Robert Mokaya
Professor of Materials Chemistry and Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Global Engagement, Faculty of VC's Office
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Biography
Professor Robert Mokaya OBE FRS received his B.Sc. in Chemistry from the University of Nairobi in 1988 after which he spent a year working for Unilever in Kenya. He was awarded his Ph.D. from the University of Cambridge in 1992. In 1992 he was elected to a Research Fellowship at Trinity College, Cambridge and in 1996 was awarded an EPSRC Advanced Fellowship. He was appointed to a lectureship in Materials Chemistry at Nottingham in 2000, was promoted to Reader in Materials Chemistry in 2005, and to Professor of Materials Chemistry in 2008. He is a Royal Society Wolfson Research Merit Award holder (2017-2022). He was awarded OBE in 2022 for services to the Chemical Sciences, and was elected Fellow of the Royal Society in 2023.
Research Summary
The design, synthesis and characterisation of novel porous materials and the study of their structure-property relations is the focus of our research interests. The materials currently under… read more
Current Research
The design, synthesis and characterisation of novel porous materials and the study of their structure-property relations is the focus of our research interests. The materials currently under investigation are those which may find use as solid state catalysts, adsorbents (especially for sustainable energy storage applications), molecular sieves and as hosts in the preparation of advanced composite materials. Of particular interest are templated porous solids and materials prepared via valorisation routes that are simple and sustainable. Examples are (i) zeolite templated carbons that replicate the structure of microporous zeolites, (ii) mesoporous molecular sieves (MMS) prepared via the 'Liquid Crystal Templating' (LCT) mechanism in which supramolecular assemblies of surfactant serve as components of the template for the formation of solid inorganic frameworks, and (iii) porous carbons generated via activation and carbonisation routes that encompass valorisation.