Biography
Dr Cher Hon (Sam) Lau is a Chancellor’s Fellow at the University of Edinburgh. His current research focuses on the scale-up production of microporous materials that are compatible with various polymer matrices, and polymer membranes for liquid separations. Prior his appointment at UoE, he spent 5 years at the Commonwealth Scientific Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO), Australia as a post-doctoral fellow, subsequently as a research scientist. At CSIRO, he discovered the world’s first anti-aging membranes for gas separations and solvent purifications. His anti-aging membrane research is also the cornerstone of membrane research and commercialization efforts in CSIRO. He also co-led several industrial projects working on gas separation and capture using porous frameworks, scale-up production of porous nanoparticles, and membrane separations. He received his PhD degree from the Chemical Engineering department at the National University of Singapore in 2012. He has published more than 20 papers and 4 patents on membrane science and technology in high impact journals.
Selected publications
1. Hypercrosslinked Additives for Ageless Gas Separation Membranes, C. H. Lau,* X. Mulet, K. Konstas, C. M. Doherty, M.-A. Sani, F. Separovic, M. R. Hill, C. D. Wood, Angewandte Chemie International Edition, 55, 1998 – 2001 (2016)
2. Gas Separation Membranes Loaded with Porous Aromatic Frameworks that Improve with Age. C. H. Lau,* K. Konstas, A. W. Thornton, A. C. Y. Liu, S. Mudie, D. F. Kennedy, S. C. Howard, A. J. Hill, M. R. Hill, Angewandte Chemie International Edition, 54, 2669 – 2673 (2015)
3. Ending Aging in Super Glassy Polymer Membranes. C. H. Lau, P. T. Nyguen, M. R. Hill, A. W. Thornton, K. Konstas, C. M. Doherty, R. Mulder, L. Bourgeois, D. J. Sprouster, J. P. Sullivan, T. J. Bastow, A. J. Hill, D. L. Gin, R. D. Noble, Angewandte Chemie, 126, 5426 – 5430 (2014)
4. A Route to Drastic Increase of CO2 Uptake in Zr Metal Organic Framework UiO-66. C. H. Lau,* R. Babarao and M. R. Hill, Chemical Communications, 49, 3634 – 3636 (2013).
Abstract
Recent discoveries in microporous materials such as metal organic frameworks, and porous organic polymers have excited the separation community as these new materials are potentially capable of achieving effective separations at very fast speeds. Unfortunately, the synthesis of these paradigm-shifting materials requires onerous synthesis conditions and costly raw materials. A cost-effective approach to maximize the benefits of these new materials for separations is to deploy them as additives in mixed matrix membranes. In this presentation, I will demonstrate the tailoring of compatibility between new polymers (bulk phase) and networked, microporous polymers (dispersed phase) to benefit membrane durability, longevity and separation performances, and how we can scale up the production of these materials