Alex Baker and Bora Karasulu present their research

1pm, Wednesday
17 January 2024

PLT

This is a departmental event for all staff and students. Please come along! Refreshments will be provided on the Science Concourse from 12:45.

"Biting Back - Medical Diagnostics for Snake Envenomation in a Post-COVID-19 World", Dr Alex Baker

Every 5 minutes, 50 people are bitten by a snake worldwide, 4 will be permanently disabled and 1 will die. Snake envenomation is a neglected tropical disease (NTD) that requires urgent attention. Current research has focused on antibody-based solutions, both in diagnostics and treatments. However, this does not need to be the case; other sensing units such as glycans (sugars) are possible.

In this talk, I will explore the glycan-based lateral flow devices we developed for COVID-19 and present our early research into using glycans to sense for snake venoms.

Selected publications:

ACS Sens 2021, 6 (10), 3696–3705.
ACS Cent Sci 2020, 6 (11), 2046–2052.
Chem. Soc. Rev., 2022, 51, 7238-7259

"Atomistic Simulations of Next-gen Energy Storage Materials", Dr Bora Karasulu

By replacing organic electrolyte solutions with a solid inorganic equivalent, all solid-state batteries (ASSBs) can potentially mitigate the safety issues known for conventional Li-ion batteries, and provide enhanced energy densities when coupled with the Li metal, the ultimate Li-ion battery anode. Mechanical and (electro)chemical incompatibilities between the ASSB solid components, however, lead to high resistances, curtailing the Li-ion transport at their interfaces. In this talk, I will introduce our high-throughput modelling approach based on first principles and machine-learning to explore novel ASSB materials with superior features as well as to rationally design more stable interfaces between ASSB components. I will also elaborate on a specific application that lead to the discovery of a new class of solid Li-P-S electrolytes, Li₂S─Li₃P solid solutions, which are intrinsically stable electrochemically against the Li metal anodes. In addition, I will give an overview of our first-principles simulations of the surface chemistry underpinning the atomic layer deposition (ALD) processes used in various applications, including nanoelectronics (semiconductors), and energy storage.

Selected publications:

[1] Advanced Materials, 2023, 2301204, DOI: 10.1002/adma.202301204
[3] J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2022, 144 (36), 16350–65, DOI: 10.1021/jacs.2c01913
[3] J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2020, 142 (6), 3132-3148, DOI: 10.1021/jacs.9b12685
[4] ACS Nano 2017 11 (9), 9303-9311, DOI: 10.1021/acsnano.7b04701