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Professor Daniel Slocombe
Director of Research
- Available for postgraduate supervision
Overview
Professor Daniel R. Slocombe BEng PhD FHEA is Director of Research at Cardiff University School of Engineering. He carries out interdisciplinary research in engineering and chemistry, with a focus upon electromagnetics and materials.
He was the recipient of the Philip Leverhulme Prize in 2022 for his pioneering work demonstrating the use of microwave fields in innovative new applications related to decarbonisation, energy and environmental science.
CHFE website: https://www.cardiff.ac.uk/research/explore/research-units/centre-for-high-frequency-engineering
Publication
2025
- Singh, B., Hefford, S., Sanchez-Perez, E., Barter, M., Slocombe, D. R., Cussen, S. A. and Dimitrakis, G. 2025. A novel method for fast and efficient numerical simulation of microwave heating in liquids during mixing. International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer 237, pp. 126425. (10.1016/j.ijheatmasstransfer.2024.126425)
2024
- Sun, J., Hayward, J. S., Barter, M., Slocombe, D. R. and Bartley, J. K. 2024. Designing heterogeneous catalysts for microwave assisted selective oxygenation. ChemCatChem 16(19), article number: e202301586. (10.1002/cctc.202301586)
2023
- Magri, G. et al. 2023. An in-situ study of the thermal decomposition of 2,2'-azobis(2-methylpropionitrile) radical chemistry using a dual-mode EPR resonator. Research on Chemical Intermediates 49, pp. 289-305. (10.1007/s11164-022-04861-z)
- Edwards, P. P., Pyper, N. C., Jie, X., Slocombe, D. R., Catlow, C. R. A., Islam, M. S. and Dobson, P. J. 2023. Orbital-selective hole and hole-pair formation and Bose condensation in high-temperature superconductors. Journal of Solid State Chemistry 317(Part A), article number: 123529. (10.1016/j.jssc.2022.123529)
2022
- Barter, M. et al. 2022. Design considerations of a dual mode X-band EPR resonator for rapid in-situ microwave heating. Applied Magnetic Resonance 53, pp. 861-874. (10.1007/s00723-022-01463-1)
- Jie, X., Chen, R., Biddle, T., Slocombe, D. R., Dilworth, J. R., Xiao, T. and Edwards, P. P. 2022. Size-dependent microwave heating and catalytic activity of fine iron particles in the deep dehydrogenation of hexadecane. Chemistry of Materials 34(10), pp. 4682-4693. (10.1021/acs.chemmater.2c00630)
- Siddique, F. et al. 2022. Sustainable chemical processing of flowing wastewater through microwave energy. Chemosphere 287(1), article number: 132035. (10.1016/j.chemosphere.2021.132035)
2021
- Slocombe, D. R. and Porch, A. 2021. Microwaves in chemistry. IEEE Journal of Microwaves 1(1), pp. 32-42. (10.1109/JMW.2020.3029337)
2020
- Slocombe, D. 2020. Cool water splitting by microwaves. Nature Energy 5, pp. 830-831. (10.1038/s41560-020-00726-0)
- Jie, X. et al. 2020. Microwave-initiated catalytic deconstruction of plastic waste into hydrogen and high-value carbons. Nature Catalysis 3, pp. 902-912. (10.1038/s41929-020-00518-5)
