Our students conduct interdisciplinary research projects spanning a wide range of research groups across the university. Students are able to select primary supervisors from the Departments of Physics, Chemistry, Materials Science & Metallurgy, Engineering and Chemical Engineering & Biotechnology, as well as secondary supervisors across a range of other departments. A large number of PIs are included in the pool of researchers across Cambridge who can supervise NanoDTC projects.
In terms of applications, we focus on four research areas:
Photovoltaics, Batteries, Supercapacitors, Electrolysis, CO2 Utilisation, Solar fuels, Photocatalysis
Functional Nanomaterials, Green Processes, Efficient Nano-Assembly
Graphene, Organic electronics, Spintronics, Piezoelectrics, Nanophotonics
Cellular Imaging, Sensing, Targeting of disease, Microfluidics, Scaffolds
In terms of the problems we tackle in our research, there are several themes, including:
Designer Nanomaterials - Interfaces for atomic / morphological / structural control
Keyser (DNA origami); Di Michele (artificial cells, soft matter); Kar-Narayan (composite nanowires), Fruk (bio-nano hybrids); Scherman, Nitschke (supramolecular assemblies); Reisner (molecule-semiconductor catalysts); Zhang (artificial photosynthesis); Knowles (protein self-assembly); Driscoll (functional oxides); Oliver, Hirst (nanostructured GaN-based materials); Ritchie, Joyce, Alexander-Webber (III-V nanowires); Bronstein, Evans (conjugated and hybrid materials), Hofmann, Hasan, Chhowalla, Alexander-Webber (1D/2D nanomaterials); Forse (MOFs)
Vignolini (self-assembled photonic structures);
Designer Nanofunctions - Functional control at device interfaces
Grey, Kumar, Dutton, Menkin (ionic – solid state); Cicuta, Keyser (ionic – biological); Cowburn, Blamire, Robinson, Driscoll, Ciccarelli, Sebastian, (electronic, magnetic, spin), Baumberg, DiMartino (plasmonic); Sirringhaus, Kar-Narayan, Dar (optoelectronic, piezoelectric, thermoelectric), Mathur, Moya (multiferroic); Friend, Greenham, Sirringhaus, Rao (photophysical); Atature, Ford, Smith, Schneider (quantum).
Scale-up and systems - Interfacing and integration
Hofmann, De Volder, Torrente, Boies (nanomanufacturing); Daly, Hutchings (additive manufacturing); O’Neill (ultra-precision engineering); Fleck, Deshpande (micro and nano mechanics), Occhipinti, Hasan, (wearables, electronic textiles); Knowles, Scherman (theranostics); Kaminski, Baumberg (sensors and actuators); Flewitt, Seshia (MEMS/NEMS); Udrea (CMOS); Iida (robotics); Franze, Malliaras, Bale (bioelectronics, brain interface); Akan (comm.networks, IoT).
Frontiers in Nano-metrology - Probing interfaces
Midgley, Ducati, Ringe (electron microscopy); Welland, Durkan, Oliver (scanning probe microscopy); Daly, Jardine, Ellis (ion beams); Hofmann, Ducati (in-situ nanometrology); Dutton (X-ray scattering), Cowburn, Sebastian (magnetic measurements, Kerr Microscopy), Kaminski, Lee (superresolution microscopy), Euser (optofluidic monitoring), Friend, Greenham, Rao, Stranks (ultrafast photophysics); Pickard, Cates, Lee (modelling of interfaces); Clarke (neutron scattering); Grey, Forse (Solid State NMR, Electrochemistry), Clarke, Jenkins (nano surface science)