![Daniel Slocombe](https://profiles-cardiff.imgix.net/attachments/6923?w=200&h=200&auto=format&crop=faces&fit=crop&q=90")
Professor Daniel Slocombe
- Available for postgraduate supervision
Teams and roles for Daniel Slocombe
Director of Research
Overview
Professor Daniel R. Slocombe BEng PhD FHEA is Director of Research at the Cardiff University School of Engineering. He works closely with industry, academia and government in Wales and across the UK. His career began in the Royal Air Force and his research now spans a broad range of disciplines, including electromagnetism, the synthesis and measurement of semiconductor materials, and chemical process intensification using microwaves. He specialises in the application of high-frequency electromagnetic fields to challenges in decarbonisation, energy technologies and environmental science, integrating engineering, chemistry, and materials science.
He was awarded the Philip Leverhulme Prize in Engineering (2022) in recognition of "pioneering research demonstrating the use of microwave fields in innovative applications related to decarbonisation, energy, and environmental science."
Professor Slocombe currently leads active research projects funded by the Leverhulme Trust, EPSRC and BBSRC, developing novel synthesis of semiconductors and next-generation battery materials, upcycling of waste plastics to monomers, and advanced electromagnetic platforms for chemical and materials manufacturing. His work has contributed to the formation of multiple technology spin-out companies: at the University of Oxford, developing advanced semiconductor materials for solar cells and display technologies; and at Cardiff, producing clean hydrogen fuels using next-generation electromagnetic processes.
Professor Slocombe previously held a Research Fellowship in the Inorganic Chemistry Laboratory at the University of Oxford and was a Visiting Scholar at Merton College, Oxford. At Cardiff University, he has held multiple leadership roles, including Director of the Centre for High Frequency Engineering and Head of Teaching for the Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering. He currently serves as Director of Research for the School of Engineering, a faculty comprising more than 250 researchers.
He is active in international scientific leadership, having recently chaired the AMPERE International Scientific Conference, which brought together more than 170 attendees from more than 25 countries. He serves on the scientific committees of several major global conferences, including IMPI (USA) and GCMEA (most recently hosted in Japan). He also recently chaired a Royal Society Scientific Meeting on emerging sustainability technologies, held at the Royal Society in London. He is regularly invited to deliver talks at scientific events around the world.
Publication
2026
- Ferreira, G. F. et al., 2026. Optimised pyrolysis strategies for energy-dense bio-oil from Chlorella sp. Bioresource Technology 441 133628. (10.1016/j.biortech.2025.133628)
2025
- Edwards, P. P. et al., 2025. Fossil fuel decarbonization and plastics-waste conversion to hydrogen and high-value carbons: pure science behind two emerging disruptive technologies. In: Jameel, S. and Clary, D. C. eds. Disruptive Technologies and Muslim Societies. World Scientific. , pp.97-130. (10.1142/9781800616295_0005)
- Hefford, S. et al. 2025. Microwaves in clean energy technologies. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A: Mathematical, Physical and Engineering Sciences 383 (2297) 20240394. (10.1098/rsta.2024.0394)
- Jie, X. et al., 2025. Low to near-zero CO 2 production of hydrogen from fossil fuels: critical role of microwave-initiated catalysis. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A: Mathematical, Physical and Engineering Sciences 383 (2297) 20240061. (10.1098/rsta.2024.0061)
- Singh, B. et al., 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)
- Slocombe, D. R. and Porch, A. 2025. Preface to ‘Microwave science in sustainability’. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A: Mathematical, Physical and Engineering Sciences 383 (2297) 20240075. (10.1098/rsta.2024.0075)
- Sun, J. et al., 2025. Microwave-assisted selective oxidation of propene over bismuth molybdate catalysts: the importance of catalyst synthesis methodology. Discover Catalysis 2 (1) 11. (10.1007/s44344-025-00014-7)
- Tsubaki, S. et al., 2025. Radiofrequency and microwave 3D bioprinting of emulsion gel for dysphagia diets. Scientific Reports 15 (1) 25023. (10.1038/s41598-025-06804-1)