- Yao, B., Kuznetsov, V. L., Xiao, T., Slocombe, D. R., Rao, C. N. R., Hensel, F. and Edwards, P. P. 2020. Metals and non-metals in the periodic table. Philosophical Transactions A: Mathematical, Physical and Engineering Sciences 378(2180), article number: 20200213. (10.1098/rsta.2020.0213)
- Yan, Y. et al. 2020. The decarbonization of coal tar via microwave-initiated catalytic deep dehydrogenation. Fuel 268, article number: 117332. (10.1016/j.fuel.2020.117332)
- Folli, A. et al. 2020. A novel dual mode X-band EPR resonator for rapid in situ microwave heating. Journal of Magnetic Resonance 310, article number: 106644. (10.1016/j.jmr.2019.106644)
2019
- Barter, M., Partridge, S., Slocombe, D. R. and Porch, A. 2019. Temperature correction using degenerate modes for cylindrical cavity perturbation measurements. IEEE Transactions on Microwave Theory and Techniques 67(2), pp. 800-805. (10.1109/TMTT.2018.2882480)
- Jie, X. et al. 2019. The decarbonisation of petroleum and other fossil hydrocarbon fuels for the facile production and safe storage of hydrogen. Energy and Environmental Science 12(1), pp. 238-249. (10.1039/C8EE02444H)
2018
- Yan, Y. et al. 2018. Rapid, non-invasive characterization of the dispersity of emulsions via microwaves. Chemical Science 9(34), pp. 6975-6980. (10.1039/C8SC00406D)
- Partridge, S., Slocombe, D., Bauer, J. and Porch, A. 2018. Measuring the electromagnetic properties of pigments during exposure to ultraviolet radiation. Abstracts of Papers of The American Chemical Society 255
2017
- Cuenca, J. A., Slocombe, D. R. and Porch, A. 2017. Corrections to 'temperature correction for cylindrical cavity perturbation measurements'. IEEE Transactions on Microwave Theory and Techniques 65(12), pp. 5078. (10.1109/TMTT.2017.2751550)
- Momot, A. et al. 2017. A novel explanation for the increased conductivity in annealed Al-doped ZnO: an insight into migration of aluminum and displacement of zinc. Physical Chemistry Chemical Physics 19, pp. 27866-27877. (10.1039/C7CP02936E)
- Liu, B. et al. 2017. Microwaves effectively examine the extent and type of coking over acid zeolite catalysts. Nature Communications 8, article number: 514. (10.1038/s41467-017-00602-8)
- Edwards, P. et al. 2017. Decarbonisation of fossil fuels: Microwave-promoted deep catalytic dehydrogenation of liquid alkanes. Presented at: 254th ACS National Meeting & Exposition, Washington, DC, USA, 20-24 Aug 2017.
- Jie, X. et al. 2017. Rapid production of high-purity hydrogen fuel through microwave-promoted deep catalytic dehydrogenation of liquid alkanes with abundant metals. Angewandte Chemie International Edition 56(34), pp. 10170-10173. (10.1002/anie.201703489)
- Cuenca, J. A., Slocombe, D. R. and Porch, A. 2017. Temperature correction for cylindrical cavity perturbation measurements. IEEE Transactions on Microwave Theory and Techniques 65(6), pp. 2153-2161. (10.1109/TMTT.2017.2652462)
- Parker, N., Cuenca, J., Athanasios, D., Alan, O. G. and Slocombe, D. 2017. Simulation of RF fields for wood gluing applications. Presented at: 16th International Conference on Microwave and High Frequency Heating AMPERE 2017, Delft, Netherlands, 18-21 September 2017.
