DICE: Driving Innovation in Chemistry & Chemical Engineering Research in the UK
Lead Research Organisation:
University of Nottingham
Department Name: Sch of Chemical and Environmental Eng
Abstract
Historically, chemistry and chemical engineering have been divided in UK universities, and this division is becoming increasingly serious. There needs to be a symbiotic relationship between the two disciplines and chemistry-based industry in the UK because the health of industry and academia are mutually dependent. The chemical industry is a major contributor to the UK economy but it faces unprecedented pressures (for example from global competition) which can only be countered by rapid and sustained innovation. However UK chemistry and chemical engineering departments simply do not currently have the interdisciplinary capacity to underpin this demand for innovation. Current progress is too slow and the UK lags way behind many countries, particularly USA, the Netherlands, Germany and Japan. DICE is a joint proposal from chemists and engineers which seizes the unique opportunity presented by the Science & Innovation Call to create a completely new research environment with the potential to catapult the UK to the forefront of this field. DICE will immediately deliver 6 new young lecturers with the support needed to launch research at the Chem./Chem. Eng. interface. Over 5 years, DICE will reshape the whole academic supply-chain (from undergraduate to postdoctoral) to provide a stream of researchers to sustain the continuous UK expansion of academic and industrial innovation at this interface. DICE will deliver new science and new technology, bringing engineering into areas where it is underexploited. Our programme pulls new ideas and techniques into the UK from across the world to strengthen and re-invigorate the UK research base. DICE builds on internationally acclaimed research successes at Nottingham which cut right across the Chem./Chem. Eng. divide. The nucleus is a group of chemists and chemical engineers whose work spans pure and applied research and links academia with industry. The. group has achieved on a small-scale what must be achieved nationally in this area. DICE builds on and expands their approach to create a Chemistry/Chemical Engineering Partnership, with a range of skills unique on a world scale, capable of making a substantial impact on UK science. DICE will drive the dissemination of ideas to universities and industry across the UK. Our Proposal involves several radically new initiatives(I) Flexi-Chairs: a completely new type of post to enable internationally-leading chemical engineers with a track-record at the Chem./Chem. Eng. interface to make extended visits to the UK to inject ideas and best practice from overseas. The Flexi-Chairs will be given postdoctoral support to initiate new, cutting-edge research in the UK; researchers from the USA, Japan & EU have already expressed great interest in the Flexi-Chairs. (ii) New research initiatives with high potential, including catalysis/biocatalysis, reaction chemistry, polymer synthesis and processing, instrumentation/process monitoring, photonics/devices, multi-scale modelling and education. (iii) Placement of Outreach Postdoctoral Researchers in leading chemical engineering departments at Birmingham, Imperial College, Newcastle and Sheffield, creating new partnerships to seed new research at the Chem./Chem. Eng. interface, and to train young researchers as candidates for the new generation of academics in this area. Each PDRA will work with a PhD student funded by the university hosting the placement. (iv) Flexible secondments to bring in key UK and EU industrial researchers to academia for both inward and outward knowledge transfer and to help the new staff in establishing their own industrial links.The University of Nottingham supports DICE very strongly and will commit more than 1M to fund two extra lectureships, additional Flexi-chairs, two technicians and a business development officer, all dedicated to this Project. In addition, the University will fund and provide dedicated flagship space to incubate the new research.
Publications
Adlington K
(2016)
Molecular Design of Squalene/Squalane Countertypes via the Controlled Oligomerization of Isoprene and Evaluation of Vaccine Adjuvant Applications.
in Biomacromolecules
Adlington K
(2013)
Direct 'in situ', low VOC, high yielding, CO2 expanded phase catalytic chain transfer polymerisation: towards scale-up.
in Dalton transactions (Cambridge, England : 2003)
Ang S
(2010)
Highly stable platinum electrocatalysts for oxygen reduction formed using supercritical fluid impregnation
in Journal of Power Sources
Ang S
(2010)
Palladium-vanadium alloy electrocatalysts for oxygen reduction: Effect of heat treatment on electrocatalytic activity and stability
in Applied Catalysis B: Environmental
Asfaw N
(2007)
Collaborations. Empowering green chemists in Ethiopia.
in Science (New York, N.Y.)
