event
Tuesday 26 Feb 2019: NEST Seminar: Engineering porous materials for sustainable energy applications
Dr Valeska Ting - University of Bristol
H170 12:30-13:30
Title: Engineering porous materials for sustainable energy applications
Abstract: Provision of energy that is non-polluting, affordable and abundant is one of the most pressing of the global research challenges we face. The intense interest in sustainable alternatives to fossil fuels presents a number of opportunities to develop materials-based solutions. High surface area nanoporous materials (materials with internal pore diameters on the angstrom or nanometre length scale) are exceptionally suited for applications in gas separation and storage. Furthermore, their nanoscale and macroscopic structures can be tuned for different applications, for example for the storage of gaseous fuels such as hydrogen. The synthesis and processing of such materials, which include porous carbon nanomaterials, zeolites and metal-organic framework materials, can therefore be optimised for a range of applications in the area of sustainable energy generation and storage. This talk will provide an overview of recent research, describing how we have approached the development of such nanoporous materials to meet challenges such as the safe and efficient storage of hydrogen energy through materials engineering.
Biography: Dr Valeska Ting is a Reader in Smart Nanomaterials at the University of Bristol. She is a materials scientist, a chartered chemical engineer and Research Director for the Departments of Mechanical, Civil and Aerospace Engineering at Bristol. Her research is concerned with the understanding of structure-property relationships of functional nanoporous materials and their application to problems in sustainable energies. Her research into porous hydrogen storage materials was awarded the UK's Parliamentary and Scientific Committee's 2013 SET for Britain Gold Medal for Engineering and the Westminster Medal, and the Institution of Chemical Engineers’ 2013 Sir Frederick Warner medal. She was recently awarded a 5-year EPSRC Research Fellowship to focus on development of nanocomposites to explore aspects of this research.