2016
- Gonzalez-Cortes, S. et al. 2016. Wax: A benign hydrogen-storage material that rapidly releases H2-rich gases through microwave-assisted catalytic decomposition. Scientific Reports 6, article number: 35315. (10.1038/srep35315)
- Liu, B. et al. 2016. Advances in the study of coke formation over zeolite catalysts in the methanol-to-hydrocarbon process. Applied Petrochemical Research 6(3), pp. 209-215. (10.1007/s13203-016-0156-z)
- Shepherd, C. et al. 2016. New routes to functionalize carbon black for polypropylene nanocomposites. Langmuir 32(31), pp. 7917-7928. (10.1021/acs.langmuir.6b02013)
2015
- Hensel, F., Slocombe, D. R. and Edwards, P. P. 2015. On the occurrence of metallic character in the periodic table of the chemical elements. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A: Mathematical, Physical and Engineering Sciences 373(2037), article number: 20140477. (10.1098/rsta.2014.0477)
- Slocombe, D. R., Kuznetsov, V. L., Grochala, W., Williams, R. J. P. and Edwards, P. P. 2015. Superconductivity in transition metals. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A: Mathematical, Physical and Engineering Sciences 373(2037), article number: 20140476. (10.1098/rsta.2014.0476)
- Kelchtermans, A. et al. 2015. Increasing the solubility limit for tetrahedral aluminium in ZnO:Al nanorods by variation in synthesis parameters. Journal of Nanomaterials 2015, article number: 546041. (10.1155/2015/546041)
2014
- Vai, A. T., Kuznetsov, V. L., Jain, H., Slocombe, D. R., Rashidi, N., Pepper, M. and Edwards, P. P. 2014. The Transition to the metallic state in polycrystalline n-type doped ZnO thin films. Zeitschrift für anorganische und allgemeine Chemie (Journal of Inorganic and General Chemistry) 640(6), pp. 1054-1062. (10.1002/zaac.201400042)
2013
- Slocombe, D. R., Porch, A., Bustarret, E. and Williams, O. A. 2013. Microwave properties of nanodiamond particles. Applied Physics Letters 102(24), article number: 244102. (10.1063/1.4809823)
- Porch, A., Slocombe, D. R. and Edwards, P. P. 2013. Microwave absorption in powders of small conducting particles for heating applications. Physical Chemistry Chemical Physics 15(8), pp. 2757-2763. (10.1039/c2cp43310a)
- Edwards, P., Kuznetsov, V., Slocombe, D. and Vijayaraghavan, R. 2013. The electronic structure and properties of solids. In: Reedikj, J. and Poeppelmeier, K. eds. Comprehensive Inorganic Chemistry II. Elsevier
- Li, J., Huang, W., Edwards, P. P., Kwauk, M., Houghton, J. T. and Slocombe, D. R. 2013. On the universality of mesoscience: Science of 'the in-between'. [Online]. arXiv. Available at: http://arxiv.org/abs/1302.5861
2012
- Porch, A. et al. 2012. Microwave treatment in oil refining. Applied Petrochemical Research 2(1-2), pp. 37-44. (10.1007/s13203-012-0016-4)
- Slocombe, D. R., Porch, A., Pepper, M. and Edwards, P. P. 2012. The Mott transition and optimal performance of transparent conducting oxides in thin-film solar cells. Energy & Environmental Science 5(1), pp. 5387-5391. (10.1039/C1EE02585F)
Adrannau llyfrau
- Edwards, P., Kuznetsov, V., Slocombe, D. and Vijayaraghavan, R. 2013. The electronic structure and properties of solids. In: Reedikj, J. and Poeppelmeier, K. eds. Comprehensive Inorganic Chemistry II. Elsevier
Cynadleddau
- Edwards, P. et al. 2017. Decarbonisation of fossil fuels: Microwave-promoted deep catalytic dehydrogenation of liquid alkanes. Presented at: 254th ACS National Meeting & Exposition, Washington, DC, USA, 20-24 Aug 2017.
- Parker, N., Cuenca, J., Athanasios, D., Alan, O. G. and Slocombe, D. 2017. Simulation of RF fields for wood gluing applications. Presented at: 16th International Conference on Microwave and High Frequency Heating AMPERE 2017, Delft, Netherlands, 18-21 September 2017.
