 2021. Gold–rhodium nanoflowers for the plasmon-enhanced hydrogen evolution reaction under visible light. ACS Catalysis 11(21), pp. 13543-13555. (10.1021/acscatal.1c02938)
- Sneyd, A. J. et al. 2021. Efficient energy transport in an organic semiconductor mediated by transient exciton delocalization. Science Advances 7(32) (10.1126/sciadv.abh4232)
- Crombie, C. M. et al. 2021. The selective oxidation of cyclohexane via In-situ H2O2 production over supported Pd-based catalysts. Catalysis Letters 151, pp. 2762-2774. (10.1007/s10562-020-03511-6)
2020
- Slater, T. J. A., Wang, Y., Leteba, G. M., Quiroz, J., Camargo, P. H. C., Haigh, S. J. and Allen, C. S. 2020. Automated single-particle reconstruction of heterogeneous inorganic nanoparticles. Microscopy and Microanalysis 26(6), pp. 1168-1175. (10.1017/S1431927620024642)
- Vakili, R., Slater, T., Hardacre, C., Walton, A. and Fan, X. 2020. PtNi bimetallic structure supported on UiO-67 metal-organic framework (MOF) during CO oxidation. Journal of Catalysis 391, pp. 522-529. (10.1016/j.jcat.2020.09.013)
- Chen, W. et al. 2020. General synthesis of single atom electrocatalysts: via a facile condensation-carbonization process. Journal of Materials Chemistry A 8(48), pp. 25959-25969. (10.1039/d0ta08115a)
- Alvarez-Ruiz, D., Azough, F., Slater, T., Day, S. J. and Freer, R. 2020. The effect of nano-twins on the thermoelectric properties of Ga2O3(ZnO)m (m = 9, 11, 13 and 15) homologous compounds. Journal of the European Ceramic Society 40(15), pp. 5549-5558. (10.1016/j.jeurceramsoc.2020.07.021)
- Chen, W. et al. 2020. Hemoglobin-derived Fe-Nx<-S species supported by bamboo-shaped carbon nanotubes as efficient electrocatalysts for the oxygen evolution reaction. Carbon 168, pp. 588-596. (10.1016/j.carbon.2020.06.064)
- De Freitas, I. et al. 2020. Design-controlled synthesis of IrO2 sub-monolayers on Au nanoflowers: Marrying plasmonic and electrocatalytic properties. Nanoscale 12(23), pp. 12281-12291. (10.1039/d0nr01875a)
- Nguyen, T. et al. 2020. Correlation of the ratio of metallic to oxide species with activity of PdPt catalysts for methane oxidation. Catalysis Science and Technology 10(5), pp. 1408-1421. (10.1039/c9cy02371b)
- Li, Z., Ma, X., Yu, Y., Slater, T. J. A., Young, R. J. and Burnett, T. L. 2020. 3D visualization of 'real' graphene in nanocomposite and the related micromechanics. Presented at: 18th European Conference on Composite Materials (ECCM 2018), Athens, Greece, 24-28 June 2018ECCM 2018 Proceedings. pp. 155810.
