Overview: Our goal in the Forse group is to understand and improve materials that can reduce greenhouse gas emissions and tackle the climate change crisis. Limiting global warming to 1.5 ºC requires the rapid development and deployment of a range of greenhouse gas mitigation technologies. In the Forse group we explore the functional behaviour of new materials for CO2 capture and electrochemical energy storage. We specialise in the application of nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy techniques that are complemented by synthetic chemistry, electrochemistry and computational chemistry.
Group News:
April 2025: Welcome to our visiting student Monica Giovannucci, who is visiting from Bologna, and welcome back to Dr Abdullah Khan (Quaid-i-Azam University, Islamabad Pakistan). Congratulations to Grace Mapstone for passing her PhD viva!
March 2025: Welcome to Malina Seyffertitz, a new postdoc in the group whose project will focus on developing a better and mechanistic understanding of Supercapacitive Swing Adsorption (SSA) for electrochemical CO₂ capture.
December 2024: We welcome Yongqianq Wang as a new postdoc in the group working on the scale-up of our hydroxide-based CO2 sorbents.
November 2024: We have two open PhD studentships for October 2025 start - see here.
October 2024: Welcome to new group members Ian and Cerys (PhD students), Cameron (MPhil student), and Amelia and Matthew (Part III project students)!
August 2024: We have open post-doc position on electrochemical CO2 capture - (update - now closed)
July 2024: Congratulations to Xinyu who received the Sheelagh Campbell award from the Royal Society of Chemistry for her work on disorder-driven capacitance.
June 2024: Many congratulations to Alex for his promotion to 'Professor of Materials Chemistry' within the department! Alex was also recently awarded the Varian Young Investigator Award for Magnetic Resonance.
May 2024: We welcome our summer students and visitors: Louise, Davide, Selina, Julia, Cole, Alex, Kepler, and Helena, who will be working on a range of projects in the group over the summer.
April 2024: Our work on disorder-driven capacitance is published in Science. Read more here.
February 2024: Welcome to Dr Abdullah Khan (Quaid-i-Azam University, Islamabad Pakistan) and Louise Adelard (ENS, Paris), who are both visiting the group.
January 2024: We welcome Dr Henry Enninful who joins us as a DAAD Prime Fellow, and will be working on NMR studies of porous carbon supercapacitors with Xinyu and Thomas.
November 2023: Our new group sustainability policy has now been established - check it out at the bottom of this page!
October 2023: Welcome back to Zugus who joins the group for a PhD on energy storage in supercapacitors! We also welcome Part III students Helena and Kepler! This month our ERC starting grant on MOF-based supercapacitors starts, and we are delighted to welcome to Dr Thomas Kress as a post-doc on this project.
September 2023: Group away day to Wroxham in the Norfolk Broads! How many chemists does it take to drive a boat...?
Congratulations to Niamh and Emma for their prizes for the best talk and the runner-up best talk at the Materials Showcase (and to Ben for winning the best poster!).
August 2023: We welcome our new post-doc Anouk, who joins the group working on continues development of the charged-sorbents.
July 2023: We welcome our three summer project students - Dhruv, Rahsaan and Hari to the group.
June 2023: We have an open post-doc position available for solid-state NMR of metal organic frameworks for energy storage applications - (applications closed)
April 2023: Congratulations to Chloe on receiving the Vice Chancellor’s Award for Social Impact in Sustainability in 2023!
Congratulations for Zugus for passing her MPhil viva! We very much look forward to welcoming her back to start her PhD with us in September!
March 2023: We say farewell to you three Part III students: Tristan, Samuel and James, who have come to the end of their Master's projects. We wish you all the best for the future (and with writing up!).
February 2023: We have a post-doc position available for adsorbent synthesis for CO2 capture - click here for details (applications closed)
December 2022: Congratulations to Astrid and Suzi (x2!) for their recently accepted papers on: Revealing carbon capture chemistry with 17O NMR and NMR studies on carbon dioxide capture
October 2022: Welcome to our new Part III students James, Sam and Tristan!
October 2022: We welcome back Jack and Xinyu who are rejoin the group, along with Zeke who start their PhDs with the group. Jack will be continuing his Master's work on electrochemical CO2 capture materials, as will Xinyu, investigating ion adsorption in supercapacitor materials and Zeke will be starting a new mechanistic project investigating electrochemical CO2 capture.
August 2022: Congratulations to Xinyu for successfully passing her MPhil viva! We very much look forward to welcoming her back into the group for her PhD starting in October.
July 2022: Congratulations to Jamie and Chloe for their new paper on supercapacitor MOFs.
April 2022: Welcome to new members of the group Dr Zhen Xu who join as a postdoctoral researcher, and MPhil students Zugus Trisukhon and William Xu. Zhen and William who will be working on electrochemical CO2 capture, and Zugus will be working on new adsorbents for CO2 capture.
February 2022: Welcome to James Steele, who joins us as for mini project as part of the Nano DTC, and will be using NMR to study the photodegradation of perovskites used in solar cells.
January 2022: Welcome to new PhD student Ben Rhodes, who will be working with Shivani researching functionalized metal-organic frameworks for CO2 capture.
November 2021: We have a post-doc position available for electrochemists to work on electrochemical carbon dioxide capture! Click here for details and to apply. - position now filled.
October 2021: Welcome to new Part III students Jack and Cavan, MPhil student Xinyu, exchange student Inez, post-doctoral researcher Dr Shivani Sharma and Chloe, who rejoins the group for her PhD. Jack will be investigating electrochemical CO2 capture, Cavan is studying direct air capture CO2 adsorbents, Xinyu is investigating ion adsorption in supercapacitor materials, Inez is exploring conductive metal-organic frameworks, Shivani will work on functionalized metal-organic frameworks for CO2 capture and Chloe is studying metal-organic framework based supercapacitors.
September 2021: Welcome back to NanoDTC student Grace who will be continuing Trevor's work on electrochemical methods for energy-efficient carbon dioxide capture for her PhD.
August 2021: Congratulations to Trevor Binford for passing his MPhil viva! He will continue his studies at the University of Oxford working on Li-ion batteries for his PhD
July 2021: Welcome to summer undergraduate students Jack, Rehan, Astrid and Anna!
May 2021: We have an open Leverhulme Trust funded post-doc position on MOF synthesis and CO2 capture (position now closed).
May 2021: Welcome to Grace Mapstone, who joins us from the NanoDTC. Grace will be working with us on new materials for supercapacitors and electrochemical separations.
April 2021: Welcome to Dr Huaiguang Li, who joins us as a post-doctoral researcher from Prof. Nicolas Plumeré's group. Huaiguang is working on the electrochemical synthesis of new adsorbent materials.
February 2021: Welcome to Marion Short, who joins us as for mini project as part of the Nano DTC. Marion will be working on MOF synthesis and NMR studies of carbon capture.
January 2021: Welcome to Dr Suzi Pugh, who joins us as a post-doctoral researcher from Prof. Sharon Ashbrook's group. Suzi will work on NMR spectroscopy studies of electrochemical separations.
November 2020: We are now hiring for a post-doc on electrochemical synthesis of new materials for CO2 capture – update: position now closed.
October 2020: Alex has been awarded a Future Leaders Fellowship on electrochemical carbon dioxide capture, read more here. Alex has also been awarded the 2020 NMR-DG prize for excellent contributions to magnetic resonance.