The Department of Chemistry

Richard A. Taylor – Lecturer (Tenured)

Selected Publications

• Book Chapter

1. Colloidal quantum dots solar cells; Richard A. Taylor and Karthik Ramasamy, Specialist Periodical Reports; Nanoscience 4, 2017, 4, 142–168, Royal Society of Chemistry.

• Refereed Publications

2. Peter N. Nelson and Richard A. Taylor; Mesomorphic and Crystal-Crystal Phase Transition Behaviours of the Homologous Series of some Zinc(II) and Sodium(I) n-Alkanoates; Spectrochimica Acta Part A: Molecular and Biomolecular Spectroscopy, 138 (2015) 800–806.
3. Peter N. Nelson, Henry A. Ellis and Richard A. Taylor; Reply to comments on the inter-planar structures and lamellar packing of short and long-chain zinc(II) n-alkanoates; Journal of Molecular Structure, 1070, (2014), 106–109.
4. Peter N. Nelson, and Richard A. Taylor; Theories and Experimental Investigations of the Structural and Mesomorphic Behaviours of Metal Carboxylates; Review: Applied Petrochemical Research, 4, (3), 2014, 253–285.
5. Peter N. Nelson, Henry A. Ellis, Richard A. Taylor; Effects of molecular and lattice structure on the thermal behaviours of some long-chain length potassium(I) n-alkanoates; Journal of Molecular Structure, 1058, 2014, 234–243.
6. Zeyar Min, Marvadeen Singh-Wilmot, Christopher Cahill, Michael Andrews and Richard Taylor; Isoreticular Lanthanide Metal-Organic Frameworks: Syntheses, Structures and Photoluminescence of a Family of 3D Phenylcarboxylates; European Journal of Inorganic Chemistry, 28, (2012), 4419–4426.
7. Peter N. Nelson, Richard A. Taylor and Henry A. Ellis; The effects of molecular and lattice structures on thermotropic phase behavior of zinc(II) undecanoate and isomeric zinc(II) undecynoates; Journal of Molecular Structure

Research Interests

Optoelectronic Materials Chemistry Research Group

The group currently consists of 3 PhD, 2 MPhil-PhD students and several undergraduate research students. Our primary objective involves the synthesis, structural characterization and study of optoelectronic properties of a range of materials as outlined below. We are interested in the rationale design of these materials and exploring their structure-property relationships.

Research Areas

• Semiconductor Nanoparticles and Thin Films for Solar Cell Applications

This work is focussed on the synthesis, characterization and exploration of electronic properties of transition metal-doped chalcogenide multinary compound semiconductor nanoparticles and thin films via facile colloidal methods and aerosol chemical vapour deposition (AACVD), respectively. Our nanotechnology approach involves customization of material structure, composition, morphology and properties by fabrication into thin films and hetero-nanostructures that offer advantages over conventional bulk-sized materials with the potential to improve the efficiency of solar cells when used as solar absorbers.

• Light Emitting and Light-Driven Metal-Containing Liquid Crystals

The primary research involves synthesis, structural elucidation and study of liquid crystal (LC) properties of novel Schiff’s base metal complexes. These novel complexes are particularly attractive because of easy synthesis and variability of structures formed on changing molecular features and metal ions. Our compounds are designed with (bi-or tri-phenyl) π-conjugated molecular cores and peripheral/lateral hydrocarbon chains to influence structural anisotropy and LC properties. Metal ion cores result in multifunctional LC materials with luminescent, magnetic, electronic and conductive properties for applications including modern displays incorporating organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs), data storage and thermo/chemosensors.

Lanthanide Metal-Organic Frameworks (Ln-MOF’s)

The research involves developing a series of novel lanthanide metal-organic frameworks (Ln-MOFs) for possible applications as LEDs, electronic device sensors and gas absorption. The work is premised on the rationale design, synthesis and tuning the materials’ optoelectronic properties by deliberately exploiting and manipulating the unique properties of the building blocks of the materials viz. lanthanide metal ions and optically active organic molecules in order to obtain materials that can more efficiently generate light. In some cases, framework structures are transformed into nanostructures by simple methods with unique properties being derived.