Our students conduct interdisciplinary research projects spanning a wide range of research groups in the Departments of Physics, Chemistry, Materials, Electrical Engineering , Plant Sciences, Zoology, Chemical Engineering and other departments. More than 150 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, we have the following main themes:
Designer Nanomaterials - Interfaces for atomic / morphological / structural control
Keyser (DNA origami); Vignolini (self-assembled photonic structures); Kar-Narayan (composite nanowires), Fruk (bio-nano hybrids); Scherman, Nitschke (supramolecular assemblies); Reisner (molecule-semiconductor catalysts); Knowles (protein self-assembly); Driscoll (functional oxides); Federle (adhesive surfaces); Oliver, Hirst (nanostructured GaN-based materials); Ritchie, Joyce (III-V nanowires); Bronstein, Evans (conjugated and hybrid materials), Hofmann, Ferrari, Hasan (1D/2D nanomaterials); Huang, Markaki (biomimetic tissue engineering); Fairen-Jimenez, Bennett, Forse (MOFs) and Haseloff (programmable cell-free extracts).
Designer Nanofunctions - Functional control at device interfaces
Grey, Kumar, Dutton (ionic – solid state); Cicuta, Keyser (ionic – biological); Cowburn, Blamire, Robinson, Driscoll, Ciccarelli, Sebastian, (electronic, magnetic, spin), Baumberg, DiMartino (plasmonic); Sirringhaus, Kar-Narayan (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), Kim, Occhipinti, Hasan, Sambandan (wearables, electronic textiles); Knowles, Scherman (theranostics); Chu, Kaminski, Baumberg (sensors and actuators); Flewitt, Seshia (MEMS/NEMS); Udrea (CMOS); Iida (robotics); Franze, Malliaras (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)