Modern Developments In Catalysis, Volume 2

The UK Catalysis Hub is a consortium of universities working together on fundamental and applied research to find out how catalysts work and to improve their effectiveness. The contribution of catalysis to manufacturing contributes to almost 40% of global GDP, making development and innovation within the field integral to industry.

Modern Developments in Catalysis, Volume 2 provides a review and update of current research and practice on catalysis. Topics range from the treatment of water using novel techniques for carbon neutrality, cutting-edge techniques using intense radiation including Operando Synchrotron Infrared Microspectroscopy to innovation in homogeneous catalysis, heterogeneous catalysis and biocatalysis. Edited by leaders of the UK Hub, this book provides insight into one of the most important areas of modern chemistry ― it represents a unique learning opportunity for students and professionals studying and working towards speeding up, improving and increasing the rate of catalytic reactions in science and industry.

Graham Hutchings is a chemist who works in the area of heterogeneous catalysis. Graham pioneered the use of gold ― previously regarded as the least reactive of metals ― as a remarkable catalyst. His findings represent a huge leap forward for the chemical industry with respect to protecting the environment as gold catalysts permit cleaner reactions with fewer by-products.

Graham has made a number of seminal contributions to this new field of chemistry. His research has extended the range of reactions that can be catalysed by gold nanoparticles, such as the oxidation of primary alcohols to aldehydes using a gold–palladium/titanium dioxide combination and without the need for a solvent.

He has received a number of honours throughout his career, including awards for green chemistry and sustainability. These include three awards received from the Royal Society of Chemistry in 2004, 2007 and 2009. He was awarded the Royal Society Davey Medal in 2013. In 2012 and 2014, respectively, Graham was acknowledged as a Thomson Reuters' Citation Laureate and as one of Thomson Reuters' Highly Cited Researchers.

Matthew Davidson is Director of the Centre for Sustainable Chemical Technologies (CSCT) at the University of Bath. He graduated in Chemistry from the University of Wales, Swansea in 1990 and received a PhD from the University of Cambridge in 1993. He was elected to a Research Fellowship at St John's College Cambridge in 1992 and held Lectureships in the Department of Chemistry at Cambridge (1995) and at Durham University (1995–1999) before being appointed to a Chair of Inorganic Chemistry at the University of Bath in 1999. He established the Centre for Sustainable Chemical Technologies (CSCT) at Bath in 2008 and is currently Director of its EPSRC Doctoral Training Centre (DTC). Professor Davidson is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry and is a previous recipient of the Harrison Memorial Prize of the Royal Society of Chemistry and a Royal Society Industry Fellowship.

Richard Catlow has worked for over thirty years in the field of computational and experimental studies of complex inorganic materials. His group has pioneered a wide range of applications of computational techniques in solid-state chemistry to systems and problems, including microporous and oxide catalysts, ionic conductors, electronic ceramics and silicate minerals. This applications programme has been supported by technique and code development, including recent work on embedded cluster methodologies for application to the study of catalytic reactions. The computational work has been firmly linked with experimental studies, using both neutron scattering and synchrotron radiation techniques, where the Royal Institute group has also made notable contributions to development as well as application studies. Professor Catlow's research has led to over 1000 publications, and in 2004 he was elected to Fellowship of the Royal Society.

Nicholas Turner obtained his DPhil in 1985 with Professor Sir Jack Baldwin and from 1985–1987 was a Royal Society Junior Research Fellow, spending time at Harvard University with Professor George Whitesides. He was appointed lecturer in 1987 at Exeter University and moved to Edinburgh in 1995, initially as a Reader and subsequently Professor in 1998.

In October 2004 he joined Manchester University as Professor of Chemical Biology, where his research group is located in the Manchester Interdisciplinary Biocentre. He is Director of the Centre of Excellence in Biocatalysis (CoEBio3) and also a co-founder and Scientific Director of Ingenza, a spin-out biocatalysis company based in Edinburgh. He is a member of the Editorial Board of Chemical Communications.