STAFF PROFILE
Professor Adam Lee
Position:
Professor
College / Portfolio:
School of Science Cluster
School / Department:
Applied Chemistry and Environmental Sci
Phone:
99252623
Email:
adam.lee2@rmit.edu.au
Campus:
Melbourne City Campus
Contact me about:
Research supervision
Professor Lee was recently appointed Professor of Sustainable Chemistry at RMIT, having previously held a prestigious EPSRC Leadership Fellowship.
He has held Chair appointments at Cardiff, Warwick, Monash, and Aston universities and is one of the world's leading mid-career researchers in heterogeneous catalysis and green chemistry, targeting the rational design of nanoengineered materials for clean catalytic technologies, and the development of spectroscopic methods for molecular insight into surface reactions.
He was awarded the 2011 McBain Prize of the Society of Chemical Industry and 2012 Beilby Medal and Prize of the Royal Society of Chemistry, has published >210 peer-reviewed articles and graduated >30 PhD and MSc students.
Professor Lee pioneered the application of time-resolved XPS for surface reactions, and the in situ surface analysis facility will underpin ongoing mechanistic studies into transition metal catalysed biomass valorisation, and semiconductor photocatalysts for solar fuels production and environmental depollution.
View Professor Lee's profile on Google Scholar and ResearchGate.
Current research activities
- Rational design and application of nanostructured catalysts for sustainable chemical processes.
- Operando spectroscopies for heterogeneous catalysts
- Biomass valorisation for biofuels (including biodiesel) and bio-derived platform chemicals
- Aerobic selective oxidation of alcohols
- Photocatalytic production of solar fuels (CO2 conversion and H2 production) and environmental remediation
- Bimetallic nanoparticles and thin films
- Combinatorial materials synthesis and high-throughput analysis
Major awards
- 2012 Beilby Medal and Prize of the Royal Society of Chemistry, IM3 and SCI.
- 2011 McBain Medal of the Society of Chemical Industry and Royal Society of Chemistry.
- EPSRC Leadership Fellowship (2009-15)
- 2004 Fonda-Fasella Elettra Prize of the Italian National Synchrotron (2004).
- 2000 British Vacuum Council C R Burch Prize.
Key publications
- Single atom Cu(I) promoted mesoporous titanias for photocatalytic methyl orange depollution and H2 production. R. Trofimovaite, C.M.A. Parlett, S. Kumar, L. Frattini, M.A. Isaacs, K. Wilson, L. Olivi, B. Coulson, R.E. Douthwaite, A.F. Lee - Appl. Catal. B 2018, 232, 501, doi:10.1016/j.apcatb.2018.03.078
- Classical strong metal-support interactions between gold nanoparticles and titanium dioxide. H. Tang, Y. Su, B. Zhang, A.F. Lee, M.A. Isaacs, K. Wilson, Y. Ren, L. Li, J. Huang, M. Haruta, B. Qiao, X. Liu, C. Jin, D. Su, J. Wang*, T. Zhang - Science Adv. 2017, 3, e1700231, doi:10.1126/sciadv.1700231.
Academic
- PhD, University of Cambridge, 1995
- BA (Hons, 1st Class), University of Cambridge, 1992
Professional
- AFIChemE
- MRACI
- CChem FRSC
- Karthikeyan, S.,Ahmed, K.,Osatiashtiani, A.,Lee, A.,Wilson, K.,Sasaki, K.,Coulson, B.,Swansborough-Aston, W.,Douthwaite, R.,Li, W. (2020). Pompon Dahlia-like Cu2O/rGO Nanostructures for Visible Light Photocatalytic H2 Production and 4-Chlorophenol Degradation In: ChemCatChem, 12, 1 - 12
- Ji, Y.,Bai, S.,Xu, D.,Qian, D.,Wu, Z.,Song, Y.,Pace, R.,Crocker, M.,Wilson, K.,Lee, A.,Harris, D.,Scapens, D. (2020). Pd-promoted WO3-ZrO2 for low temperature NOx storage In: Applied Catalysis B: Environmental, 264, 1 - 11
- Liu, K.,Zhao, X.,Ren, G.,Lee, A.,Wilson, K. (2020). Strong metal-support interaction promoted scalable production of thermally stable single-atom catalysts In: Nature Communications, 11, 1 - 9
- Jiang, Z.,Qi, R.,Huang, Z.,Shangguan, W.,Wong, R.,Lee, A. (2020). Impact of Methanol Photomediated Surface Defects on Photocatalytic H2 Production Over Pt/TiO2 In: Energy & Environmental Materials, 3, 202 - 208
- An, N.,Ainembabazi, D.,Reid, C.,Samudrala, K.,Wilson, K.,Lee, A.,Voutchkova-Kostal, A. (2020). Microwave-Assisted Decarbonylation of Biomass-Derived Aldehydes using Pd-Doped Hydrotalcites In: ChemSusChem, 13, 312 - 320
- Wang, Y.,Arandiyan, H.,Bartlett, S.,Trunschke, A.,Sun, H.,Scott, J.,Lee, A.,Wilson, K.,Maschmeyer, T.,Schlogl, R.,Amal, R. (2020). Inducing synergy in bimetallic RhNi catalysts for CO2 methanation by galvanic replacement In: Applied Catalysis B: Environmental, 277, 1 - 11
- Lippi, R.,D'Angelo, A.,Li, C.,Wilson, K.,Lee. A., et al, . (2020). (In Press) Unveiling the structural transitions during activation of a CO2 methanation catalyst Ru0/ZrO2 synthesised from a MOF precursor In: Catalysis Today, , 1 - 12
- Nallal, M.,Karthikeyan, S.,Park, K.,Sasaki, K.,Lee, A. (2020). Nanoscale Materials with Different Dimensions for Advanced Electrocatalysts In: Nanomaterials for Sustainable Energy and Environmental Remediation, Elsevier, Netherlands
- Baharudin, K.,Arumugam, M.,Hunns, J.,Lee, A.,Mayes, E.,Taufiq-Yap, Y.,Wilson, K.,Derawi, D. (2019). Octanoic acid hydrodeoxygenation over bifunctional Ni/Al-SBA-15 catalysts In: Catalysis Science and Technology, 9, 6673 - 6680
- Elimbinzi, E.,Nyandoro, S.,Mubofu, E.,Manayil, J.,Lee, A.,Wilson, K. (2019). Valorization of rice husk silica waste: Organo-amine functionalized castor oil templated mesoporous silicas for biofuels synthesis In: Microporous and Mesoporous Materials, 294, 1 - 7
Catalysis, Green Chemistry, Nanomaterials, Surface Science, Biofuels, Porous Solids, Synchrotron Radiation
3 PhD Current Supervisions
- Aus. Std. Diesel from mixed plastics: Maximising recovery from waste. Funded by: Cooperative Research Centre Project (CRC-P) - NOR from (2020 to 2023)
- Spatially orthogonal multifunctional materials for catalytic cascades. Funded by: ARC Discovery Projects 2020 from (2020 to 2023)
- Bimetallic catalysts knowledge-based development for energy applications (BIKE) led by Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche, Italy. Funded by: Horizon 2020 Marie Sklodowska Curie Actions Innovative Training Networks from (2019 to 2021)