Stuart Taylor

Biography

Professor Stuart Taylor obtained his BSc Hons in Chemistry from Brunel University in 1991 during this time he also completed 18 months of industrial placements with ExxonMobil, ICI and Shell. He moved to the University of Liverpool to study for his PhD at the Leverhulme Centre for Innovative Catalysis, focussing on the direct selective oxidation of methane to methanol, funded by the Gas Research Institute, Chicago. After obtaining his PhD he remained in Liverpool, first as a postdoc and latter as a Principal Scientist funded by BNFL. He was appointed to Cardiff University in October 1997, promoted to Senior Lecturer in 2007 and Reader in 2010. His research is based around heterogeneous catalysis, with a focus on oxidation, both for environmental applications and chemical production. He collaborates widely nationally and internationally with a number of research groups and research institutes. He also interacts extensively with industry; some examples of recent and current partners are ExxonMobil, Dow, Johnson Matthey, Jaguar Land Rover, Invista, General Motors, Sabic, Henkel and Sasol.

Research Interest

Some recent examples of environmental catalysis have focussed on the removal of Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs) from the atmosphere. Atmospheric VOCs, released from a wide variety of sources, have received considerable attention, since they have been implicated in ozone depletion and formation of photochemical smog. We have shown that the activity of supported palladium and platinum-based catalysts can be significantly enhanced for the destruction of a range of VOCs, by modification with component such as vanadium and niobium. High activity nanocrystalline metal oxides have been identified for the oxidation of alkane and polyaromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs). There are very few studies of the oxidation of PAHs and they can be particularly difficult to oxidise totally, and hence the identification of high activity catalysts is a significant discovery. Understanding the role of catalysts in total oxidation has also helped with the development of effective catalysts for selective oxidation.