Boatwright A
(2011)
Can a Siphon Work In Vacuo?
in Journal of Chemical Education
Bonné M
(2010)
Boronic aciddendrimerreceptor modified nanofibrillar cellulose membranes
in J. Mater. Chem.
Bourne R
(2011)
Adaptive Process Optimization for Continuous Methylation of Alcohols in Supercritical Carbon Dioxide
in Organic Process Research & Development
Ejigu A
(2011)
Iodide/triiodide electrochemistry in ionic liquids: Effect of viscosity on mass transport, voltammetry and scanning electrochemical microscopy
in Electrochimica Acta
Eyley S
(2011)
Imidazolium grafted cellulose nanocrystals for ion exchange applications
in Chemical Communications
Eyley S
(2012)
Ferrocene-decorated nanocrystalline cellulose with charge carrier mobility.
in Langmuir : the ACS journal of surfaces and colloids
Haran B
(2011)
SPORE series winner. The periodic table of videos.
in Science (New York, N.Y.)
Haran B
(2011)
How to measure the impact of chemistry on the small screen.
in Nature chemistry
Heath L
(2010)
Cellulose nanowhisker aerogels
in Green Chemistry
Heath L
(2013)
Chitin nanowhisker aerogels.
in ChemSusChem
Johnson L
(2011)
Scanning electrochemical microscopy at thermal sprayed anti-corrosion coatings: Effect of thermal spraying on heterogeneous electron transfer kinetics
in Journal of Electroanalytical Chemistry
Johnson L
(2011)
Synthesis of carbon-supported Pt nanoparticle electrocatalysts using nanocrystalline cellulose as reducing agent
in Green Chemistry
Johnson L
(2012)
Tip generation-substrate collection-tip collection mode scanning electrochemical microscopy of oxygen reduction electrocatalysts
in Journal of Electroanalytical Chemistry
Johnson L
(2011)
Deposition of silver nanobowl arrays using polystyrene nanospheres both as reagents and as the templating material
in Journal of Materials Chemistry
Laybourn A
(2016)
Understanding the electromagnetic interaction of metal organic framework reactants in aqueous solution at microwave frequencies.
in Physical chemistry chemical physics : PCCP
Li J
(2012)
Controlled oligomerisation of isoprene-towards the synthesis of squalene analogues
in Polymer Chemistry
Liew S
(2010)
Electrochemical Capacitance of Nanocomposite Polypyrrole/Cellulose Films
in The Journal of Physical Chemistry C
Liew S
(2014)
Polyaniline- and poly(ethylenedioxythiophene)-cellulose nanocomposite electrodes for supercapacitors
in Journal of Solid State Electrochemistry
Lovelock KR
(2010)
Effect of viscosity on steady-state voltammetry and scanning electrochemical microscopy in room temperature ionic liquids.
in The journal of physical chemistry. B
Lovelock KR
(2011)
On the diffusion of ferrocenemethanol in room-temperature ionic liquids: an electrochemical study.
in Physical chemistry chemical physics : PCCP
Lovelock KR
(2010)
Photoelectron spectroscopy of ionic liquid-based interfaces.
in Chemical reviews
Men S
(2011)
X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy of pyrrolidinium-based ionic liquids: cation-anion interactions and a comparison to imidazolium-based analogues
in Physical Chemistry Chemical Physics
Morandi G
(2009)
Cellulose nanocrystals grafted with polystyrene chains through surface-initiated atom transfer radical polymerization (SI-ATRP).
in Langmuir : the ACS journal of surfaces and colloids
Morandi G
(2012)
Synthesis of cellulose nanocrystals bearing photocleavable grafts by ATRP
in Polymer Chemistry
Nielsen LJ
(2010)
Dual fluorescent labelling of cellulose nanocrystals for pH sensing.
in Chemical communications (Cambridge, England)
Parrott A
(2011)
Self-Optimizing Continuous Reactions in Supercritical Carbon Dioxide
in Angewandte Chemie International Edition
Puttick S
(2009)
RAFT-functional ionic liquids: towards understanding controlled free radical polymerisation in ionic liquids
in Journal of Materials Chemistry
Puttick S
(2013)
The influence of domain segregation in ionic liquids upon controlled polymerisation mechanisms: RAFT polymerisation
in Polym. Chem.