Erthyglau
- Singh, B., Hefford, S., Sanchez-Perez, E., Barter, M., Slocombe, D. R., Cussen, S. A. and Dimitrakis, G. 2025. A novel method for fast and efficient numerical simulation of microwave heating in liquids during mixing. International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer 237, pp. 126425. (10.1016/j.ijheatmasstransfer.2024.126425)
- Sun, J., Hayward, J. S., Barter, M., Slocombe, D. R. and Bartley, J. K. 2024. Designing heterogeneous catalysts for microwave assisted selective oxygenation. ChemCatChem 16(19), article number: e202301586. (10.1002/cctc.202301586)
- Magri, G. et al. 2023. An in-situ study of the thermal decomposition of 2,2'-azobis(2-methylpropionitrile) radical chemistry using a dual-mode EPR resonator. Research on Chemical Intermediates 49, pp. 289-305. (10.1007/s11164-022-04861-z)
- Edwards, P. P., Pyper, N. C., Jie, X., Slocombe, D. R., Catlow, C. R. A., Islam, M. S. and Dobson, P. J. 2023. Orbital-selective hole and hole-pair formation and Bose condensation in high-temperature superconductors. Journal of Solid State Chemistry 317(Part A), article number: 123529. (10.1016/j.jssc.2022.123529)
- Barter, M. et al. 2022. Design considerations of a dual mode X-band EPR resonator for rapid in-situ microwave heating. Applied Magnetic Resonance 53, pp. 861-874. (10.1007/s00723-022-01463-1)
- Jie, X., Chen, R., Biddle, T., Slocombe, D. R., Dilworth, J. R., Xiao, T. and Edwards, P. P. 2022. Size-dependent microwave heating and catalytic activity of fine iron particles in the deep dehydrogenation of hexadecane. Chemistry of Materials 34(10), pp. 4682-4693. (10.1021/acs.chemmater.2c00630)
- Siddique, F. et al. 2022. Sustainable chemical processing of flowing wastewater through microwave energy. Chemosphere 287(1), article number: 132035. (10.1016/j.chemosphere.2021.132035)
- Slocombe, D. R. and Porch, A. 2021. Microwaves in chemistry. IEEE Journal of Microwaves 1(1), pp. 32-42. (10.1109/JMW.2020.3029337)
- Slocombe, D. 2020. Cool water splitting by microwaves. Nature Energy 5, pp. 830-831. (10.1038/s41560-020-00726-0)
- Jie, X. et al. 2020. Microwave-initiated catalytic deconstruction of plastic waste into hydrogen and high-value carbons. Nature Catalysis 3, pp. 902-912. (10.1038/s41929-020-00518-5)
- Yao, B., Kuznetsov, V. L., Xiao, T., Slocombe, D. R., Rao, C. N. R., Hensel, F. and Edwards, P. P. 2020. Metals and non-metals in the periodic table. Philosophical Transactions A: Mathematical, Physical and Engineering Sciences 378(2180), article number: 20200213. (10.1098/rsta.2020.0213)
- Yan, Y. et al. 2020. The decarbonization of coal tar via microwave-initiated catalytic deep dehydrogenation. Fuel 268, article number: 117332. (10.1016/j.fuel.2020.117332)
- Folli, A. et al. 2020. A novel dual mode X-band EPR resonator for rapid in situ microwave heating. Journal of Magnetic Resonance 310, article number: 106644. (10.1016/j.jmr.2019.106644)
- Barter, M., Partridge, S., Slocombe, D. R. and Porch, A. 2019. Temperature correction using degenerate modes for cylindrical cavity perturbation measurements. IEEE Transactions on Microwave Theory and Techniques 67(2), pp. 800-805. (10.1109/TMTT.2018.2882480)
- Jie, X. et al. 2019. The decarbonisation of petroleum and other fossil hydrocarbon fuels for the facile production and safe storage of hydrogen. Energy and Environmental Science 12(1), pp. 238-249. (10.1039/C8EE02444H)
- Yan, Y. et al. 2018. Rapid, non-invasive characterization of the dispersity of emulsions via microwaves. Chemical Science 9(34), pp. 6975-6980. (10.1039/C8SC00406D)
- Partridge, S., Slocombe, D., Bauer, J. and Porch, A. 2018. Measuring the electromagnetic properties of pigments during exposure to ultraviolet radiation. Abstracts of Papers of The American Chemical Society 255
- Cuenca, J. A., Slocombe, D. R. and Porch, A. 2017. Corrections to 'temperature correction for cylindrical cavity perturbation measurements'. IEEE Transactions on Microwave Theory and Techniques 65(12), pp. 5078. (10.1109/TMTT.2017.2751550)
- Momot, A. et al. 2017. A novel explanation for the increased conductivity in annealed Al-doped ZnO: an insight into migration of aluminum and displacement of zinc. Physical Chemistry Chemical Physics 19, pp. 27866-27877. (10.1039/C7CP02936E)