2024
- Slocombe, D. 2024. Editorial. European Journal of Microwave Energy 1 , pp.1-1. (10.18573/ejme.17)
- Sun, J. et al. 2024. Designing heterogeneous catalysts for microwave assisted selective oxygenation. ChemCatChem 16 (19) e202301586. (10.1002/cctc.202301586)
2023
- Edwards, P. P. et al., 2023. Orbital-selective hole and hole-pair formation and Bose condensation in high-temperature superconductors. Journal of Solid State Chemistry 317 (Part A) 123529. (10.1016/j.jssc.2022.123529)
- 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)
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. et al., 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) 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
- Folli, A. et al. 2020. A novel dual mode X-band EPR resonator for rapid in situ microwave heating. Journal of Magnetic Resonance 310 106644. (10.1016/j.jmr.2019.106644)
- 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)
- Slocombe, D. 2020. Cool water splitting by microwaves. Nature Energy 5 , pp.830-831. (10.1038/s41560-020-00726-0)
- Yan, Y. et al., 2020. The decarbonization of coal tar via microwave-initiated catalytic deep dehydrogenation. Fuel 268 117332. (10.1016/j.fuel.2020.117332)
- Yao, B. et al., 2020. Metals and non-metals in the periodic table. Philosophical Transactions A: Mathematical, Physical and Engineering Sciences 378 (2180) 20200213. (10.1098/rsta.2020.0213)
2019
- Barter, M. et al. 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
- Partridge, S. et al. 2018. Measuring the electromagnetic properties of pigments during exposure to ultraviolet radiation. Abstracts of Papers of The American Chemical Society 255
- 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)
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)
- 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)
- 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)
- Liu, B. et al., 2017. Microwaves effectively examine the extent and type of coking over acid zeolite catalysts. Nature Communications 8 514. (10.1038/s41467-017-00602-8)
- 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)
- Parker, N. et al. 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 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) 20140477. (10.1098/rsta.2014.0477)
- 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 546041. (10.1155/2015/546041)
- Slocombe, D. R. et al. 2015. Superconductivity in transition metals. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A: Mathematical, Physical and Engineering Sciences 373 (2037) 20140476. (10.1098/rsta.2014.0476)
2014
- Vai, A. T. et al., 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
- Edwards, P. et al., 2013. The electronic structure and properties of solids. In: Reedikj, J. and Poeppelmeier, K. eds. Comprehensive Inorganic Chemistry II. Elsevier
- Li, J. et al. 2013. On the universality of mesoscience: Science of 'the in-between'. [Online].arXiv. Available at: http://arxiv.org/abs/1302.5861.
- 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)
- Slocombe, D. R. et al. 2013. Microwave properties of nanodiamond particles. Applied Physics Letters 102 (24) 244102. (10.1063/1.4809823)
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. et al. 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)
Articles
- 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)
- Barter, M. et al. 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)
- 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)
- 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)
- Edwards, P. P. et al., 2023. Orbital-selective hole and hole-pair formation and Bose condensation in high-temperature superconductors. Journal of Solid State Chemistry 317 (Part A) 123529. (10.1016/j.jssc.2022.123529)
- Ferreira, G. F. et al., 2026. Optimised pyrolysis strategies for energy-dense bio-oil from Chlorella sp. Bioresource Technology 441 133628. (10.1016/j.biortech.2025.133628)
- Folli, A. et al. 2020. A novel dual mode X-band EPR resonator for rapid in situ microwave heating. Journal of Magnetic Resonance 310 106644. (10.1016/j.jmr.2019.106644)
- 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 35315. (10.1038/srep35315)
- Hefford, S. et al. 2025. Microwaves in clean energy technologies. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A: Mathematical, Physical and Engineering Sciences 383 (2297) 20240394. (10.1098/rsta.2024.0394)
