M Thomas

Biography

Thomas designed, synthesized and characterized numerous new heterogeneous catalysts including modified clays and other aluminosilicates, complex oxides and metallic alloys of colloidal dimension. He has also developed and adapted a wide range of techniques for the study of solids and their surfaces and, in so doing, has discovered several new structural types and solved some hitherto intractable structures. His work has led to advances in the science and technology of zeolites, clays and their new analogues as adsorbents and catalysts. From his use of high-resolution electron microscopy, electron energy loss diffraction and (very recently) combined in-situ, time-resolved X-ray absorption and X-ray diffraction has come a deeper understanding of the internal structure and properties of numerous classes of solids, especially zeolites and microporous metal aluminophosphates. Has recently produced extensive ranges of new microporous and layered solids possessing unusual properties. In particular, has designed and delivered several novel microcrystalline acid catalysts and has evolved new methods, combining high-resolution electron microscopy, electron diffraction and computational techniques, for solving their structures. His early work demonstrated the manner in which the surface and bulk chemistry of crystals, especially of graphite, other layered minerals and of molecular solids, is influenced by structural imperfections, notably dislocations. He developed topo-chemical principles and used them to design organic monomeric crystals that are convertible, by difusionless reaction, into single crystal oligomers and polymers. He produced the first band-structure calculation of the archetypal one dimensional solid polysulpur nitride and computed structures of several new phases of organic crystals and of molecular detail at planar faults in these solids. He was also the first to employ angle-resolved photoemission studies for the exploration of band structures and to demonstrate that X-ray photoemission could detect submonolayer chemisorbed species and among the first to use X-ray photoelectron diffraction for the structural elucidation of complex solids.

Research Interest

Solid State, Catalysis, Surfaces, Materials Science