- Liu, B. et al. 2017. Microwaves effectively examine the extent and type of coking over acid zeolite catalysts. Nature Communications 8, article number: 514. (10.1038/s41467-017-00602-8)
- Jie, X. et al. 2017. Rapid production of high-purity hydrogen fuel through microwave-promoted deep catalytic dehydrogenation of liquid alkanes with abundant metals. Angewandte Chemie International Edition 56(34), pp. 10170-10173. (10.1002/anie.201703489)
- Cuenca, J. A., Slocombe, D. R. and Porch, A. 2017. Temperature correction for cylindrical cavity perturbation measurements. IEEE Transactions on Microwave Theory and Techniques 65(6), pp. 2153-2161. (10.1109/TMTT.2017.2652462)
- Gonzalez-Cortes, S. et al. 2016. Wax: A benign hydrogen-storage material that rapidly releases H2-rich gases through microwave-assisted catalytic decomposition. Scientific Reports 6, article number: 35315. (10.1038/srep35315)
- Liu, B. et al. 2016. Advances in the study of coke formation over zeolite catalysts in the methanol-to-hydrocarbon process. Applied Petrochemical Research 6(3), pp. 209-215. (10.1007/s13203-016-0156-z)
- Shepherd, C. et al. 2016. New routes to functionalize carbon black for polypropylene nanocomposites. Langmuir 32(31), pp. 7917-7928. (10.1021/acs.langmuir.6b02013)
- Hensel, F., Slocombe, D. R. and Edwards, P. P. 2015. On the occurrence of metallic character in the periodic table of the chemical elements. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A: Mathematical, Physical and Engineering Sciences 373(2037), article number: 20140477. (10.1098/rsta.2014.0477)
- Slocombe, D. R., Kuznetsov, V. L., Grochala, W., Williams, R. J. P. and Edwards, P. P. 2015. Superconductivity in transition metals. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A: Mathematical, Physical and Engineering Sciences 373(2037), article number: 20140476. (10.1098/rsta.2014.0476)
- Kelchtermans, A. et al. 2015. Increasing the solubility limit for tetrahedral aluminium in ZnO:Al nanorods by variation in synthesis parameters. Journal of Nanomaterials 2015, article number: 546041. (10.1155/2015/546041)
- Vai, A. T., Kuznetsov, V. L., Jain, H., Slocombe, D. R., Rashidi, N., Pepper, M. and Edwards, P. P. 2014. The Transition to the metallic state in polycrystalline n-type doped ZnO thin films. Zeitschrift für anorganische und allgemeine Chemie (Journal of Inorganic and General Chemistry) 640(6), pp. 1054-1062. (10.1002/zaac.201400042)
- Slocombe, D. R., Porch, A., Bustarret, E. and Williams, O. A. 2013. Microwave properties of nanodiamond particles. Applied Physics Letters 102(24), article number: 244102. (10.1063/1.4809823)
- Porch, A., Slocombe, D. R. and Edwards, P. P. 2013. Microwave absorption in powders of small conducting particles for heating applications. Physical Chemistry Chemical Physics 15(8), pp. 2757-2763. (10.1039/c2cp43310a)
- Porch, A. et al. 2012. Microwave treatment in oil refining. Applied Petrochemical Research 2(1-2), pp. 37-44. (10.1007/s13203-012-0016-4)
- Slocombe, D. R., Porch, A., Pepper, M. and Edwards, P. P. 2012. The Mott transition and optimal performance of transparent conducting oxides in thin-film solar cells. Energy & Environmental Science 5(1), pp. 5387-5391. (10.1039/C1EE02585F)
Gwefannau
- Li, J., Huang, W., Edwards, P. P., Kwauk, M., Houghton, J. T. and Slocombe, D. R. 2013. On the universality of mesoscience: Science of 'the in-between'. [Online]. arXiv. Available at: http://arxiv.org/abs/1302.5861
Research
I carry out multidisciplinary research bringing microwave science and engineering to fields in which it is not conventionally used. I currently have research collaborations with departments of chemistry, physics, pharmacy, and biosciences, all taking advantage of the unique electromagnetic properties of microwaves in innovative ways. I currently have projects working on microwave catalysis for generation of clean hydrogen fuel, the destruction of plastic waste, manufacture of battery materials and new analytical and spectroscopic techniques for measuring a wide range of chemical processes.