2019
- Slater, T. 2019. Preface – Electron microscopy of beam-sensitive materials. Micron 125, article number: 102716. (10.1016/j.micron.2019.102716)
- Aljdaimi, A., Devlin, H., Dickinson, M., Burnett, T. and Slater, T. 2019. Micron-scale crack propagation in laser-irradiated enamel and dentine studied with nano-CT. Clinical Oral Investigations 23(5), pp. 2279-2285. (10.1007/s00784-018-2654-0)
- Li, X. et al. 2019. Au@HgxCd1-xTe core@shell nanorods by sequential aqueous cation exchange for near-infrared photodetectors. Nano Energy 57, pp. 57-65. (10.1016/j.nanoen.2018.12.030)
- Middelkoop, V. et al. 2019. Next frontiers in cleaner synthesis: 3D printed graphene-supported CeZrLa mixed-oxide nanocatalyst for CO2 utilisation and direct propylene carbonate production. Journal of Cleaner Production 214, pp. 606-614. (10.1016/j.jclepro.2018.12.274)
- Li, Z., Slater, T., Ma, X., Yu, Y., Young, R. and Burnett, T. 2019. The taxonomy of graphite nanoplatelets and the influence of nanocomposite processing. Carbon 142, pp. 99-106. (10.1016/j.carbon.2018.10.043)
- Wang, Y. et al. 2019. Imaging three-dimensional elemental inhomogeneity in Pt-Ni nanoparticles using spectroscopic single particle reconstruction. Nano Letters 19(2), pp. 732-738. (10.1021/acs.nanolett.8b03768)
2018
- Chu, J. et al. 2018. Realizing the theoretical stiffness of graphene in composites through confinement between carbon fibers. Composites Part A: Applied Science and Manufacturing 113, pp. 311-317. (10.1016/j.compositesa.2018.07.032)
- Arratibel, A., Pacheco Tanaka, D., Slater, T., Burnett, T., van Sint Annaland, M. and Gallucci, F. 2018. Unravelling the transport mechanism of pore-filled membranes for hydrogen separation. Separation and Purification Technology 203, pp. 41-47. (10.1016/j.seppur.2018.04.016)
- Ma, L., Slater, T., Dowey, P. J., Yue, S., Rutter, E. H., Taylor, K. G. and Lee, P. D. 2018. Hierarchical integration of porosity in shales. Scientific Reports 8(1), article number: 11683. (10.1038/s41598-018-30153-x)
- Garner, A. et al. 2018. Investigating the effect of zirconium oxide microstructure on corrosion performance: A comparison between neutron, proton, and nonirradiated oxides. Presented at: 18th International Symposium on Zirconium in the Nuclear Industry, Hilton Head, SC, US, 15-19 May 2016 Presented at Comstock, R. J. and Motta, A. T. eds.Zirconium in the Nuclear Industry: 18th International Symposium, Vol. STP 15. pp. 491-523., (10.1520/STP159720160069)
- Christofidou, K., Pickering, E., Orsatti, P., Mignanelli, P., Slater, T., Stone, H. and Jones, N. 2018. On the influence of Mn on the phase stability of the CrMnxFeCoNi high entropy alloys. Intermetallics 92, pp. 84-92. (10.1016/j.intermet.2017.09.011)
- Chu, J., Young, R. J., Slater, T. J. A., Burnett, T. L., Coburn, B. and Li, Z. 2018. Axial reinforcement of unidirectional composites by self-aligned graphene. Presented at: 18th European Conference on Composite Materials (ECCM 2018), Athens, Greece, 24-28 June 2018Proceedings of 18th European Conference on Composite Materials. Applied Mechanics Laboratory
2017
- Toth, P., Velicky, M., Slater, T., Worrall, S. and Haigh, S. 2017. Hydrogen evolution and capacitance behavior of Au/Pd nanoparticle-decorated graphene heterostructures. Applied Materials Today 8, pp. 125-131. (10.1016/j.apmt.2017.07.008)
- Slater, T. J. A. et al. 2017. Multiscale correlative tomography: an investigation of creep cavitation in 316 stainless steel. Scientific Reports 7(1), article number: 7332. (10.1038/s41598-017-06976-5)
- Pawar, S. et al. 2017. Crystallographic effects on the corrosion of twin roll cast AZ31 Mg alloy sheet. Acta Materialia 133, pp. 90-99. (10.1016/j.actamat.2017.05.027)
- Burnett, T. L. et al. 2017. Degradation of metallic materials studied by correlative tomography. IOP Conference Series: Materials Science and Engineering 219(1), article number: 12001. (10.1088/1757-899X/219/1/012001)
- Wang, Y. C., Slater, T. J. A., Rodrigues, T. S., Camargo, P. H. C. and Haigh, S. J. 2017. Automated quantification of morphology and chemistry from STEM data of individual nanoparticles. Journal of Physics: Conference Series 902(1), article number: 12018. (10.1088/1742-6596/902/1/012018)
