{"id":296,"date":"2017-02-24T10:00:05","date_gmt":"2017-02-24T10:00:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.mub.eps.manchester.ac.uk\/ceasblog\/?p=296"},"modified":"2018-06-14T16:18:12","modified_gmt":"2018-06-14T15:18:12","slug":"chemengcatchup-episode-14-dr-philip-martin","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.mub.eps.manchester.ac.uk\/ceasblog\/2017\/02\/24\/chemengcatchup-episode-14-dr-philip-martin\/","title":{"rendered":"#ChemEngCatchUp Episode 14 – Dr Philip Martin"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Philip
Philip on a recent ski trip<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Hello everyone. Thanks for joining us. Episode 14 of #ChemEngCatchUp<\/a> is with us and we\u2019re with Dr Philip Martin, who was recommended to me as an interviewee by none other than our Head of School Chris Hardacre<\/a>. I went along to meet Phil and found out that he\u2019s working on some fascinating and important research. Learn more below:<\/p>\n

Hi Phil. Thanks for joining us. Can I ask you to describe your research, for the layman, in ten sentences or less?<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Well most chemical systems consist of what can be considered as a \u2018black box\u2019 or a series of \u2018black boxes\u2019, for example a chemical reactor or a mixing system or something like that. So in general we know what goes into the black box and we know what comes out of it, but what we\u2019re interested in is looking inside that black box, seeing what\u2019s in there, and how it works.<\/p>\n

So if we find out how things work, then we can try and improve the processes, design new ones, make better products, and minimise energy use. We want to look at what chemical species are in there, how fast they\u2019re reacting, how they\u2019re distributed, and things like that.<\/p>\n

The tools we like to use are tools of light, so things like lasers for example. To probe the systems in there. One particular example is in plasma processing. So most people might understand plasmas, or have come across plasmas through lightning or the aurora, or even through plasma screen televisions. We\u2019re using plasmas as a way of promoting certain processes, such as removing waste gases and that sort of thing. Or using plasmas to put new coatings down for new processes.<\/p>\n

So it\u2019s a wide range of different things, but we’re looking at improving chemical processes using sensing, using spectroscopy, to understand and develop these processes.<\/p>\n

And how can your research benefit the public?<\/strong><\/h3>\n