College of Science & Engineering

School/College	University of Glasgow, School of Science and Engineering, Department of Chemistry
Email	kate.mcaulay@glasgow.ac.uk
Twitter	@Kate_McAulay

Research vision

My chemistry career has been extremely varied having undertaken research projects including my PhD and Post Doc in completely different areas of chemistry. I believe this has given me the ability to draw on different material synthesis and characterisation skills across the field.  I want to combine my background in inorganic metal chemistry with self-assembled soft matter to explore new gel properties for the use in cell work, electronics, catalysis and semi-conductor devices. The current focus of my research is on material development and characterisation. Currently, I work on self-assembled soft matter systems using low molecular weight gelators. We have shown solutions and gels with different properties can be accessed by manipulating various parameters. This gives the opportunity to access and create new and exciting soft materials.

 My PhD focused on metal and alloy-based catalysts for ammonia synthesis. This involved material synthesis, characterisation and catalysis. I have experience modifying carbon surfaces with fuming acid treatments to invoke specific bond forming activities and I’ve worked at Huntsman PU in Belgium, working with polysaccharides, polymers and isocyanates for the use in adhesives.

Expectations from collaboration

I would like a collaboration involving the development and/or characterisation of new novel materials. Or a collaborator with access to techniques that could be applied to the characterisation or imaging of soft material systems. I would also love to assist helping in the further characterisation and understanding of material structures. 

Keywords

#hydrogels

#materials

#inorganic

#softmatter

#selfassembly

 

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First published: 7 May 2019