We are delighted to welcome Josh Harle to the group! 

After completing his MSc in theoretical chemistry at the University of Reading, Josh joins us to work on exploring dynamic origins of mechanically initiated reactions in molecular solids. 

The ISIS Neutron and Muon facility has highlighted our recent paper, in collaboration with friends at the University of Edinburgh, on the pressure-tuning of impact sensitivity! 

You can read the science highlight (by Orla Fernie) here

Check out the original paper here

Can we tune the sensitivity behaviour of energetic materials by cocrystallisation? Yes! 

With our friends in Edinburgh, we demonstrate this for EM nitrotriazolone, and investigate the origins of this changed behaviour using high pressure diffraction and our theoretical models of EM reactivity.

Check out the paper here

Congratulations to Tahlia for winning a poster prize at the Birmingham Symposium for Mechanochemistry and Sustainability!

Tahlia's work on understanding the origins of strange kinetic behaviour in mechanochemical reactions was done in collaboration with our friends at the Federal Institute for Materials Research and Testing (BAM) in Germany.

Can pressure accidentally increase the reactivity of energetic materials? It can! A new paper exploring this effect is now out in PhysChemChemPhys, with our friends at the University of Edinbrugh! 

  Check it out here

Oct marks 1 year at the University of Birmingham, and our team is growing! A huge welcome to our two new PhD students Mateusz and Tahlia, and our MSci students Katie and Peter! 

Our new paper investigating the role of mechanical activation in the polymorphic transformation of organic crystals by ball milling is now out in Chem. Eur. J! An exciting paper with our friends at the BAM!

  Check it out here

Our new paper exploring an atomistic mechanism for mechanically flexible organic crystals has been published in Chemical Sciences! Check it out here 

Our team had three papers discussed at the 2022 Faraday Discussion on Mechanochemistry! Check them out here.

Jake has joined the group on a collaborative BAM-Birmingham PhD project to explore the mechanochemistry of battery materials. Looking forward to some exciting science and continued collaboration with the BAM!

Adam was awarded a 2022 ISIS impact award for his research using neutron scattering and ab initio simulation to study the initiation behaviour of explosive materials. This project, in collaboration with Prof Carole Morrison and Prof Colin Pulham (both U. Edinburgh) and Dr Svemir Rudic (TOSCA, ISIS), has developed new theoretical models to predict explosive sensitivity and opens the door towards in silico design of next generation energetic materials. You can read more about the award here, and an interview with Adam is online here. 

Our paper describing a new approach to follow mechanochemical reactions using time resolved in situ (TRIS) X-ray powder diffraction has been published in Nature Communications! For the first time we can now follow phase composition and crystal microstructure with high resolution, opening new directions in mechanochemical research.

Our paper 'Predicting the impact sensitivity of a polymorphic high explosive: the curious case of FOX-7', which used the TOSCA instrument at the ISIS Neutron Facility has been highlighted as an ISIS Research Highlight