Peter Matthews

Biography

I joined Keele as Research Fellow in Energy in Sustainability in December 2017, as part of the Smart Energy Network Demonstrator (SEND) project and was appointed as a Lectuer in Inorganic & Materials Chemistry in July 2023. I studied for my undergraduate degree at the University of Cambridge, and stayed there to complete a PhD in Feb 2016 under the supervision of Prof Dominic Wright and Prof Ali Alavi. During my PhD my research was focused on main group doping of graphite and polyoxotitanate cages for energy storage applications. Following this I moved to the University of Manchester as an EPSRC Doctoral Prize Fellow to work with Prof Paul O’Brien on transition metal dichalcogenides and main group two-dimensional materials.

Research and scholarship

My research interests are centred at the interface of inorganic synthetic chemistry and materials chemistry. We develop new ways of making materials through synthesising new chemical precursors and studying their decomposition into bulk (nano)materials. We also seek to make molecular analogues of materials that can act as models to study bulk behaviour. Our current focus is on three main projects:

• III-V Quantum Dots. Quantum dots are nanoscale semiconductors whose colour and optical properties depend on the size of the dot. We are studying the surface properties of indium phosphide and looking into ways of improving outcomes such as brightness and quantum yield.
• H₂ storage and activation. We are preparing designer materials that can act to chemically store hydrogen by splitting it in two. This can be used to release hydrogen on demand (e.g. for vehicles) or for hydrogenation reactions.
• Aerosol Assisted Chemical Vapour Deposition. We generate aerosol droplets of chemical precursors that can be used to epitaxially grow thin films of semiconductors across a large scale.

Teaching

I predominantly teach inorganic chemistry and materials chemistry topics across the following modules:

• CHE-10063 Chemical Structure and Reactivity
• CHE-10085 Chemistry Connections
• CHE-20055 Molecular Chemistry and Reactions
• CHE-30043 Materials Chemistry and Catalysis
• CHE-30046 Synoptic Topics in Chemistry
• CHE-30060 Topics in Chemistry and Medicinal Chemistry
• CHE-40021 MChem Research Project
• CHE-40034 MChem Medicinal Chemistry Research Project
• CHE-40050 MChem Research Training
• CHE-40058 Advanced Research Training for Chemists