2016
- Toth, P. et al. 2016. Asymmetric MoS2/Graphene/Metal sandwiches: Preparation, characterization, and application. Advanced Materials 28(37), pp. 8256-8264. (10.1002/adma.201600484)
- Yankovich, A. et al. 2016. Non-rigid registration and non-local principle component analysis to improve electron microscopy spectrum images. Nanotechnology 27(36), article number: 364001. (10.1088/0957-4484/27/36/364001)
- Slater, T., Lewis, E. and Haigh, S. 2016. Energy dispersive X-ray tomography for 3D elemental mapping of individual nanoparticles. Journal of Visualized Experiments 113, article number: e52815. (10.3791/52815)
- Chen, Y. et al. 2016. An investigation of diffusion-mediated cyclic coarsening and reversal coarsening in an advanced Ni-based superalloy. Acta Materialia 110, pp. 295-305. (10.1016/j.actamat.2016.02.067)
- Slater, T., Chen, Y., Auton, G., Zaluzec, N. and Haigh, S. 2016. X-Ray absorption correction for quantitative scanning transmission electron microscopic energy-dispersive X-Ray spectroscopy of spherical nanoparticles. Microscopy and Microanalysis 22(2), pp. 440-447. (10.1017/s1431927616000064)
- Slater, T. J., Janssen, A., Camargo, P. H., Burke, M. G., Zaluzec, N. J. and Haigh, S. J. 2016. STEM-EDX tomography of bimetallic nanoparticles: A methodological investigation. Ultramicroscopy 162, pp. 61-73. (10.1016/j.ultramic.2015.10.007)
- MacArthur, K. E., Slater, T. J. A., Haigh, S. J., Ozkaya, D., Nellist, P. D. and Lozano-Perez, S. 2016. Quantitative energy-dispersive X-Ray analysis of catalyst nanoparticles using a partial cross section approach. Microscopy and Microanalysis 22(1), pp. 71-81. (10.1017/s1431927615015494)
- Macarthur, K., Slater, T., Haigh, S., Ozkaya, D., Nellist, P. and Lozano-Perez, S. 2016. Compositional quantification of PtCo acid-leached fuel cell catalysts using EDX partial cross sections. Materials Science and Technology (United Kingdom) 32(3), pp. 248-253. (10.1080/02670836.2015.1133021)
- Slater, T. J. A., Lewis, E. A. and Haigh, S. J. 2016. Recent progress in scanning transmission electron microscope imaging and analysis: application to nanoparticles and 2D nanomaterials. In: O'Brien, P. and Thomas, P. J. eds. Nanoscience: Volume 3., Vol. 3., pp. 168-192., (10.1039/9781782623717-00168)
2015
- Silva, A. G. M. d. et al. 2015. Controlling size, morphology, and surface composition of AgAu nanodendrites in 15 s for improved environmental catalysis under low metal loadings. ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces 7(46), pp. 25624-25632. (10.1021/acsami.5b08725)
- Yankovich, A. B., Feng, J., Kvit, A., Slater, T., Haigh, S., Morgan, D. and Voyles, P. M. 2015. Revealing new atomic-scale information about materials by improving the quality and quantifiability of aberration-corrected STEM data. Microscopy and Microanalysis 21(S3), pp. 2409-2410. (10.1017/s1431927615012829)
- Silva, A. G. M. d., Lewis, E. A., Rodrigues, T. S., Slater, T. J. A., Alves, R. S., Haigh, S. J. and Camargo, P. H. C. 2015. Surface segregated AgAu tadpole-shaped nanoparticles synthesized via a single step combined galvanic and citrate reduction reaction. Chemistry - A European Journal 21(35), pp. 12314-12320. (10.1002/chem.201501704)
2014
- Lewis, E. A., Slater, T. J. A., Prestat, E., Macedo, A., O'Brien, P., Camargo, P. H. C. and Haigh, S. J. 2014. Real-time imaging and elemental mapping of AgAu nanoparticle transformations. Nanoscale 6(22), pp. 13598–13605. (10.1039/C4NR04837G)
- Harris, P. J. F., Slater, T. J. A., Haigh, S. J., Hage, F. S., Kepaptsoglou, D. M., Ramasse, Q. M. and Brydson, R. 2014. Bilayer graphene formed by passage of current through graphite: evidence for a three-dimensional structure. Nanotechnology 25(46), article number: 465601. (10.1088/0957-4484/25/46/465601)
- Lewis, E. A., Haigh, S. J., Slater, T. J. A., He, Z., Kulzick, M. A., Burke, M. G. and Zaluzec, N. J. 2014. Real-time imaging and local elemental analysis of nanostructures in liquids. Chemical Communications 50(70), pp. 10019-10022. (10.1039/C4CC02743D)