- 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) 20140477. (10.1098/rsta.2014.0477)
- Jie, X. et al., 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)
- 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)
- 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)
- 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)
- Jie, X. et al., 2025. Low to near-zero CO 2 production of hydrogen from fossil fuels: critical role of microwave-initiated catalysis. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A: Mathematical, Physical and Engineering Sciences 383 (2297) 20240061. (10.1098/rsta.2024.0061)
- 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 546041. (10.1155/2015/546041)
- Liu, B. et al., 2017. Microwaves effectively examine the extent and type of coking over acid zeolite catalysts. Nature Communications 8 514. (10.1038/s41467-017-00602-8)
- 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)
- 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)
- 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)
- Partridge, S. et al. 2018. Measuring the electromagnetic properties of pigments during exposure to ultraviolet radiation. Abstracts of Papers of The American Chemical Society 255
- 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)
- 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)
- 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)
- Siddique, F. et al., 2022. Sustainable chemical processing of flowing wastewater through microwave energy. Chemosphere 287 (1) 132035. (10.1016/j.chemosphere.2021.132035)
- Singh, B. et al., 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)
- Slocombe, D. 2020. Cool water splitting by microwaves. Nature Energy 5 , pp.830-831. (10.1038/s41560-020-00726-0)
- Slocombe, D. 2024. Editorial. European Journal of Microwave Energy 1 , pp.1-1. (10.18573/ejme.17)
- Slocombe, D. et al. 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)
- 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. R. and Porch, A. 2025. Preface to ‘Microwave science in sustainability’. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A: Mathematical, Physical and Engineering Sciences 383 (2297) 20240075. (10.1098/rsta.2024.0075)
- Slocombe, D. R. et al. 2015. Superconductivity in transition metals. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A: Mathematical, Physical and Engineering Sciences 373 (2037) 20140476. (10.1098/rsta.2014.0476)
- Slocombe, D. R. et al. 2013. Microwave properties of nanodiamond particles. Applied Physics Letters 102 (24) 244102. (10.1063/1.4809823)
- Sun, J. et al. 2024. Designing heterogeneous catalysts for microwave assisted selective oxygenation. ChemCatChem 16 (19) e202301586. (10.1002/cctc.202301586)
- Sun, J. et al., 2025. Microwave-assisted selective oxidation of propene over bismuth molybdate catalysts: the importance of catalyst synthesis methodology. Discover Catalysis 2 (1) 11. (10.1007/s44344-025-00014-7)
- Tsubaki, S. et al., 2025. Radiofrequency and microwave 3D bioprinting of emulsion gel for dysphagia diets. Scientific Reports 15 (1) 25023. (10.1038/s41598-025-06804-1)
- Vai, A. T. et al., 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)
- 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)
- Yan, Y. et al., 2020. The decarbonization of coal tar via microwave-initiated catalytic deep dehydrogenation. Fuel 268 117332. (10.1016/j.fuel.2020.117332)
- Yao, B. et al., 2020. Metals and non-metals in the periodic table. Philosophical Transactions A: Mathematical, Physical and Engineering Sciences 378 (2180) 20200213. (10.1098/rsta.2020.0213)
Book sections
- Edwards, P. et al., 2013. The electronic structure and properties of solids. In: Reedikj, J. and Poeppelmeier, K. eds. Comprehensive Inorganic Chemistry II. Elsevier
- Edwards, P. P. et al., 2025. Fossil fuel decarbonization and plastics-waste conversion to hydrogen and high-value carbons: pure science behind two emerging disruptive technologies. In: Jameel, S. and Clary, D. C. eds. Disruptive Technologies and Muslim Societies. World Scientific. , pp.97-130. (10.1142/9781800616295_0005)
Conferences
- 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. et al. 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.
Websites
- Li, J. et al. 2013. On the universality of mesoscience: Science of 'the in-between'. [Online].arXiv. Available at: http://arxiv.org/abs/1302.5861.
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. He began his career as 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 |
