Thomas Bennett

The group focuses on the synthesis and characterisation of novel hybrid materials. These range from ultra microporous crystalline frameworks, through to disordered materials and then onto glasses formed from hybrid materials such as MOFs and hybrid perovskites.

Our pioneering research into hybrid glasses, i.e. those containing both inorganic and organic components has in particular received much attention, given that these glasses lie outside of the inorganic, organic and metallic categories traditionally known. These have a wide array of multifunctional properties for use in e.g. thermoelectrics, gas separation, drug delivery and ion conduction. At the same time, they possess desirable characteristics from the glass domain, such as mechanical stability, processability and transparency.

Our work in creating such novel materials is underpinned by advanced characterisation methods such as Pair Distribution Function Analysis, which help us understand the structure of complex non-crystalline materials or composites.