GROUP MEMBERS
Prof. Werner E. van Zyl
BSc(Hons), MSc (RAU), PhD (Texas A&M)
Group Leader
Research Focus:
Water:
Desalination, membrane capacitive
deionisation, redox active
electrodes and reverse
osmosis processes
Energy:
i) transparent and flexible
solar cells and
ii) hydrogen and CO2
generation, storage, conversion use
Biomass:
Conversion and fabrication
-cellulose, nanocellulose, lignin and sugarcane
Dr. Michael N. Pillay
BSc, BSc (Hons), MSc, PhD (UKZN)
Post Doctoral Fellow
Research Focus:
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Development of analytical methods for the characterisation of materials.
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Synthesis of luminescent active molecules as precursors to optical and transmittive devices.
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Coinage metal cluster chemistry
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Luminescence and OLED materials.
Other Research Interests:
Gold Complexes, Solar Cells and biomaterials.
Dr. Tunde Lewis Yusuf
BSc (Hons) (Ilorin, Nigeria), MSc (UI, Nigeria) PhD(UKZN)
Project
Molecular synthesis and their application as a photocatalyst
Other research interests
Nanoclusters, dithiophosphonate
ligands, X-Ray crystallography
Erick Bakare
BSc (Hons) (CUL, Nigeria), MSc (UI, Nigeria)
PhD Candidate
Project
Light harvesting properties of transition metal(II) phthalocyanine complexes and their application in transparent solar cells.
Energy storage devices, based on supercapacitor and battery development.
Other research interests
Metal(II) complexes of Schiff bases of anthranilic acid for anti-microbial applications
Emmanuel Mkumbuzi
BSc, BSc (Hons) (NUST-ZIM), MSc (UKZN)
PhD Candidate
Project
Synthesis of carbon fibres from renewable resources, especially lignin.
Other research interests
Synthesis and characterisation of novel dithiophosphinate compounds. Determination of their crystal structures and anti-bacterial properties.
