Understanding Change in Process Chemistry

Processes that are used to manufacture or convert materials from one form or state to another are the cornerstone of manufacturing and play a vital part in both the UK and global economy. Within industry, processes, including precipitation, are used to manufacture catalysts for applications such as methanol synthesis, water gas shift, steam reforming and Fischer Tropsch. Other processes, such as wet milling, are used to prepare automotive washcoats and new techniques such as mechanochemistry (dry milling) are also of interest. These processes all involve dynamic change in physical properties (particle size, morphology) and chemical properties (phase, chemical environment) that affect materials over short (ms) and long (hours) timescales and short (nm) and long (micron) length scales. Currently the starting materials and products of these processes can be studied using ex situ techniques, such as XRD or Raman. This is coupled with rheology approaches to model and measure what is happening to the bulk properties of the material during the process itself. However, there is a lack of detailed chemical and physical knowledge of what is actually happening from the point of view of the chemistry in real time. The aim of the project is to join up the different length scales and move towards a description of materials at the atomic/molecular scale from the average properties of bulk materials.

This project will examine and understand process changes by:
- Developing continuous flow methods for the precipitation of metal oxides. Working in flow provides static time points for assessing the chemical events at the molecular level using techniques such as XAFS, SAXS, XRD, and Raman, which allows the approach to bridge both time and length scales.
- Systematic environmental (humidity, atmosphere) investigations of the mechanochemical production of metal oxide phases, both crystalline (XRD) and amorphous (XAFS, PDF).