Thomas Barber

Biography

During his studies, Thomas completed two projects, one involving deep-eutectic liquids such as Reline mixtures and the influence of surfactants on surface tension. The goal of the other project was to create novel luminescent europium complexes, which was particularly engaging as it allowed Thomas to
make use of the analytical characterisation techniques he had learned over the course of his degree, in addition to allowing Thomas flexibility in altering the route of organic synthesis.

PhD: Prevention of Grit in Soap and Syndet Bars

Soap bars (based on sodium salts of fatty acids) and syndet bars (using added sodium salts of isethionate esters) suffer from the presence of grit like spherical particles. These hard particles cause extensive manufacturing problems (such as difficulty in melting the pre-bar blends) and are disliked by the consumer. Grit is formed in the initial crystallisation/precipitation of the soap ingredient and various ingredients are subsequently blended and melted before pressing out into bars. The presence of grit affects all the downstream processing stages – these hard lumps cause equipment erosion and slow down the melting process, block filters and so on.
Grit also abrades skin when washing and has an unpleasant feel. This has assisted the uptake of liquid soaps and body washes in the West. However, the use of liquid soaps has increased the need for packaging and the emission of more greenhouse gases due to transporting what is effectively water.
A multi-disciplinary approach is required to fully characterise these grit particles and to identify routes for their prevention or elimination.

Outreach, training and other activities:

• CP3 Representative on cross CDT committee - 2017/2018 Academic Year
• Chair of CP3 Staff Student Forum - 2017-2018 Academic Year

Masters research project in year 1 of CDT:

• ‘Understanding packing and breakage of needle shaped crystals via Discrete Element Modelling’ with Professor Andrew Bayly, Chemical & Process Engineering