GROUP MEMBERS
Prof. Werner E. van Zyl
BSc(Hons), MSc (RAU), PhD (Texas A&M)
Group Leader
Research Focus:
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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
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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.
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Other Research Interests:
Gold Complexes, Solar Cells and biomaterials.
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Dr. Tunde Lewis Yusuf
BSc (Hons) (Ilorin, Nigeria), MSc (UI, Nigeria) PhD(UKZN)
Project
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Molecular synthesis and their application as a photocatalyst
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Other research interests
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Nanoclusters, dithiophosphonate
ligands, X-Ray crystallography
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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.
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Energy storage devices, based on supercapacitor and battery development.
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Other research interests
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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.
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Other research interests
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Synthesis and characterisation of novel dithiophosphinate compounds. Determination of their crystal structures and anti-bacterial properties.
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