Research

The Chemical Photonics group is small but highly successful in attracting research funding resulting in high impact publications (Nature Chem., Nature Nano., Nature Comm., JACS, Nano Lett., etc.).

Our vision is to build on our success by expanding around our core areas of strength: spectroscopy, (chiral) plasmonics, biophysics, and soft condensed-matter studied using state-of-the-art laser techniques, microscopy, and computer simulations.

Chemical Photonics has strong links with the College of Medical, Veterinary & Life Sciences, James Watt School of Engineering, and School of Physics & Astronomy, including the Sensors initiative and Quantic, Strathclyde, many international links (Europe, Japan, USA), and make extensive use of the nanofabrication facilities of the James Watt Nanofabrication Centre.

The impact of Chemical Photonics is concentrated on the engineering and physical sciences/life sciences interface (“Technology Touching Life”). Our aim is to use the Biomolecular spectroscopy & dynamics Cluster, which was set up jointly with researchers at Strathclyde, as a means to accelerate impact.

We have an on-going collaboration with Roche to develop chiral-plasmonics based sensors whose unprecedented sensitivity to biological structure allows for novel applications in pathology and disease diagnosis. Chemical Photonics develops software (contributions to ChemShell curated by STFC Daresbury Laboratory and licensed to Accelrys), and exploits infrared spectroscopy and advanced data analysis to fight malaria in developing countries such as Tanzania and Burkina Faso.

Research in the Chemical Photonics group

Research in the Chemical Photonics group addresses the physical aspects of chemistry and the chemical aspects of physics.

The group is well funded with about £3.6M in current research grants from EPSRC, a €2.5M ERC Advanced grant, and funding from MRC, Leverhulme, and STFC.

The Chemical Photonics group is particularly strong in spectroscopy ranging from plasmonics to EPR and from ultrafast to the ultraslow. These techniques are used to study a range of exciting chemical physics problems such as biophysics, soft matter, and the interaction of plasmonics with chiral molecules.

Chemical Photonics research is fundamental while addressing global challenges. Technologies are being developed to aid future manufacturing, for example, through research on continuous manufacturing and crystallisation, the development of (chiroptical) sensors, and laser techniques for manufacturing and manipulation. Energy technologies involve, for example, ionic liquids as electrolytes for fuel cells and batteries and synthetic photosynthetic constructs. The work on sensors has additional applications to healthcare technologies (online detection) and addressing global uncertainties through spectroscopic detection of chemicals.

The Chemical Photonics group has extensive international research contacts in the US, Japan, and throughout Europe. We are actively organising international research conferences and our work has led to a string of publications in some of the top journals in chemistry and general science such as Nature Chemistry, Nature Nano, JACS, Nano Letters, Nature Communications, etc.

Collaborators

 

External collaborators	University of Glasgow collaborators
Sasha Govorov (U. of Ohio)	Brian Smith (IMCSB)
Vince Rotello (UMASS)	Dr Donald A MacLaren (Physics)
Wolfram Sander (Ruhr-University Bochum, Germany)	Francesco Baldini (IBAHCM)
Fredros O. Okumu (Ifakara Health Institute, Tanzania)	Heather Ferguson (IBAHCM)
Neil Hunt (University of York, Physics)	Simon Babayan (IBAHCM)
Richard Buchner (U. Regensburg, Germany)	Professor Jonathan Cooper, FREng, FRSE (Engineering)
Diamond Light Source (DLS)	Lisa Ranford-Cartwright (IIII)
European Synchrotron Radiation Facility (ESRF)	Professor Jonathan Cooper, FREng, FRSE
Rutherford Appleton Laboratory (RAL) including ISIS	Prof Nikolaj Gadegaard
	Richard Cogdell (IMCSB)
	Prof. Roderick Murray-Smith