Skip to main content Skip to navigation

Department of Chemistry

Patrick Unwin

Professor

Portrait of Pat Unwin

Pat obtained a BSc Honours degree in Chemistry at Liverpool University in 1985 (Leverhulme Prize and Leblanc Medal for top first) and went on to study for a DPhil at Oxford University under the supervision of Richard Compton (1985 - 1988). Pat was subsequently elected to a Junior Research Fellowship in Physical Sciences, Balliol College, Oxford (1988 - 1991).

Pat moved to the University of Texas at Austin (1990-91) as a SERC/NATO Fellowship with Prof. Allen Bard, before returning to the UK to establish the Warwick Electrochemistry & Interfaces Group. At Warwick, he has been a lecturer (1992-96), senior lecturer (1996-98), Professor (since 1998) and Director of the Warwick Centre for Analytical Sciences (2008 - 2011) funded by an EPSRC Science and Innovation Award. He currently holds a European Research Council Advanced Grant (2010-15).

Pat is particularly well-known for pioneering new and unconventional instrumental techniques, with application across a broad range of science. The drive has been a desire to obtain significant new insights into important physicochemical processes, using techniques that provide information to advance the state of the art. A focus has been the development of high resolution (microscopic and nanoscopic) probes. These advances have been described in almost 300 papers in leading journals and invited book chapters. He has also edited or co-edited 3 substantial volumes on electroanalytical techniques and dynamic electrochemistry. Many of the experimental techniques developed at Warwick have been adopted by other research groups internationally and taken in-house by industry.

Pat’s work has received international recognition through notable international awards (e.g. Marlow Medal, Corday-Morgan Medal, Barker Medal, and Tilden Prize from the Royal Society of Chemistry and the Vetter Prize from the International Society of Electrochemistry); regular invitations to speak at key meetings; and extensive international collaborations. Substantial industrial interactions have arisen due to the reputation of the Warwick Electrochemistry and Interfaces Group for developing innovative approaches that provide new insights into complex (heterogeneous) systems relevant to the industry. Pat is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry and the International Society of Electrochemistry. He is co-editor of the Journal of Electroanalytical Chemistry and a member of the Editorial Advisory Board of the ACS journal ​Langmuir​.

P dot R dot Unwin at warwick dot ac dot uk

024765 23264

Office C5.03

Warwick Electrochemistry & Interfaces

Our group are working on the following projects at the moment:

  • XXXX

Development and application of new techniques to study electrochemical and interfacial processes; ultrasensitive probes; and surfaces-structure activity relationships.

Pat teaches the on the undergraduate modules CH3F1 Advanced Physical Chemistry and Laboratory and CH3F7 Energy. (2019/20)

  • B. Tao, L. Yule, E. Daviddi, C. L. Bentley, P. R. Unwin, Correlative electrochemistry‐microscopy of Li‐ion (de) intercalation at series of individual LiMn2O4 particles, Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2019, doi.org/10.1002/ange.201814505
  • C. L. Bentley, M. Kang and P. R Unwin, Nanoscale Surface Structure–Activity in Electrochemistry and Electrocatalysis, J. Am. Chem. Soc., 2019, 141, 2179–2193
  • D. Q. Liu, B. Tao, H. C. Ruan, C. L. Bentley, P. R. Unwin, Metal support effects in electrocatalysis at hexagonal boron nitride, Chem. Comm., 2019, 55, 628-631
  • J. Ustarroz, I. M. Ornelas, G. Zhang, D. Perry, M. Kang, C. L. Bentley, M. Walker and P. R. Unwin, Mobility and Poisoning of Mass-Selected Platinum Nanoclusters during the Oxygen Reduction Reaction, ACS Catal., 2018, 8, 6775 - 6790.
  • C. L. Bentley, C. Andronescu, M. Smialkowski, M. Kang, T. Tarnev, B. Marler, P. R. Unwin, U.‐P. Apfel, W. Schuhmann, Local Surface Structure and Composition Control the Hydrogen Evolution Reaction on Oron Nickel Sulfides, Angew. Chem. Int. Ed., 2018, 57, 4093 - 4097.

  • C. L. Bentley, M. Kang, and P. R. Unwin, Nanoscale Structure Dynamics within Electrocatalytic Materials, J. Am. Chem. Soc., 2017, 139, 16813 - 16821.

  • M. Kang, D. Perry, C. L. Bentley, G. West, A. Page and P. R. Unwin, Simultaneous Topography and Reaction Flux Mapping at and around Electrocatalytic Nanoparticles, ACS Nano, 2017, 11, 9525 -9535.

  • C. L. Bentley, M. Kang, F. M. Maddar, F. Li, M. Walker, J. Zhang and P. R. Unwin, Electrochemical maps and movies of the hydrogen evolution reaction on natural crystals of molybdenite (MoS2): basal vs. edge plane activity, Chem. Sci., 2017, 8, 6583 - 6593.

  • A. Page, D. Perry and P. R. Unwin, Multifunctional Scanning Ion Conductance Microscopy (SICM), Proc. R. Soc. A, 2017, A473 (2200), 20160889.

  • M. Adobes-Vidal, A. G. Shtukenberg, M. D. Ward and P. R. Unwin, Multiscale Visualization and Quantitative Analysis of l-Cystine Crystal Dissolution, Cryst. Growth Des., 2017, 17, 1766 - 1774.

  • A. Page, M. Kang, A. Armitstead, D. Perry and P. R. Unwin, Quantitative Visualization of Molecular Delivery and Uptake at Living Cells with Self-Referencing Scanning Ion Conductance Microscopy (SICM) – Scanning Electrochemical Microscopy (SECM), Anal. Chem., 2017, 89, 3021 - 3028.

  • J. Ustarroz, M. Kang, E. Bullions and P. R Unwin, Impact and Oxidation of Single Silver Nanoparticles at Electrode Surfaces: One Shot versus Multiple Events, Chem. Sci., 2017, 8, 1841 - 1853.

  • D. Momotenko, A. Page, M. Adobes-Vidal and P. R. Unwin, Write-Read 3D Patterning with a Dual-Channel Nanopipette, ACS Nano, 2016, 10, 8871 - 8878.

  • P. R. Unwin, A. G. Guell, and G. Zhang, Nanoscale Electrochemistry of sp2 Carbon Materials: From Graphite and Graphene to Carbon Nanotubes, Acc. Chem. Res., 2016, 49, 2041 - 2048.