Projects per year
Personal profile
Personal profile
Dr. John Dennis joined the department of Chemistry at XJTLU in October 2022. Immediately before this he worked as Professor at Zhejiang University for two years, being brought to China via a High-Level Foreign Expert Award from the Zhejiang Province 1000 Talent Plan in 2020. He gained his D.Phil. from the University of Sussex in 1993 under the supervision Harry Kroto. After publishing some 30 papers in 3 years as a graduate student (including three in Nature), all his postdoctoral Research was conducted under internationally-competitive personal research fellowships (from the Australian Research Council, The Japan Society for the Promotion of Science and the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation). He gained tenure at Queen Mary University of London in the Department of Chemistry in 1999 and transferred to the Physics Department at the same institution with a promotion to a professorial position in 2005.
Research interests
The application is isomer-pure fullerene derivatives to organic electronics: This includes the purification and spectroscopic characterisation of all 19 structural isomers of OPV electron acceptor material bisPCBM (this included the separation of bis-PCBM’s 13 chiral isomers into their enantiomer pairs – 32 species of bisPCBM in total). Applications include organic photo-voltaics (OPVs), organic light emitting diodes (OLEDs) and organic field effect transistors (OFETs). The wide-ranging subtle effects of addend position and relative orientations on device performance are being investigated. We are also investigating their application in surface passivation, carrier extraction, carrier transport mediums in hybrid organic-inorganic perovskite-based electronics (both p-type and n-type materials depending on isomer characteristics).
Quantum information processing: The ESR of the nitrogen-containing endohedral fullerene iNC60 has hyperfine lines at least two orders of magnitude narrower then any other known radical, making it a possible qubit candidate for quantum computation. Having recently performed the first (and still only) isolation of iNC60, I intend to systematically investigate the potential of nitrogen- and phosphorous-containing incar-fullerenes, as dimers as novel building-block materials for electron spin-based scalable solid-state quantum computation.
Endohedral fullerenes as contrast agents for MRI: Gadolinium-containing endohedral fullerenes are promising species for contrast enhancement in MRI, these species have several advantages over conventional agents. The incarcerated highly toxic Gd3+ ion is severely sterically hindered to dissociation, and they are about 20 times as effective, thus are required in much smaller doses. We, in collaboration with researchers at the Institute of Chemistry at the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Beijing are currently investigating functionalisation of these species to make them water-soluble and specific tissue targeting. For example, we have recently produced bone-targeting Gd-based endohedral fullerenes.
Carbon peapods: By encapsulating metal element containing endohedral fullerenes within carbon nanotubes tube, the band gap tubes can be narrowed (at the points corresponding to the positions of the endohedral fullerene). Preliminary results indicate these carbon peapods can be p-type, n-type, or am-bipolar, depending on the encapsulated atom. The effects of the encapsulated atom on the electronic transport of the fullerene is investigated.
Temperature-dependent structural studies: through NMR spectroscopy (molecular and dynamical) and XRD (crystal). Temperature-dependant vibrational studies via FTIR and FT-Raman.
Experience
Professor, Department of Chemistry, XJTLU, 2022-present
Professor, Department of Polymer Science and Engineering, Zhejiang University, 2020-2022
Professor in molecular nanostructured materials, Department of Physics, Queen Mary, University of London. 2006-2020
Senior Lecturer in Chemistry, Department of Chemistry, Queen Mary, University of London 1999-2006
Humboldt Research Fellow (Alexander von Humboldt Foundation) Hahn Meitner Institute-Berlin, 1998-1999
Postdoctoral Research Fellowship to Foreign Researchers (Japan Society for the Promotion of Science), Department of Chemistry, Nagoya University, 1996-1998
Australian Postdoctoral Reseach Fellowship (Australian Research Council). University of New South Wales, 1994-1996
Postdoctoral Reseach Assistant. Department of Applied Physics, University of Sydney, 1993
Teaching
CHE 421 Computational Materials Science
CHE317 Introduction to molecular modelling.
Awards and honours
High-Level Foreign Expert Award (Zhejiang Province Thousand Talents Plan) 2018.
Research Fellowship (Alexander von Humboldt Foundation) 1998
Postdoctoral Research Fellowship to Foreign Researchers (Japan Society for the Promotion of Science) 1996
Australian Postdoctoral Research Fellowship (Australian Research Council) 1994
Expertise related to UN Sustainable Development Goals
In 2015, UN member states agreed to 17 global Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to end poverty, protect the planet and ensure prosperity for all. This person’s work contributes towards the following SDG(s):
Education/Academic qualification
PG.Cert. Academic Practice, Queen Mary, University of London 2002.
D.Phil. Chemistry (Supervsior H.W. Kroto), University of Sussex, 1993
M.Sc., Chemical Physics, University of Sussex, 1990
B.Sc. (hons) Chemical Physics, University of Sussex, 1989
Person Types
- Staff
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Collaborations and top research areas from the last five years
Projects
- 2 Active
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Suzhou Industrial Park High Quality Innovation Platform of Functional Molecular Materials and Devices
Yang, L., Liu, C., Lu, Q., Papadikis, K., Choi, H., Lin, Y., Xue, X., Huang, X., Ding, M., Wang, X., Zhang, Q., JIN, X., Matziari, M., Ding, L., Li, D., Dennis, J., Dong, Q., 张开周, 由冬琦 & 郜明文
1/09/23 → 30/08/25
Project: Governmental Research Project
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Structure-Property Relationships for the Electronic Applications of Bis-Adduct Isomers of Phenyl-C61 Butyric Acid Methyl Ester
Hou, X., Coker, J. F., Yan, J., Shi, X., Azzouzi, M., Eisner, F. D., McGettrick, J. D., Tuladhar, S. M., Abrahams, I., Frost, J. M., Li, Z., Dennis, T. J. S. & Nelson, J., 9 Jan 2024, In: Chemistry of Materials. 36, 1, p. 425-438 14 p.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
Open Access -
Relationship between molecular properties and degradation mechanisms of organic solar cells based on bis-adducts of phenyl-C61 butyric acid methyl ester
Hou, X., Clarke, A. J., Azzouzi, M., Yan, J., Eisner, F., Shi, X., Wyatt, M. F., Dennis, T. J. S., Li, Z. & Nelson, J., 25 Apr 2022, In: Journal of Materials Chemistry C. 10, 20, p. 7875-7885 11 p.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
Open Access2 Citations (Scopus) -
Characterization of the fullerene derivative [60]PCBM, by high-field carbon, and two-dimensional NMR spectroscopy, coupled with DFT simulations
Liu, T., Misquitta, A. J., Abrahams, I. & Dennis, T. J. S., Mar 2021, In: Carbon. 173, p. 891-900 10 p.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
Open Access3 Citations (Scopus) -
Conformational Analysis of [60]PCBM from DFT Simulations of Electronic Energies, Bond Strain and the 13C NMR Spectrum:Input Geometry Determination and Ester Bond Rotation Dynamics
Dennis, T. J. S. & Liu, T., 21 Sept 2021, In: C - Journal of Carbon Research. 7, p. 1 13 p., 66.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
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Fullerene Desymmetrization as a Means to Achieve Single-Enantiomer Electron Acceptors with Maximized Chiroptical Responsiveness
Shi, W., Salerno, F., Ward, M. D., Santana-Bonilla, A., Wade, J., Hou, X., Liu, T., Dennis, T. J. S., Campbell, A. J., Jelfs, K. E. & Fuchter, M. J., 7 Jan 2021, In: Advanced Materials. 33, 1, 2004115.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
Open Access37 Citations (Scopus)