News

RECENT NEWS AND GROUP ACTIVITIES (2018-present)

Qian passes her viva

December 2023

Qian successfully defended her thesis on ‘MOF-based Membranes for Challenging Gas Separations’. Congratulations!


Elliott passes his viva

November 2023

Elliott successfully defended his thesis. Congratulations!


Ruxy passes her viva

September 2023

Ruxy successfully defended her thesis on the ‘Designed synthesis and structural investigation of novel zeolites in the ABC-6 family’. Congratulations!


Sonia is back from GSK

September 2023

Sonia has spent the last 3 months at GSK Stevenage in a placement that was planned as part of her PhD. She had lots of fun working in new ways there and she came back with lots of exciting results. We welcome her back in St Andrews for the last year of her PhD.


SolDAC Workshop 2023

September 2023

Harpreet and Paul met with their international collaborators in the SolDAC project in Edinburgh. The workshop was jam-packed with presentations and discussions around the main goals of the SolDAC project. For more updates on this, check out their LinkedIn page.


GRC 2023

August 2023

Paul went to USA to attend the Expanding the Horizons of Porous Materials Design and Applications Gordon Research Conference with the theme ‘Expanding the Horizons of Porous Materials Design and Applications’. He gave a talk on “Structural Insights into the Synthesis and Performance of Small Pore Zeolites in Adsorption and Catalysis” around some of the recent work in our group. If you would like to see relevant papers around this topic, please check out our recent publications!


Euromar 2023

July 2023

Malavika attended and helped out the 19th European Magnetic Resonance Congress in Glasgow. She also presented her poster on ‘Fast Synthesis of High-Silica Zeolites and their Solid-State NMR Characterisation’.


Yuanyuan returns for a summer project

June 2023

Yuanyuan (our 2022-23 MChem project student) has returned to the group for a summer project on zeolite synthesis. She is going to expand her expertise and support some ongoing work in the group.


Ruxy moves onto a new role

June 2023

Ruxy has moved from her PhD role to that of a PostDoc. She will be working with Orbital Materials on some exciting ways to discover new materials. We wish her good luck with finalising the PhD and the new project!


Magda leaves the group

June 2023

After a PhD and many years of being a PostDoc in the PAW group, Magda has left us and Scotland for new adventures in Australia. We thank her for all the hard work, the amazing mentorship and wish her all the best in her future endeavours!


GBA-SPT 2023 (The 2nd Greater Bay Area Symposium on Separation and Purification Technology and the 2nd Greater Bay Area Symposium on Membranes and Membrane Processes)

May 2023

Qian joined the conference online bright and early. She presented her work on “Comparative Studies of Mixed Matrix Membranes with two sod-type Zeolitic Imidazolate Frameworks: ZIF-94 and hybrid ZIF-7/COK-17”. Congratulations, Qian, for winning the excellent presentation award for a Graduate student!


EaSI-CAT 2023

April 2023

Malavika presented her poster on ‘Fast Synthesis of High-Silica Zeolites and their Solid-State NMR Characterisation’ to University of Edinburgh for the EaSI-CAT conference.

BZA meeting 2023

April 2023

Paul, Malavika, Qian and Ruxy attended the meeting that took place in Manchester. They enjoyed hearing about the current research going on in the UK and some parts of Europe.

Qian presented her work on “Hybrid Benzimidazole–Dichloroimidazole Zeolitic Imidazolate Frameworks Based on ZIF-7 and Their Application in Mixed Matrix Membranes for CO2/N2 Separation”. Ruxy also delivered her first poster, which focused on follow-up work on some surprising properties of STA-30 zeolites. She won the best poster prize with her Sherlock themed poster. Congratulations!


New project

March 2023

Our group has started a new collaboration with Orbital Materials. As part of this, Magda has undertaken a project focused around computationally guided zeolite synthesis.


5th EAZC

February 2023

The 5th Euro-Asia Zeolite Conference took place in South Korea and Paul was invited to give a plenary lecture on “Design and Surprise in the Synthesis and Properties of Small Pore Zeolites”.


