STAFF PROFILE
Professor Adam Lee
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
- Alharthi, F.,Cheng, F.,Verrelli, E.,Kemp, N.,Lee, A.,Isaacs, M.,O'Neill, M.,Kelly, S. (2018). Solution-processable, niobium-doped titanium oxide nanorods for application in low-voltage, large-area electronic devices In: Journal of Materials Chemistry C, 6, 1038 - 1047
- Rabee, A.,Durndell, L.,Fouad, N.,Frattini, L.,Isaacs, M.,Lee, A.,Mekhemer, G.,dos Santos, V.,Wilson, K.,Zaki, M. (2018). (In Press) Citrate-mediated sol-gel synthesis of Al-substituted sulfated zirconia catalysts for a-pinene isomerization In: Molecular Catalysis, , 1 - 8
- Kumar, S.,Durndell, L.,Manayil, J.,Isaacs, M.,Parlett, C.,Karthikeyan, S.,Douthwaite, R.,Coulson, B.,Wilson, K.,Lee, A. (2018). Delaminated CoAl-layered double hydroxide@TiO2 heterojunction nanocomposites for photocatalytic reduction of CO2 In: Particle and Particle Systems Characterization, 35, 1 - 11
- Berenguer, A.,Bennett, J.,Hunns, J.,Moreno, I.,Coronado, J.,Lee, A.,Pizarro, P.,Wilson, K.,Serrano, D. (2018). Catalytic hydrodeoxygenation of m-cresol over Ni2P/hierarchical ZSM-5 In: Catalysis Today, 304, 72 - 79
- Gardy, J.,Osatiashtiani, A.,Cespedes, O.,Hassanpour, A.,Lai, X.,Lee, A.,Wilson, K.,Rehan, M. (2018). A magnetically separable SO4/Fe-Al-TiO(2 )solid acid catalyst for biodiesel production from waste cooking oil In: Applied Catalysis B: Environmental, 234, 268 - 278
- Kumar, S.,Karthikeyan, S.,Lee, A. (2018). g-C3N4-Based Nanomaterials for Visible Light-Driven Photocatalysis In: Catalysts, 8, 1 - 47
- Tai, Z.,Isaacs, M.,Durndell, L.,Parlett, C.,Lee, A.,Wilson, K. (2018). Magnetically-separable Fe3O4@SiO2@SO4-ZrO2 core-shell nanoparticle catalysts for propanoic acid esterification In: Molecular Catalysis, 449, 137 - 141
- Rabee, A.,Manayil, J.,Isaacs, M.,Parlett, C.,Durndell, L.,Zaki, M.,Lee, A.,Wilson, K. (2018). On the impact of the preparation method on the surface basicity of Mg-Zr mixed oxide catalysts for tributyrin transesterification In: Catalysts, 8, 1 - 14
- Pirez, C.,Morin, J.,Manayil, J.,Lee, A.,Wilson, K. (2018). Sol-gel synthesis of SBA-15: Impact of HCl on surface chemistry In: Microporous and Mesoporous Materials, 271, 196 - 202
- Jahangiri, H.,Osatiashtiani, A.,Bennett, J.,Isaacs, M.,Gu, S.,Lee, A.,Wilson, K. (2018). Zirconia catalysed acetic acid ketonisation for pre-treatment of biomass fast pyrolysis vapours In: Catalysis Science and Technology, 8, 1134 - 1141