The research interests of the Mills group are wide and varied including: dye and semiconductor photochemistry, redox catalysis (in particular, oxygen catalysis), solar energy conversion (in particular artificial photosynthesis) and colour and fluorescence based indicators and smart inks and plastic films.
Dr David Hazafy has been awarded the Enterprise Fellowship, and will spin out a company based on research and knowledge developed in our group
Enterprise Fellowships provide funding and support to outstanding entrepreneurial engineering researchers, working at a UK University, to enable them to develop a spin-out business around their technological idea.
Enterprise Fellows receive up to £85,000 in seed funding, salary support and benefit from having a year to take time out from their research to focus completely on spinning out a business.
Enterprise Fellows are also invited to join the Academy’s Enterprise Hub where they receive ongoing support and business mentoring from the Academy’s Fellowship, which includes some of the UK’s most successful technology entrepreneurs and business leaders.
The research project, ‘Saving millions of lives by enhancing the solar disinfection of water (SODIS)’, led by Professor Andrew Mills and Dr Katherine Lawrie, and funded by Invest NI, was announced as the winner of the research and development category at the Green Gown Awards’ Ceremony, with over 360 sustainability leaders in attendance at The University of Manchester’s Whitworth Hall.
The event was hosted by author and TV presenter Simon Reeve with the award supported by ARMA. Over 180 applications were received across 14 categories, and each went through a rigorous two-stage screening process in which they were reviewed and judged by a panel of 86 sector representatives and experts. Established in 2004, the Green Gown Awards recognise the exceptional sustainability initiatives being undertaken by universities and colleges across the UK. With sustainability moving up the agenda, the Awards have become established as the most prestigious recognition of best practice within the further and higher education sector. The Green Gown Awards are administered by the Environmental Association for Universities and Colleges (EAUC) and are governed by a cross agency steering group.
Established in 2004, the Green Gown Awards recognise the exceptional sustainability initiatives being undertaken by universities and colleges across the UK. With sustainability moving up the agenda, the Awards have become established as the most prestigious recognition of best practice within the further and higher education sector. The Green Gown Awards are administered by the Environmental Association for Universities and Colleges (EAUC) and are governed by a cross agency steering group. With 180 applications received across 14 categories, our research, ‘Saving millions of lives by enhancing the solar disinfection of water (SODIS)’, was announced as a finalist in the research and development category in June. As part of the application we were asked to create a short video on our project. We are also in the process of publishing this work, and the most recent version of the work can be found here (UV dosimetry for SODIS). The winners of the Green Gown Awards 2014 will be announced at the Green Gown Awards’ Ceremony in November, which will be attended by Dr Katherine Lawrie.
The second in a series of papers to be published by the photocatalytic activity indicator inks consortium is now available for download. It describes in detail the analysis method, that is a proposed ISO standard, for detecting the activity of a semiconductor photocatalyst on a range of surfaces, using a simple, reproducible technique.
Photocatalyst Activity Indicator Inks (Paii’s) are now featured on Wikipedia. The inks were pioneered by the Mills group over a number years, and development of newer, improved ‘smart inks’ for detecting the activity of photocatalytic surfaces is ongoing.
A paper, published by the Mills group on November 14th, 2013, detailing a proposed ISO standard test for the testing of the activity of self-cleaning surfaces using a simple, inexpensive method, has been receiving considerable interest within the scientific community. The article, available via the link below, has been downloaded 667 times since its publication, with the most interest coming from the UK, US, India, China and Germany.
The article is available for download from:
Professor Mills and Dr Lawrie recently traveled to Seattle to engage with a company, Sensor Medical Technology. We met with members of the company, academia and patent lawyers in order to kick-start a new collaborative project to develop indicators for medical devices.
With the aid of travel funding awarded by the RSC, Dr Katherine Lawrie attended the world’s leading conference on optical sensors to present a poster on her work entitled ‘UV dosimetry for solar water disinfection (SODIS)’. The conference itself attracted 220 participants from 37 countries, bringing together engineers and scientists to discuss the recent progress and future trends in the design, fabrication, and application of optical sensing devices.
Wednesday March 19th was Green Impact “Platinum day” in the School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering. After attaining a green impact gold award for our lab last year, all those in the school with gold awards came together to build on these awards and bring them beyond the localised effect of the lab, producing a series of events culminating in an “Environmental Communication Day with a Social Conscience”. During the day everyone in the school was invited to make their own smoothie (powered by a bicycle), participate in a treasure hunt and taste delights from around the world at a coffee morning which was contributed to by those of the many nationalities represented within the school. There were also a further two apple trees planted in the open quad area in the middle of the school, and the day ended with a quiz and environmental talks by Prof Martin Atkins and our very own Dr Katherine Lawrie. Katherine highlighted the work of the Mills group over the past few years which has gone some way to tackle environmental and humanitarian issues.
A novel approach to polymeric Ru(II)-diimine luminescent O2 sensors is described. The Ru(II)-diimine, tris (4,7-diphenyl-1,10-phenanthroline) ruthenium (II) dichloride ([Ru(dpp)3]2+), is first ion-paired to the surface of heterogeneous TiO2 particles, rendered negatively charged due to the alkali nature of the aqueous solution, to produce an O2 sensitive pigment with a strikingly high oxygen sensitivity (i.e. PO2 (S=1/2) = 0.002 atm, where PO2 (S=1/2) is defined as the amount of oxygen required to reduce the initial, oxygen free luminescence by 50%), and a rapid response to oxygen. The pigment is extruded in low density polyethylene (LDPE) to produce a thin (60 µm), flexible, O2 sensing plastic film, with an O2 sensitivity (PO2 (S=1/2) = 0.84 atm) comparable to the more traditional homogeneous lumophore ion-pair based O2 sensor ink films reported in the literature.
this is an open access article and can be downloaded free of charge from: http://pubs.rsc.org/en/Content/ArticleLanding/2013/AN/c3an01141k#!divAbstract