- Slater, T. J. A., Camargo, P. H. C., Burke, M. G., Zaluzec, N. J. and Haigh, S. J. 2014. Understanding the limitations of the Super-X energy dispersive x-ray spectrometer as a function of specimen tilt angle for tomographic data acquisition in the S/TEM. Journal of Physics: Conference Series 522, article number: 12025. (10.1088/1742-6596/522/1/012025)
- Chen, Y., Slater, T., Lewis, E., Francis, E., Burke, M., Preuss, M. and Haigh, S. 2014. Measurement of size-dependent composition variations for gamma prime (γ′) precipitates in an advanced nickel-based superalloy. Ultramicroscopy 144, pp. 1-8. (10.1016/j.ultramic.2014.04.001)
- Burnett, T. L. et al. 2014. Correlative tomography. Scientific Reports 4, article number: 4711. (10.1038/srep04711)
- Slater, T. J. A., Macedo, A., Schroeder, S. L. M., Burke, M. G., O'Brien, P., Camargo, P. H. C. and Haigh, S. J. 2014. Correlating catalytic activity of Ag-Au nanoparticles with 3D compositional variations. Nano Letters 14(4), pp. 1921-1926. (10.1021/nl4047448)
- Van de Locht, R., Slater, T. J. A., Verch, A., Young, J. R., Haigh, S. J. and Kroger, R. 2014. Ultrastructure and crystallography of nanoscale calcite building blocks in Rhabdosphaera clavigera coccolith spines. Crystal Growth and Design 14(4), pp. 1710-1718. (10.1021/cg4018486)
2013
- Newton, L., Slater, T., Clark, N. and Vijayaraghavan, A. 2013. Self assembled monolayers (SAMs) on metallic surfaces (gold and graphene) for electronic applications. Journal of Materials Chemistry C 1(3), pp. 376-393. (10.1039/c2tc00146b)
My main research focus is the development and use of electron microscopy to characterise and understand catalytic materials. In my group, we primarily use aberration-corrected scanning transmission electron microscopy to determine the atomic structure of nanoparticle catalysts. Electron microscopy has seen significant advancements over the past decade and is now an underpinning technique to understand the atomic structure of many material systems. I am particularly interested in the following specific topics in electron microscopy.
3D imaging of nanomaterials
The group develops techniques for the three-dimensional imaging of nanomaterials using electron microscopy. We make use of electron tomography to quantify the size, shape and distribution of nanoparticle catalysts and have active projects to push electron tomography to atomic resolution, enabling us to reveal the location of all atoms in a nanoparticle in 3D. We have a lot of experience in spectroscopic electron tomography, in particular in the use of energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy to map the 3D distribution of elements within nanoparticles.
We are also pursuing the use of novel techniques to understand the 3D structure of nanoparticles. Our research includes the use of single particle reconstruction, a technique mainly used for imaging proteins and viruses, and atom counting from single atomic resolution images.
Studying reactions in-situ
The group has a particular interest in the use of in-situ systems to enable imaging of heterogeneous catalysts under reaction conditions. In-situ holders for the transmission electron microscope enable imaging of reactions at atmospheric gas pressures and elevated temperatures (over 1000 °C). Use of the systems enables our group to study a variety of catalysts in-situ to understand how they change in terms of size, shape and elemental composition, all of which have a profound effect on their catalytic properties.
Multiscale correlative imaging
Transmission electron microscopy is a fantastic technique for understanding the atomic structure of materials, but it is severely limited in terms of the amount of material that can be characterised. In our group, we are interested in the use of other imaging techniques (using X-rays and light) in combination with electron microscopy to allow us to understand how atomic structure links to structure at much larger length scales. For example, using X-ray tomography it is possible to image the distribution of catalytic nanoparticles on the millimetre scale, and by linking this with electron microscopy of the same sample, we can then understand how these large scale distributions are linked to structure at the atomic scale.
