About us

A collaboration between Professor Vala Ragnarsdottir (Earth Sciences), Dr Terence McMaster and Professor Walther Schwarzacher (Physics), and Professor Geoffrey Allen and Dr Keith Hallam (Interface Analysis Centre) has been awarded funding for training a number of PhD students via the Marie Curie Early Stage Training (MC-EST) scheme of the European Commission.

The programme, which is aimed at 3rd cycle doctoral level training, is entitled Mineral Surface Science for Nanotechnology, or MISSION for short, and is applying a multi-disciplinary approach to the investigation of organic and biogenic molecules on mineral surfaces. Particular attention is being devoted to the following themes

• Mechanisms of biomolecule adsorption to surfaces
• Elucidation of mineral surface properties
• Non-invasive investigation of mineral surfaces and new insights from novel and emerging techniques
• Magnetic nanoparticle adsorption on mineral surfaces

We are using the wide range of analytical techniques available in Bristol

• Surface potentiometry
• Film deposition
• Atomic force microscopy (AFM)
• X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS)
• Raman spectroscopy
• Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR)
• X-ray diffraction (XRD)
• Scanning electron microscopy/energy dispersive x-ray analysis (SEM/EDX)
• Environmental scanning electron microscopy (ESEM)
• Transmission electron microscopy (TEM)
• Secondary ion mass spectrometry (SIMS)
• New developments in ultra high speed AFM and non-contact AFM

Together, these are giving the EST researchers specific scientific and technological competencies in nanoscale surface research.