The world urgently needs better battery technology to rapidly move towards a low‐carbon society. However, commercially‐available batteries currently do not store enough energy, have limited working lifetimes, and are too expensive to make large‐scale electrification viable. To design improved batteries, a better understand of chemical processes inside a battery during charging and discharging is needed. This requires measuring the flow of ions and electrons across multiple interfaces, buried within the battery. Abdulrhman’s PhD project will develop methodologies to study these interfaces using secondary ion mass spectrometry and X‐ray photoelectron spectroscopy. The project is co-supervised by Dr Alex Walton.
Category Archives: Miscellaneous
Congratulations Dr Danielle McDougall
Congratulations to Danielle on the award of her PhD! Her project ‘Diagnosing the Masses’ explored differentiation and drug interactions of prostate cancer cells and tissue using SIMS, DESI and Laser-REIMS mass spectrometry imaging. Thanks to Dr Adam McMahon from the Wolfson Molecular Imaging Centre and Dr Emrys Jones from Waters Corp. for their co-supervision.
BBSRC DTP PhD studentship
Applications are invited for a cross-faculty BBSRC DTP studentship entitled: Imaging inflammatory changes in tissues by mass spectrometry
This project will focus on the use of mass spectrometry imaging of biological tissues to explore and further develop their capabilities in the context of inflammation research. Inflammation is central to progression and outcome of a wide range of important conditions including stroke, cancer, Alzheimer’s disease.
Details of the project, application process and eligibility requirements can be found here. Eligible applicants should contact the primary supervisor Adam.McMahon@manchester.ac.uk before making a formal application (deadline 22 Jan 2021)
Collaboration with the Rosalind Franklin Institute
We have started a collaboration with the Biological Mass Spectrometry theme of the Rosalind Franklin Institute, led by Profs. Josephine Bunch and Zoltan Takats. This aims to develop new capabilities for mass specrometry imaging using SIMS and laser post-ionisation. We welcome back Dr Sadia Sheraz to the group to lead the experiments at the Photon Science Institute.
The Rosalind Franklin Institute is a new national institute, funded by the UK government through UK Research and Innovation, dedicated to bringing about transformative changes in life science through interdisciplinary research and technology development.
Congratulations Dr Aldossari!
Congratulations to Samar on the award of her PhD. Her thesis entitled ‘Detection and localisation of drug molecules in biological samples using secondary ion mass spectrometry (SIMS)’ was co-supervised by Dr Katie Moore and employed both ToF-SIMS and NanoSIMS.
New ToF-SIMS instrument delivered
Christmas came early this week at SARC with the delivery of our new J105 Instrument. Thanks to the hard work of the guys from Ionoptika Ltd it was assembled and at vacuum in 48h.
Welcome Matija
We welcome a new PhD student, Matija Lagator from Serbia. Matija will work on the new J105-SIMS instrument. His project is entitled ‘Development of Novel High Energy Cluster Ion Beam Methodology for Molecular Analysis and Imaging’.
New project funded
| New Developments in Quantitative 3D Chemical Imaging
A major new EPSRC grant of £844k will allow us to explore further the 3D imaging SIMS capabilities of reactive cluster projectile using a new high-energy ion beam. Project partners include Prof Ian Gilmore at the National Physical Laboratory and Prof Arnaud Delcorte at the Universite catholique de Louvain. The funding, togther with investment from the Henry Royce Institute allows us to replace our prototype Ionoptika J105 SIMS with the latest model, including a 70 keV water cluster beam. This comes 10 y after the installation of the first J105 instrument in Manchester. |
Dr Huriyyah Alturaifi
Congratulations to Huriyyah on the award of her PhD! Her thesis is entitled ‘New Capabilities for Molecular Surface and in-depth Analysis with Cluster Secondary Ion Mass Spectrometry’. The project was co-supervised by Prof Mike Turner at the Organic Materials Innovation Centre.
Dr Giles Edwards
Congratulations to Giles on the award of his PhD entitled ‘Advances in Bioanalytical Laser Ionisation Mass Spectrometry’.
Visitor from University of Karachi
This month we welcome Dr. Syed Ghulam Musharraf, Associate Professor from H.E.J. Research Institute of Chemistry and International Center for Chemical and Biological Sciences (ICCBS) at the University of Karachi, Pakistan (http://www.iccs.edu). Musharraf will discuss collaborative opportunities between his institution and the University of Manchester and share his own research interests with our group and others in the MIB. His visit is funded through a Charles Wallace Visiting Fellowship.
MPhil for Andres
Congratulations to Andres on the award of his MPhil degree. We look forward to welcoming him back to Manchester very soon to study for a PhD. Hasta la vista, Andres!
New project funded
August sees the start of a new EPSRC-funded project entitled ‘Development of Multiplexed ToF-SIMS Instrumentation‘ which represents a completely new paradigm for ToF-SIMS and builds of the group’s reputation for innovation in instrument development. The 3-year, £0.5M project involves collaborators in the School of Electrical and Electronic Engineering and Ionoptika Ltd.
Visit to Hyogo University
Nick visited the groups of Drs Moritani and Toyoda at the University of Hyogo, Himeji, Japan, who work extensively with gas cluster ion beams (GCIBs) for materials processing and analysis. He gave a presentation on our ion yield enhancements with the water GCIB source.
Visit to Osaka University
Nick visited the groups of Prof Terada and colleagues at Osaka University, who are developing high resolution ToF mass analyzers and applying them in SIMS, SNMS, MALDI and FAB. He gave a presentation on our instrumentation and methodology development and discussed laser SNMS theory – he also had the opportunity to view some moon samples returned by the Apollo 15 and 17 missions.