Research

The group is active in a broad range of inorganic materials research, including discovery, design, synthesis, and characterisation.

Some of our current grants include:

EPSRC Programme Grant

Prof. Rosseinsky leads the EPRSC Programme Grant Digital Navigation of Chemical Space for Function. The team are developing state-of-the-art methods for materials discovery and the project is divided into three areas: discovery platform, new materials classes, and application challenges. The project vision is to move beyond the analogues paradigm to make functional materials of unprecedented chemical and structural diversity with an approach that fuses physical science with computer science.

The Programme Grant involves collaborators at the University of Liverpool, across Departments of Chemistry, Physics, and Computer Science, as well as the Departments of Chemistry at the University of Southampton and Imperial College London. The Programme Grant team includes experts in:

  • Computational chemistry: Dr. Matthew Dyer (Liverpool), Dr. George Darling (Liverpool), Prof. Graeme Day (Southampton), Dr. Kim Jelfs (Imperial College London)
  • Organic materials and automation: Prof. Andy Cooper FRS (Liverpool)
  • Structure determination and structure representation of materials: Dr. John Claridge (Liverpool)
  • Condensed matter physics: Dr Jon Alaria (Liverpool)
  • Symbolic and reasoning-based artificial intelligence and machine learning: Prof. Katie Atkinson (Liverpool), Prof. Sven Schewe (Liverpool)

The structure of the team reflects the new approach that we will take to materials discovery, where expertise in chemistry, physics and materials science is guided by computer science approaches that include machine learning but go beyond it to include reasoning and inference. The project also involves numerous industry partners.

EPSRC Prosperity Partnership

The Cleaner Futures Prosperity Partnership is co-led by Prof. Rosseinsky with industry lead Dr. Ian Howell from Unilever. The project co-investigators are Prof. Charlotte William at the University of Oxford and Prof. Andy Cooper at the University of Liverpool. Unilever has a longstanding strategic partnership with the University of Liverpool and this project addresses how to achieve a net zero future through disruptive innovation in the current chemical supply chain.

The majority of chemicals currently used in consumer products (such as shampoo & laundry liquids) are derived from virgin petrochemicals, many are not biodegradable. Unilever has a strategic target to replace its current formulation ingredients with non-petroleum sourced materials designed for environmental degradation. Currently, its suppliers cannot supply this type of material in sufficient quantity. The project will deliver a wide range of outcomes and impacts including new scientific platforms for designing and inventing renewable and bio-degradable materials, and new routes to make these materials. This includes outputs in cutting-edge catalysis, CO2 utilisation, biodegradable polymers, sustainable chemistry, robotics, automation and machine learning, chem-informatics, sustainability, and life cycle assessments.

To find out more visit: https://cleaner-futures.org/

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