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Laura Elliott

Location
2.02, Chemical & Process Engineering
Sponsor
Venator
Primary Supervisor
Dr Tim Hunter, Chemical & Process Engineering
Qualifications
MSci Chemistry (year in industry), Imperial

Biography

During her undergraduate degree, Laura undertook an industrial placement year at Schlumberger Gould Research in Cambridge (2013-2014). Laura spent her time in industry working on lost circulation and fluid mechanics problems, particle size analysis, and designing and 3D printing flow loop equipment. Laura spent her final year at Imperial working in the Edel (Bio) Sensing & Analytical group, where she published papers on the self-assembly and applications of ultraconcentrated nanoparticle solutions.

PhD: Characterisation of complex agglomerated inorganic particles using novel on-line sensors

Synthesised particle products are often formed as agglomerates of finer single crystallites. Understanding the internal clustering and structure, as well as overall size and chemical nature is extremely important, as the performance of these systems (e.g. dissolution, optical properties) may be dominated by these primary forms. High quality manufacturing often demands tight control of the surface area, size, distribution and other properties (e.g. chemical homogeneity) for end user performance. Standard measurement techniques to analyse physical and chemical properties do not always discern the raw crystal properties present in final products, and are often very time consuming (e.g. BET surface area measurements). Due to these limitations, manufacturing knowledge is often limited ex situ characterisation of extracted samples, where access to fast parameter analysis would greatly enhance process monitoring and control capabilities. This project seeks to better understand such systems, by looking at monitoring changes in particles surface area and surface chemistry during the milling process by using nuclear magnetic resonance relaxometry, an ideal candidate for an online measurement tool.

Outreach, training and other activities:

  • Be Curious March 2017 (annual University of Leeds science public engagement fair)
  • Brilliant Club 2017/2018 – Teaching GSCE students a designed module based on PhD
  • Pfizer Cross CDT Day 18 Oct 2017

Publications and presentations:

  • 2017 McBain Medal: Watching Colloids Work (poster presentation), December 2017, London
  • Salt Enhanced Solvent Relaxation and Particle Surface Area Determination via Rapid Spin-Lattice NMR, Powder Technology, June 2018

Masters research project in year 1 of CDT:

  • ‘Use of desktop NMR to understand crystal surface area and internal structure’ with Dr Tim Hunter, Chemical & Process Engineering