Overview
Dr Riley''s research group are primarily interested in the application of electrochemistry in nanoscience and nanotechnology. The group, which presently consists of five Ph.D. students, are preparing and characterising nanomaterials and considering their applications in intelligent wound dressings, solar cells, force transducers, rheology and display devices. Recently completed projects in the group include: the fabrication of a quartz crystal microbalance mounted in a channel flow cell to allow new insight in to heterogeneous reactions, the growth and mechanical analysis of bicontinuous porous copper, and mechanistic studies of the hydrothermal growth of ZnO nanostructures using electroanalysis to monitor the composition of the reaction medium.
Clockwise from top: The Research Group; Tin Oxide Nanotubes; CdSe-Q-dots; ZnO nanosyringes;Biocontinuous porous gold; QCM channel flow cell
Research Student Supervision
Price,D, Metal Induced Fluorescence Enhancement - Daniel's research focuses upon the fabrication of metallic nanostructures by colloidal lithography. The main aims of optimisation are to enhance the plasmonic enhancement effects of metallic nanostructures for fluorescence imaging. (The main application currently is in bio-sensing applications.)
Teo,G, Fabrication of multi-striped nanorods as catalysts for hydrogen production
Zhang,X, New Materials for Solar Cells - In this project Xuemei aims to prepare colloidal Cu2ZnSnS4 (CZTS) based solar cells. CZTS, with a suitable bandgap and a high absorbance coefficient, is a compound composed of non-toxic and abundant on earth, which is both environmental friendly and low-cost. The colloidal CZTS is promising for solar cell commercializing and large-scale manufacturing in the future.