Project Focus I – Hydrogen from fossil fuels: Can we decarbonise the entire hydrocarbon fuel industry?
Hydrogen is often described as the fuel of the future since its only by-product as a fuel is water. But there are major barriers to its widespread adoption. We lack cheap, safe and easily produced hydrogen storage materials and the infrastructure to support its distribution.
But in a recent discovery using microwaves, we managed to generate hydrogen from diesel and waxes with >98% purity, rapidly and on demand, with all unwanted by-products such as carbon dioxide and methane being suppressed and the only by-product being solid carbon. By this new approach, we could produce completely clean hydrogen fuel at the point of use using our existing petrochemical infrastructure.
Project Focus II: Clean hydrogen fuel and carbon nanotubes from plastic waste
Plastic waste is an increasing problem, with 12 billion tonnes estimated to have accumulated in landfills by 2050. Researchers have studied various ways to convert it into useful products such as fuels, synthetic oils, and carbon nanotubes, but these processes generally involve complex two-step processes requiring high temperatures and produce large amounts of CO2 as a by-product.
In recent work, we’ve demonstrated a simple one-step process for the catalytic deconstruction of plastic waste, which rapidly produces a large volume of hydrogen gas (>90% pure) leaving only a residue of carbonaceous materials, the bulk of which are carbon nanotubes. Within minutes, over 97% of the theoretical mass of hydrogen is extracted from the deconstructed plastic.
Teaching
EN3082/ENT782 - HF and RF Engineering (Module leader)
EN4806/ENT776 - High Frequency Electronic Materials (Module leader)
Biography
Professor Daniel R. Slocombe BEng PhD FHEA received the Ph.D. degree in Electronic Engineering from Cardiff University, UK. From 2002 until 2006 he was an engineer in the Royal Air Force and from 2012 until 2015 he was a Research Fellow in the Inorganic Chemistry Laboratory at the University of Oxford, UK. He is the Director of Research for Engineering at Cardiff University and is a member of the Centre for High Frequency Engineering. He has carried out research in many areas of microwave science and high frequency materials including microwave activation of catalytic processes, synthesis of functional oxides, dielectric spectroscopy and new methods using Electron Paramagnetic Resonance.
Supervisions
Supervised Students
| Title | Student | Status | Degree |
|---|---|---|---|
ELECTROMAGNETIC PROPERTIES OF SEMICONDUCTING METAL OXIDES UNDER EXTERNAL STIMULATION. | PARTRIDGE Samuel Lee | Graduate | Phd |
RF techniques applied to additive manufacturing | PARKER Nyle | Graduate | Phd |
RADIATION-BASED TECHNOLOGY TO ENHANCED MICROBICIDAL ACTIVITY OF BIOCIDES | PASCOE Michael | Graduate | Phd |
MICROWAVE CHARACTERISATION OF AMMINES FOR ENERGY STORAGE APPLICATIONS | BARTER Michael | Graduate | Phd |
Biomedical Applications of Microwave Engineering | SHKAL Fatma Ahmed | Graduate | Phd |
Diamond-Based Optical Field Devices for Functional Ion Channel Imaging | MASON Andrew | Current | Phd |
Enhanced Epr Spectroscopy Of Inorganic Materials | HARARI Jaafar | Current | Phd |
