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Research Groups

The Stride Group

Stride Group in 2008

Welcome to the web pages of the Stride Group@UNSW. Our research interests centre on physical and inorganic chemistry and nanomaterials with a view to new functional materials and sustainable futures. We currently have 9 full-time researchers in the Group working on a range of projects:

  1. Graphene and nanostructured carbons
    Graphene, an atomic-scale chicken wire consisting only of carbon atoms, has made headlines over the past four years and shows great promise in a range of applications. We have developed new methods of directly synthesising this novel material in gram-scale quantities, leading the way to future advances in the field of the graphene in materials.
  2. Discotic liquid crystals
    Liquid crystals are all around us in displays on all manner of consumer devices and are usually in the form of rod-shaped molecules, calamitic systems. We are interested on the development of liquid crystalline phases consisting of disc-shaped molecules that self-assemble into columnar structures having strong π-π interactions. This affords these materials with highly anisotropic electrical conductivity making them of potential use as molecular wires and organic solar cells.
  3. Nanostructured titania
    Titanium dioxide has three well-studied solid state phases that are of particular interest due to their photo-active surfaces. Nanostructured materials offer a way of enhancing surface area and so we are investigating methods of controlling the synthesis of targeted phases in specific nanostructural types.
  4. Highly porous materials & metal-organic frameworks
    Sponge-like materials that have high internal surface areas are very familiar to us, from natural structures such as marine sponges and cake shop delicacies to the kitchen sink or bath tub. When the pores are of the order of nanometres across, then internal surface areas of the matreial can reach >1000 m2g-1, making them ideal candidates for adsorption of gases or nano-reactors.
  5. Magnetic Materials
    Magnets are ubiquitous in everyday life and yet there are still many facets of the basic interactions between magnetic moments that lead to bulk magnetism that are poorly understood. We are interested in molecule-based magnetic materials that promise higher density data storage in the case of single molecule magnets (SMMs) through to novel magnetic behaviour in extended systems.

News

December 2008: RSC Chemistry World names our Nature Nanotechnolgy paper on graphene synthesis as one of 29 'cutting edge' papers of 2008.

December 2008: Nature Nanotechnology article with features in Nature and Chemistry World.
Maggie & Sharon fly off to ILL to look at methyl tunneling under pressure on IN16.

November 2008: Arrival of our state-of-the-art Mettler-Toledo TGA.
Feature article on the work of the Group in Uniken, p. 14-15.

October 2008: Maggie Ng wins the best postgraduate student presentation award at the AXAA NSW Student Seminar Day.

September 2008: Thomas Ellis wins the best poster presentation in the category of Molecular Devices at the School of Chemistry Poster Day.

August 2008: Trung Tuong wins a best poster presentation at the International Conference on Photochemical Conversion and Storage of Solar Energy, IPS-17.