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Yusuf Hamied Department of Chemistry

 

Dr Sam Cobb

Leverhulme Research Fellow

Research Interests

I am interested in developing new and better ways to turn waste such as CO2 into useful fuels using renewable energy to address the grand challenge of climate change. In particular, I am interested in using the best parts of nature such as enzymes which can perform these reaction with unprecedented efficiency in combination with state-of-the-art materials that can effectively transfer energy to enzymes to allow them to operate at their best.

I use a wide range of experimental and computational techniques such as electrochemistry, multiple spectroscopic techniques, quartz crystal microbalance measurements and finite element modelling to understand how to develop better systems. Enzymes immobilised on electrodes are highly complex systems, which exist in an environment that is very different to bulk solution that can help (but also hinder) the performance of these systems. Understanding this environment is not straightforward, with multiple factors affecting their response and therefore only by combining multiple techniques can we begin to understand how to improve their performance. Using these techniques we can develop new materials and methods to improve the interaction between enzymes and the electrode, and also optimise their local solution environment through nanoconfinement effects to make the system perform at its best.

Also, I am interested in using enzymes as a model system to inspire the next generation of synthetic catalysts. Nature has already found solutions for many of the current challenges we face, and by learning from how nature solved these problems we can improve the performance of synthetic systems. We can also understand problems that synthetic catalysts may face as they improve, approaching the performance of enzymes.

Affiliations

  • Junior Research Fellowship (Non-Stipendiary), Darwin College Cambridge
  • Honorary Research Fellow, University of Warwick, UK
  • NanoDTC Teaching Associate

Patents

1.Method for Forming Diamond Product Application number:GB2003310.6 Filed: 06/03/20

2. Electrochemical Sensor System Application number: GB1905172.1 Filed: 11/04/19

Based on: Enhancing Square Wave Voltammetry Measurements via Electrochemical Analysis of the Non-Faradaic Potential Window. Samuel J. Cobb and Julie V. Macpherson. Analytical Chemistry, 91, 12, 9345-9342. DOI: 10.1021/acs.analchem.9b01857

Awards and Prizes

Talk Prize-Midlands electrochemistry group 2017, Nottingham, UK, April 2017

PCCP Poster Prize- Faraday Joint Interest Conference, Warwick, UK, April 2017

Talk Prize- Bright Sparks Symposium, Warwick, UK, September 2016

 

Publications

Carboxysome-Inspired Electrocatalysis using Enzymes for the Reduction of CO2 at Low Concentrations**
SJ Cobb, AM Dharani, AR Oliveira, IAC Pereira, E Reisner
– Angewandte Chemie (International ed. in English)
(2023)
62,
e202218782
(doi: 10.1002/anie.202218782)
Bio-Electrocatalytic Conversion of Food Waste to Ethylene via Succinic Acid as the Central Intermediate.
CM Pichler, S Bhattacharjee, E Lam, L Su, A Collauto, MM Roessler, SJ Cobb, VM Badiani, M Rahaman, E Reisner
– ACS Catal
(2022)
12,
13360
(doi: 10.1021/acscatal.2c02689)
Carboxysome-inspired electrocatalysis using enzymes for the reduction of CO2 at low concentrations
S Cobb, A Dharani, AR Oliveira, I Pereira, E Reisner
(2022)
(doi: 10.26434/chemrxiv-2022-l9vp2)
Bio-Electrocatalytic Conversion of Food Waste to Ethylene via Succinic Acid as the Central Intermediate
CM Pichler, S Bhattacharjee, E Lam, L Su, A Collauto, MM Roessler, SJ Cobb, VM Badiani, M Rahaman, E Reisner
– ACS catalysis
(2022)
12,
13360
(doi: 10.1021/acscatal.2c02689)
Engineering Electro- and Photocatalytic Carbon Materials for CO2 Reduction by Formate Dehydrogenase
VM Badiani, C Casadevall, M Miller, SJ Cobb, RR Manuel, IAC Pereira, E Reisner
– Journal of the American Chemical Society
(2022)
144,
14207
(doi: 10.1021/jacs.2c04529)
Fast CO2 hydration kinetics impair heterogeneous but improve enzymatic CO2 reduction catalysis.
SJ Cobb, VM Badiani, AM Dharani, A Wagner, S Zacarias, AR Oliveira, IAC Pereira, E Reisner
– Nat Chem
(2022)
14,
417
(doi: 10.1038/s41557-021-00880-2)
Elucidating Film Loss and the Role of Hydrogen Bonding of Adsorbed Redox Enzymes by Electrochemical Quartz Crystal Microbalance Analysis.
VM Badiani, SJ Cobb, A Wagner, AR Oliveira, S Zacarias, IAC Pereira, E Reisner
– ACS Catal
(2022)
12,
1886
(doi: 10.1021/acscatal.1c04317)
Understanding the Local Chemical Environment of Bioelectrocatalysis
E Edwardes Moore, S Cobb, AM Coito, AR Oliveira, I Pereira, E Reisner
– Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
(2022)
119,
ARTN e2118574119
(doi: 10.33774/chemrxiv-2021-vnk07)
Understanding the local chemical environment of bioelectrocatalysis
E Edwardes Moore, SJ Cobb, AM Coito, AR Oliveira, IAC Pereira, E Reisner
– Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A
(2022)
119,
e2114097119
(doi: 10.1073/pnas.2114097119)
Ultrafast transient absorption spectroelectrochemistry: femtosecond to nanosecond excited-state relaxation dynamics of the individual components of an anthraquinone redox couple
S Goia, MAP Turner, JM Woolley, MD Horbury, AJ Borrill, JJ Tully, SJ Cobb, M Staniforth, NDM Hine, A Burriss, JV Macpherson, BR Robinson, VG Stavros
– Chem Sci
(2021)
13,
486
(doi: 10.1039/d1sc04993c)
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Research Group

Telephone number

01223 336396 (shared)

Email address

sc2201@cam.ac.uk

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