Puttick S
(2011)
NMR as a probe of nanostructured domains in ionic liquids: Does domain segregation explain increased performance of free radical polymerisation?
in Chemical Science
Qiu F
(2010)
An ultra high vacuum-spectroelectrochemical study of the dissolution of copper in the ionic liquid (N-methylacetate)-4-picolinium bis(trifluoromethylsulfonyl)imide.
in Physical chemistry chemical physics : PCCP
Rezayat M
(2014)
Green One-Step Synthesis of Catalytically Active Palladium Nanoparticles Supported on Cellulose Nanocrystals
in ACS Sustainable Chemistry & Engineering
Robinson J
(2010)
Understanding microwave heating effects in single mode type cavities-theory and experiment
in Physical Chemistry Chemical Physics
Taylor A
(2013)
Acidity and basicity of halometallate-based ionic liquids from X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy
in RSC Advances
Taylor AW
(2011)
Non-classical diffusion in ionic liquids.
in Physical chemistry chemical physics : PCCP
Taylor AW
(2012)
Probing solvation in ionic liquids via the electrochemistry of the DPPH radical.
in Journal of the American Chemical Society
Taylor AW
(2012)
X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy of ferrocenyl- and ferrocenium-based ionic liquids.
in Chemphyschem : a European journal of chemical physics and physical chemistry
Taylor AW
(2011)
Borane-substituted imidazol-2-ylidenes: syntheses in vacuo.
in Dalton transactions (Cambridge, England : 2003)
Thielemans W
(2009)
Permselective nanostructured membranes based on cellulose nanowhiskers
in Green Chemistry
Tkalya E
(2013)
Cellulose Nanowhiskers Templating in Conductive Polymer Nanocomposites Reduces Electrical Percolation Threshold 5-Fold.
in ACS macro letters
Vuorema A
(2011)
Enhanced TiO2 surface electrochemistry with carbonised layer-by-layer cellulose-PDDA composite films.
in Physical chemistry chemical physics : PCCP
Vuorema A
(2010)
Ultrathin Carbon Film Electrodes from Vacuum-Carbonised Cellulose Nanofibril Composite
in Electroanalysis
Walsh DA
(2010)
Ultramicroelectrode voltammetry and scanning electrochemical microscopy in room-temperature ionic liquid electrolytes.
in Chemical Society reviews
| Description | The DICE project aimed to stimulate research at the interface of Chemistry and Engineering. It has involved the appointment of five members of staff jointly between the School of Chemistry and the Department of Chemical and Environmental Engineering and has led to a joint partnership between staff on all levels in the disciplines at Nottingham. Particular highlights have been: the launch of an entirely new area of research "The Surface Science of Liquids"; the creation of strong industrial links particularly with Croda and Lucite; international collaborations, particularly with engineers in Austria and Japan and chemists in Australia, India and Ethiopia; and the launch of a YouTube website "The Periodic Table of Videos" www.periodicvideos.com which has become one of the most popular chemistry sites on the internet. It has also placed Nottingham as a leader in collaboration between Chemistry and Engineering with a strong voice in both disciplines. We believe that we have created a unique research capability which will be sustainable since all of the academic appointments are permanent and all the appointees have thriving research groups. However, like all other UK academics, they face the challenge of raising research funding in these financially straitened times. The University has been highly supportive in funding continuing research studentships for all of the DICE appointees and fully intend to continue to do this within the forthcoming budgetary constraints. ~By the end of the project in 2011, the DICE academic staff have published over 180 papers listed on Web of Science with a combined h-index >20. The most lasting legacy is the fact that chemists and engineers at Nottingham are now submitting joint research proposals as a matter of course, despite the fact that five years ago they would not have even thought that there might be benefit in collaborating with the other discipline. These collaborations do not only involve the more obvious ChemEng/Physical Chemistry interface but also genuine partnership between chemical engineers and synthetic organic chemists. Furthermore, the number of chemists and engineers initiating collaborations is still increasing. As regards the broader out-reach permitting research between Chemists and Chemical Engineers, all of the DICE academics and investigators have lectured widely in the UK and internationally. DICE academic P. Licence was one of the authors of the successful bid which led to the setting up of the EPSRC CO2Chem Network which involves both Chemists and engineers. CI Professor SM Howdle has been involved in the EPSRC consultation questionnaire on the future of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering interface. SMH is also an Advisory Board Member and Academic External Examiner for the Bath CDT in Sustainable Chemical Technologies, an innovation that cuts across chemistry and chemical engineering. PI Professor M Poliakoff has become