New Materials for a Sustainable Energy Future: linking computation with experiment

A  £1,243,000  Royal Society-DFID sponsored collaborative research and training initiative that will address specifically two related project areas:             (i) development of novel catalysts for the conversion of biomass to fuel and/or chemical feedstock; and (ii) design of optimized conducting polymers for efficient solar energy applications. The consortium is made up of Professor Nora de Leeuw of the University College London/Cardiff University UK, Professor Wendimagegn Mammo Deneke of the Addis Ababa University in Ethiopia and Professor Olayinka Oyetunji of the University of Botswana.

Molecular Modelling for Energy Efficiency

A £150, 000.00 Leverhulme - Royal Society sponsored collaborative research and training partnering researchers at the University College London to carry out research in Materials Modeling.

These collaborative projects are expected to train a number of Ph.D. and M.Phil. Students’ in Computer-aided material design for renewable energy application. Under the RS-Leverhulme one Ph.D. and two M.Phil.s have already graduated and two other Ph.D.s will graduate by November this year.

The Teaching and Learning Innovation Fund (TALIF) project KNUSTR/3/008/2005 had the following objectives:

Establishment of a state-of-the-art molecular modeling facility to:

1. Strengthen the high-end research component of the KNUST curriculum, help train postgraduate students at the M.Phil. and Ph.D. levels locally and also retain them for the development of Ghana.
2. Enable molecular scientists working locally to be integrated and function in the dynamic global molecular science community.
3. Enhance teaching, learning, and research in molecular science by providing a tool for creating new ideas, investigating, visualizing, interpreting, and explaining observed experimental chemical phenomena – reaction pathways and molecular properties.
4. Provide cutting-edge molecular modeling tools that give valuable insight into properties of potentially plausible synthetic targets so necessary for efficient design of new products - capacity to select and synthesize potentially new compounds with pre-determined desired properties in shorter product-process development cycles.