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Dr Wuzong Zhou
e-mail: wzhou@st-andrews.ac.uk tel: 01334 467276

Research Interests: Solid State Structural Chemistry, Inorganic Materials, Nanomaterials and Electron Microscopy

Our research interests cover syntheses and high resolution transmission electron microscopic (HRTEM) studies of solid state materials including mixed metal oxides, oxide ion conductors, fuel cell materials, porous materials and nanomaterials.

Our recent research on zeolites includes structural determination of several new zeolites and direct observation of defects in zeolite beta, the most important large pore high silica zeolite. These shed light on the way in which this remarkable zeolite grows by layer upon layer crystallization and the formation mechanism of a large number of silanol groups in the materials. Porous single crystals (PSC) of metal oxides templated by various mesoporous silicas were preliminarily investigated and can be developed into self-supported nanoscale catalysts. We also developed several new nanomaterials including H2Ti3O7 nanotubes, which can be synthesised by a simple reaction of any type of crystalline TiO2 with a highly concentrated NaOH solution. Solid state NMR and ionic conductivity studies confirmed the existence of structural protons.

HRTEM images of various nanomaterials

SELECTED RECENT PUBLICATIONS

  1. Disruption of extended defects in solid oxide fuel cell anodes for methane oxidation, J. C. Ruiz-Morales, J. Canales-Vázquez, C. Savaniu, D. Marrero-López, W. Zhou, J. T. S. Irvine, Nature, 2006, 439, 568-571.
  2. Formation mechanism of porous single-crystal Cr2O3 and Co3O4 templated by mesoporous silica, C. Dickinson, W. Z. Zhou, R. P. Hodgkins, Y. F. Shi, D. Y. Zhao, H. Y. He, Chem. Mater. 2006, 18, 3088-3095.
  3. Growth of porous single-crystal Cr2O3 in a 3-D mesopore system, K. Jiao, B. Zhang, B. Yue, Y. Ren, S. Liu, S. Yan, C. Dickinson, W. Zhou, H. He, Chem. Commun. 2005, 5618-5620.
  4. Low temperature strategy to synthesize highly ordered mesoporous silicas with very large pores, J. Fan, C. Z. Yu, J. Lei, B. Tu, Q. Zhang, W. Zhou, D. Y. Zhao, J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2005, 127, 10794-10795.
  5. Formation, Structure and Stability of Titanate Nanotubes and their Proton Conductivity, A. Thorne, A. Kruth, D. Tunstall, J. T. S. Irvine, W. Zhou, J. Phys. Chem. B, 2005, 109, 5439-5444.
  6. Direct observation of growth defects in zeolite beta, P. A. Wright, W. Zhou, J. Perez-Pariente, M. Arranz, J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2005, 127, 494–495.
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