New Group Member

January 2023

Our group has a new PostDoc – Harpreet. Her work will be focusing on materials for direct air capture, as part of the SolDAC project. Check out her bio on Group Members.


New Group Member

September 2022

Malavika has joined our group as a new PhD student. She will be working with zeolites and is co-supervised by Professor Ashbrook. Check out her bio on Group Members.


8th International Conference on Metal-Organic Frameworks

September 2022

The International Conference on MOFs was held in Dresden in 2022. Qian and Sonia attended and presented their work on ZIFs and MOFs with two exciting posters:

– Qian: Benzimidazole-dichloroimidazole zeolitic frameworks based on ZIF-7 and their application in mixed matrix membranes for CO2/N2 separation,
– Sonia: Development of Recyclable Multifunctional MOF-808(Hf) Catalyst for Organic Synthesis.


Visiting Post-Doc

July 2022

Dr Hyun June Choi is joining the group as a visiting scholar from POSTECH in South Korea until December. We welcome him into our group and hope he enjoys St Andrews!


IZC 2022

July 2022

The International Zeolite Conference was held in Valencia in 2022. Paul, Magda, Elliott and Ruxy all attended and presented their work in the following talks:

– Magda: Understanding the anion-templated, OSDA-free, interzeolite conversion synthesis of high silica ZK-5,
– Elliott: Controlling CO2 induced breathing behaviour in zeolite merlinoite for selective CO2 adsorption,
– Ruxy: Designed synthesis of STA-30: a small-pore zeolite catalyst with topology type SWY.


5th Annual UKPorMat Conference

June 2022

In 2022, the annual UKPorMat conference was held in Glasgow. Qian and Sonia joined the conference and presented posters on their work. Qian’s poster was entitled “Two-dimensional imidazole framework (ZIF-L) for mixed matrix membranes in gas separation applications” and Sonia’s was “Development of Recyclable Multifunctional Metal Organic Framework Catalysts For Organic Synthesis”.


Fundamentals of Adsorption (FOA), 14th International Conference

May 2022

FOA took place in Colorado in 2022. Elliott joined the virtual conference and Paul joined in-person. Paul also talked about “Controlling CO2 induced breathing behaviour in Zeolite Merlinoite”, based on work carried out by Elliott and Vesi.


BZA 2022

April 2022

BZA 2022 was held in Durham on 13th-14th April. It offered Ruxy the opportunity to present her work on STA-30 in-person this time and meet other academics and PhD students.


2021 AIChE Annual Meeting

November 2021

Ruxy joined the American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE) Annual Meeting virtually due to COVID restrictions. She presented some of her work on STA-30 during the Advances in Zeolite Science and Technology I – Synthesis and Characterization session.


Poster Prize at FEZA 2021

July 2021

Elliott won the Surface Measurements Systems prize for his poster on “The Structural Response of Merlinoite to CO2 Adsorption”. Congratulations!


FEZA 2021, Virtual

5-9 July 2021

Prof. Wright will chair FEZA 2021! After being postponed for one year, the conference has gone virtual and will take place between 5-9 July. Some of the group’s current members and alumni will also give presentations during the conference.
Check out the website for details on registration, the programme and more details on the FEZA School that will take place before the conference.


UK MOF Symposium, University of Southampton

April 2018

Prof. Wright presented a talk entitled “A twist to the tale: characterising the structural response of MOFs to adsorption” at the UK MOF Symposium hosted by the BZA (http://www.bza.org/annual-meeting/UK-MOF/).


Viva success for Angelica Orsi!

March 2018

Congratulations to Angelica on her viva success. We wish you all the success for your future. Well done!


UK Catalysis Conference, Loughborough

January 2018

Ivalina presented a talk “Operando Infrared Microspectroscopy at Work: Effects of Crystal Size on Formation of the Hydrocarbon Pool in the Methanol-to-Hydrocarbons Process” at the 4th UK Catalysis Conference, 2018.