Research


Research Themes

Solid-state refrigeration

Vast amounts of energy are used everyday to provide heating and cooling to our planet. This is done through vapour-compression of hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs) which are 1000 times stronger greenhouse gases than CO2. HFCs are being phased down by governments all around the world for their environmental impact, a replacement is definitely in need!

Solid-state refrigerants have the ability to replace HFCs.

Our research focuses on understanding the structural changes that occurs when a solid has a caloric response, and how we can tune those responses through the structure.

Carbon capture & storage

Being able to capture, store and recycle gases from our atmosphere is essential for our circular economy. As well as reducing greenhouse gases in our atmosphere, it is also possible to convert these gases into useful commodities.

I'm interested in using flexible porous materials such as MOFs or zeolites to selectively adsorb gases and understand how we can use pressure or temperature swing to recycle the gases.

Research methods




In-situ crystallography

The Hobday group has a vast amount of experience on using different means of generating non-ambient settings for crystallographic measurements. These in-situ measurements are really important for understanding structure-property relationships of crystalline materials. Using powder or single crystal diffraction with in-situ apparatus can be really powerful. For example, understanding the low temperature behaviour of material or how it behaves under different pressure regimes can tell us about the mechanical properties of the material.

In-situ methods the Hobday group is experienced in for single or powder diffraction is:

  • diamond anvil cell (ambient to 10 GPa (10000 times atmospheric pressure))

  • pressure jump cell (ambient to 4000 bar)

  • gas cell (ambient to 180 bar)

  • helix (under 10 Kelvin)



Molecular Simulation

To complement the information that structural methods can give us, simulation has been really important in understanding the underlying physical understanding of these experimentally properties.

Simulation methods commonly applied in the Hobday group are:

  • Monte Carlo

  • Molecular dynamics

Depending on the problem, simulations are also used at different levels of theory from classical to ab initio.