Chloe graduated from the University of St Andrews with a first-class MChem (Hons) Master in Chemistry Degree with External Placement in 2023. During her third year, Chloe spent a year in industry at Imerys Minerals LTD based in Cornwall. She worked on several mineral-based projects, with her primary focus being on finding an application for recycled, post-consumer ground calcium carbonate. She evaluated several different potential polymer applications, including SBR, PVC and various PE and PP combinations. For her final year research project, she investigated the use of homogeneous catalysis to transform cashew nut shell liquid into a fire-retardant polymer coating for industrial applications. Her work on this project led her to win the Drochaid Prize for the Best Honours Research Project in Inorganic Chemistry.
Chloe is excited to develop new technical knowledge alongside her understanding of the automotive industry and mobility during the MRes year. With intentions to build a career in sustainability and green chemistry, Chloe will be developing a new compound class for OLED technology, by synthesising a variety of carbene-metal-yne complexes. She will optimise the properties of these materials by varying the carbene and alkyne substituents, whilst following sustainable, scalable synthetic routes. Her PhD will involve ball-milling, which is a green synthetic method Chloe was instantly intrigued by during research for an essay on mechanochemistry.
Modern car interiors and displays are shifting to, and increasingly rely on OLEDs (organic light emitting diodes), which are thin, flexible sources of light that create brilliant colours at lower energy cost than traditional lighting. The current state-of-the-art materials used in OLEDs to produce light, however, are often made from rare, expensive metals such as iridium or platinum.
Chloe's project aims to explore a greener, cheaper alternative utilising copper, a much cheaper, earth abundant metal. Chloe is developing a new class of copper-based compounds that can be made simply, with minimal or no solvent, by utilising mechanical mixing instead of traditional methods to be more sustainable.
These compounds can emit different colours of light, by changing different parts of their structure, and certain changes can impact their brightness. If successful, this project could lead to a new class of low-cost, environmentally friendly materials for use in car lighting, screens, and other future electronics.
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