People

James Bird

James’ PhD research project is named ‘Self-assembled MXene coatings for irradiation resistance’. He is supervised by Dr Suelen Barg and Dr Philipp Frankel. The 2D nature and hydrophilic surface chemistry of MXenes allows them to be processed in water to produce self-assembled dense coatings. Whilst the parent compound MAX phases are susceptible to anisotropic swelling upon irradiation, the response of MXenes to irradiation is to be investigated. James is funded by EPSRC through the Fusion CDT. He completed his undergraduate Chemistry degree at the University of Bristol in 2017. His third year of study was spent in Montpellier, France where he undertook the Chemical Sciences of Matter course in French. His final year MSci project was entitled ‘Studying the Oxidation of Diamond using an O2 plasma reactor’.