Susan Henkelis

SusanI completed my MChem (Hons) Chemistry at the University of Leeds with my 3rd year spent on an international placement at the University of Adelaide, Australia. I spent my 4th year under the supervision of Dr Charlotte Willans. My current research in materials chemistry focuses on monitoring the hydrolysis and rearrangement mechanisms involved in the ADOR process.   Many of these daughter zeolites are inaccessible when prepared through traditional methods, and therefore can be thought of as ‘unfeasible’.  Many of the new zeolites prepared lack long-range crystallographic order and as such a typical Rietveld refinement is unsuitable in providing a full analysis of these highly faulted structures.  In situ PDF analysis, however, treats both Bragg and diffuse scattering equally and therefore is an invaluable tool in elucidating each step in the ADOR process, by monitoring the growth and loss of nearest neighbour pair atom peaks in the reduced pair distribution function—G(r).  Such G(r) can then be analyzed against computationally derived structural models through a Rietveld-type refinement in the PDFgui and TOPASv6 academic suites.

Outside my PhD, I enjoy horse riding, cooking and travelling.