Molecular Analytical Science MSc student. Funded by the EPSRC through the Molecular Analytical Science Centre for Doctoral Training.

MAS CDT Mini-Projects:

Electrochemically modulating the structural properties in BFO thin films:

Supervisors: Dr Mingmin Yang, Prof. Marin Alexe and Prof. Pat Unwin.

This investigation’s objective was to electrochemically modulate the electrical properties of BiFeO3 (BFO) thin films, especially ferroelectric domain walls therein, by ionic gating using scan electrochemical cell microscopy with the assistance of light. The ferroelectric domain walls exhibit enhanced conduction compared to the domain matrix, which is strongly correlated with the accumulation of the oxygen vacancies. The ionic liquid gating would in principle induce or diminish the oxygen vacancies in the oxide through electrochemical reactions. Thus, the aim was to tune the domain wall conduction by ionic liquid gating.

Computational investigation of the origins of photo-degradation in agrochemical compounds.

Supervisors: Dr Nicholas Hine and Ben Robinson (Syngenta).

In this investigation, the photo-stability of specific agrochemicals given by Syngenta (the
industry partner to this investigation) was explored using computational methods and
calculations such as time-dependent density functional theory (TDDFT). Initially, the
agrochemicals were relaxed to their ground-state using the density functional theory
(DFT), and subsequently TDDFT calculations were carried out. The calculations were
done using the ASE package in the framework of NWChem.