heavily involved in the IChemE and is currently a member of Council which provides an excellent platform for permitting collaboration between Chemists and Engineers across the UK and beyond. He was a plenary lecturer and Chemical ECA 2011, the leading Chemical Engineering Conference in Australia and spoke about the DICE project and partnership between Chemists and Engineers. He then undertook a 5 city lecture tour sponsored jointly by IChemE and RACI. MP also was awarded the 2010 Royal Society Leverhulme Medal for 'his outstanding contributions in the fields of Green Chemistry and supercritical fluids by the application of chemistry to advance chemical engineering processes". Several of the research papers from the DICE academics have been highlighted in Chemistry and Engineering magazines (e.g. the UK Chemistry World and the US Chemical & Engineering News). A visiting industrialist commented in a recent letter of support for an EPSRC application. "We were encouraged to see the positive and pro-active approach taken by the University to "cross-fertilize" the skills between the chemistry and chemical engineering departments. The level of integration demonstrated is, in our opinion, quite unique for an academic institution and sets a solid foundation and template for others to follow. The quality of students introduced to us was exemplary. The students demonstrated a wealth of knowledge that stretched far beyond their immediate technical remit. Students had genuine passion for their work which in our mind reflects the quality of leadership and mentorship existing within the University." |
| Exploitation Route | (i) A strong partnership has been created with the EPSRC S&I Physical Organic Chemistry Centre in Cardiff. CI MW George holds two grants with Cardiff Director BK Carpenter and a Programme Grant application has been made jointly by Cardiff and Nottingham. Carbon Capture activities at Nottingham have led to funded collaborations with groups at UCL, Cranfield, Newcastle, Edinburgh and Heriot Watt. (ii) DICE academic DJ Irvine has created a strong funded link with Croda in the area of controlled polymerisation and renewable feedstocks. PI Poliakoff together with G Stephens has started a productive collaboration with Lucite on the production of monomers from renewable feedstocks, already generating 3 patents. Our CCS work has led to new, funded collaborations with Rolls-Royce, E-on and National Grid. More widely, the DICE approach is leading to major funding from several different industrial partners (see Question 5). (iii) Strong links have also been forged internationally. The DICE funding includes support for visiting professors (Flexi-Chairs). This has produced a strong link with Prof Adschiri's group in Japan, with one of his colleagues coming on a self-funded 9 month visit to Nottingham and UoN researches visiting Sendai. Via DICE, Adschiri has also joined the UK IChemE amid some publicity as its 30,000th member! Work with Russian Flexi-chair VN Bagratashvili has led to a new fibre optic reflectometer currently being used in our CCS work. Links are being developed with the National chemical Laboratory in Pune, India which has pioneered collaboration between chemists and engineers. PI Poliakoff has visited NCL twice and so has DICE appointee Licence. Senior NCL researcher S Joshi was seconded to Nottingham for 2 years and two DICE PhD students have visited NCL. DICE funding has also underpinned the successful collaboration of DICE appointees Licence & Irvine, and ChemEng colleagues Kingman and Robinson, with C Oliver Kappe, Director of the Christian Doppler laboratory for microwave assisted synthesis at the Karl-Franzens University in Gratz. This collaboration is founded upon a shared interest in the scale-up of microwave-mediated chemistries particularly operating under flow conditions. Nottingham expertise in multi-phase scale-up reaction engineering, microwave processing and polymer/fine chemicals has complemented the leading work on small molecule chemistry pioneered in Gratz. Research meetings and exchange visits have taken place, leading to jointly authored peer reviewed articles (2 in 2010) and conference papers at both national and international meetings. Dielectric measurements and process simulations have led us to establish standard protocols for reproducible heating in lab scale reaction systems providing reliable evidence to dispel the myth of so-called "magical microwave effects". The DICE team are key partners in the International Biomaterials Research Alliance (IBRA) led by the University of Queensland and incorporating the University of California (Santa Barbara) and the University of Washington. The consortium is focussed on development of new polymeric biomaterials for application in ocular and systemic drug delivery, and UoN provides key technologies to in supercritical fluids and microwave processing to deliver the required new approaches. DICE students have spent time in Queensland as part of this collaboration and UoN and Queensland academics have made shorter exchange visits. International impact can be demonstrated by the