Index | The Grey Group

The Grey group studies the nature of solid state materials by nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR), X-ray and Neutron scattering, electron microscopy and computational calculations. The materials we investigate have applications in supercapacitors, fuel cells, and batteries.

Our current research projects are described here and a full list of publications is available here. We currently have 49 group members including 3 Master students, 22 PhD students (11 students being co-supervised) and 21 Post-Doctoral researchers all listed here. The group is very dynamic and also very international with almost 20 nationalities represented.

Recent News:

Welcome to our Academic visitor, Habibat Chahul who joined the group in December for a three-month collaborative research visit to the Grey group to study Organic Redox Flow Batteries. She is an Associate Professor of Physical Chemistry in the Department of Chemistry, Federal University of Agriculture Makurdi, Nigeria. Her research interests are in the fields of corrosion, materials for electrochemical energy storage devices and sensors. She is a member of the Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC), American Chemical Society (ACS), Organization for Women in Science in a Developing World (OWSD), Chemical Society of Nigeria (CSN) and the Institute of Chartered Chemists of Nigeria (ICCON).

Welcome to our new Post-Doc Sam Niblett who joined the group in November.

Welcome to our new Part III students Alexa Alexiu, Melissa Chinn, Jiasi Li, George Phillips,Tim Sherman and Guanlan (Connie) Zhao.

Welcome to our new PhD Student Astrid Berge who joined the group in October.

Welcome to our new Research Assistant Megan Penrod who joined the group from the USA in August. Megan will also be supporting the Faraday Institution Degradation Project.

Welcome to our new Post-Doc Gabriela Horwitz who joined the group in June from the University of Buenos Aires. She will also be working with Prof. Andrea Ferrari (Graphene Centre).

Congratulations to Clare Grey on winning the Körber European Science Prize! This is in recognition of her work on the optimisation of batteries with the help of NMR spectroscopy. Read more here and here.

The Faraday degradation project has just launched their new website.

Since June, thanks to funding from the ERC, the Grey group is now the proud owner of a 400 MHz DNP with a Klystron microwave source.

Welcome to our new Post-Doc Zhengyan Lun who joined the group in May.

Welcome to our new Post-Docs, Hrishit Banerjee and Rowena Brugge who joined the group in April.

Congratulations to Dr. Anna Gunnarsdóttir who successfully defended her PhD viva!

Congratulations to Dr. Evan Wenbo Zhao and Dr. Chao Xu who have been awarded the STFC Experimental Design Award to develop new in situ characterization methods for studying redox flow batteries.

Related Publications

Transition Metal Dissolution and Degradation in NMC811-Graphite Electrochemical Cells

Z Ruff, C Xu, CP Grey – Journal of The Electrochemical Society (2021) 168, 060518

(DOI: 10.1149/1945-7111/ac0359)

Operando optical tracking of single-particle ion dynamics in batteries

AJ Merryweather, C Schnedermann, Q Jacquet, CP Grey, A Rao – Nature (2021) 594, 522

(DOI: 10.1038/s41586-021-03584-2)

Structural Origins of Voltage Hysteresis in the Na-Ion Cathode P2-Na0.67[Mg0.28Mn0.72]O2: A Combined Spectroscopic and Density Functional Theory Study.

EN Bassey, PJ Reeves, MA Jones, J Lee, ID Seymour, G Cibin, CP Grey – Chemistry of materials : a publication of the American Chemical Society (2021) 33, 4890

(DOI: 10.1021/acs.chemmater.1c00248)

Combined High-Resolution Solid-State ¹H/¹³C NMR Spectroscopy and ¹H NMR Relaxometry for the Characterization of Kerogen Thermal Maturation

F Panattoni, J Mitchell, EJ Fordham, R Kausik, CP Grey, PCMM Magusin – Energy & Fuels (2020) 35, 1070

(DOI: 10.1021/acs.energyfuels.0c02713)

A Magic Angle Spinning Activated ¹⁷O DNP Raser.

MA Hope, S Björgvinsdóttir, CP Grey, L Emsley – J Phys Chem Lett (2020) 12, 345

(DOI: 10.1021/acs.jpclett.0c03457)

Titanium Niobium Oxide: From Discovery to Application in Fast-Charging Lithium-Ion Batteries

KJ Griffith, Y Harada, S Egusa, RM Ribas, RS Monteiro, RB Von Dreele, AK Cheetham, RJ Cava, CP Grey, JB Goodenough – Chemistry of Materials (2020) 33, 4

(DOI: 10.1021/acs.chemmater.0c02955)

Bulk and Surface Chemistry of the Niobium MAX and MXene Phases from Multinuclear Solid-State NMR Spectroscopy

KJ Griffith, MA Hope, PJ Reeves, M Anayee, Y Gogotsi, CP Grey – J Am Chem Soc (2020) 142, 18924

(DOI: 10.1021/jacs.0c09044)

Operando NMR of NMC811/Graphite Lithium-Ion Batteries: Structure, Dynamics, and Lithium Metal Deposition

K Märker, C Xu, CP Grey – ECS Meeting Abstracts (2020) MA2020-02, 3172

(DOI: 10.1149/ma2020-02623172mtgabs)

Revealing the Structure and Oxygen Transport at Interfaces in Complex Oxide Heterostructures via ¹⁷O NMR Spectroscopy.

MA Hope, B Zhang, B Zhu, DM Halat, JL MacManus-Driscoll, CP Grey – Chemistry of materials : a publication of the American Chemical Society (2020) 32, 7921

(DOI: 10.1021/acs.chemmater.0c02698)

Bulk fatigue induced by surface reconstruction in layered Ni-rich cathodes for Li-ion batteries.

C Xu, K Märker, J Lee, A Mahadevegowda, PJ Reeves, SJ Day, MF Groh, SP Emge, C Ducati, B Layla Mehdi, CC Tang, CP Grey – Nature materials (2020) 20, 84

(DOI: 10.1038/s41563-020-0767-8)

Electrolyte Oxidation Pathways in Lithium-Ion Batteries

BLD Rinkel, DS Hall, I Temprano, CP Grey – Journal of the American Chemical Society (2020) 142, 15058

(DOI: 10.1021/jacs.0c06363)

Local Structure and Dynamics in Methylammonium, Formamidinium, and Cesium Tin(II) Mixed-Halide Perovskites from 119Sn Solid-State NMR

DJ Kubicki, D Prochowicz, E Salager, A Rakhmatullin, CP Grey, L Emsley, SD Stranks – Journal of the American Chemical Society (2020) 142, 7813

(DOI: 10.1021/jacs.0c00647)