appointment of SM Howdle as the International Chair of CS3 "Chemical Sciences in Society" Conference on Sustainable Materials (Sept 2010) - where research leaders and research funders from UK, Japan, China, Germany and USA met in London to discuss the key chemistry and chemical engineering challenges to achieving sustainability in the next 50 years - a white paper is being developed. DICE's P. Licence chaired the prestigious US 2010 Gordon research Conference on Green Chemistry and SM Howdle will be the 2012 Chair. In addition, we have just heard that a bid to add a Graduate research Symposium (GRS) to the 2012 conference has been successful - thus we will be able to invite significant numbers of UK PhDs and PDRAs to participate in this event. The DICE team will be hosting the 2013 6th International Green Chemistry Conference at Nottingham. Perhaps our most unusual international collaboration has been with Addis Ababa University in Ethiopia, where DICE is becoming a global model for "North-South" scientific collaboration (see Science, 2007, 316,1849). The collaboration is led by P. Licence and M Poliakoff. Some of the highlights include: annual workshops on Green Chemistry, which now involve more than half the universities in Ethiopia; three Ethiopian PhD students working in DICE at Nottingham; P Licence's appointment as adjunct professor in Addis; visit of Nottingham analytical specialist Dr M Cooper to repair equipment and train technicians in Addis; appointment of DICE PhD graduate IJ Villar, originally from Spain, as lecturer in Addis taking Green Chemistry skills to their graduate programme; appointment of Dr Nigist Asfaw as Guest Lecturer at Nottingham; interesting new, renewable feedstocks from endemic Ethiopian plants being used in research at Nottingham; in Nov. 2010, the 1st Pan African Green Chemistry Congress organized by the Royal Society of Chemistry in Addis with P Licence and Nottingham professor R Mokaya on the Advisory Board. |
| Sectors | Chemicals Education Manufacturing including Industrial Biotechology Pharmaceuticals and Medical Biotechnology |
| URL | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ihKIfCJBQII |
| Description | The outreach work from this grant launched the YouTube channel the Periodic Table of Videos www.periodicvideos.com which has become one of the leading YouTube channels for Chemistry with over 1.15 million YouTube subscribers and over 1956 million views. |
| Sector | Chemicals,Education,Energy,Manufacturing, including Industrial Biotechology,Pharmaceuticals and Medical Biotechnology |
| Impact Types | Societal Economic |
| Description | EPSRC Responsive mode |
| Amount | £737,000 (GBP) |
| Funding ID | EP/P002382/1 and EP/P002455/1 |
| Organisation | Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) |
| Sector | Public |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 12/2016 |
| End | 11/2019 |
| Description | Photo-Electro: Transforming Chemical Synthesis, Discovery and Manufacture |
| Amount | £6,486,390 (GBP) |
| Funding ID | EP/P013341/1 |
| Organisation | Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) |
| Sector | Public |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 02/2017 |
| End | 02/2022 |
| Description | PTOV |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Engagement focused website, blog or social media channel |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Periodic Table of videos is a YouTube website with one video for each of the 118 elements in the Periodic Table. DICE provided some of the initial funding to get the website started. It now (10th March 2017) has >152 Million YouTube views and 905k YouTube subscribers and 614 chemistry/engineering linked videos. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2008 |
| URL | http://www.periodicvideos.com |
| Description | Thunder and Lightning Demonstration Lectures |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Schools |
| Results and Impact | Nottingham is famous for its explosive lecture given by the late Col. B. D. Shaw over a period of 60 years until 1990! The lecture has been resurrected and modernised for the 21st Century by Prof. Pete Licence and Mr. Jim Gamble with the assistance of the Public Awareness Scientist. It has become increasingly popular. Not only is it performed in house as part of the Salters' Institute and Science Week events (10 lectures were delivered in the year 2007 alone each time with an audience of >200 schoolchildren), but it has also been taken to lecture halls in Bolton (in front of 3000 people), and Manchester (audience of 500). The demand for this lecture is such that it is delivered twice during the University's annual public open day, May Fest, and also during the annual A-level Afternoon in January in the School of Chemistry. It has therefore raised the profile of the University amongst the local community and schools and colleges. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | Pre-2006,2006,2007,2008,2009,2010,2011,2012,2013,2014 |
| URL | http://nottingham.ac.uk/chemistry/informationforschools/activitiesforsecondaryschoolsandcolleges.asp... |