Dr Bruce Alexander

Dr Bruce Alexander started his research career studying electro-catalysts adsorbed on surfaces for fuel cells using a combination of Raman spectroscopy and electrochemistry. He has been working at the interface of physical and inorganic chemistry ever since. Dr Alexander has gone on to develop expertise in the development of semiconductor materials for renewable energy technologies, such as solar hydrogen production, and the spectroscopic analysis of surfaces and thin films.

He maintains an active interest in computational chemistry, crucially allied to experimental data as a tool to understand structure and bonding in a range of systems and currently maintains the computational chemistry suite in the School of Science.

Dr Alexander welcomes enquiries from potential collaborators regarding these and future projects or Erasmus exchanges.Having spent time working in Geneva he is able to speak French, albeit with la lenteur suisse. As such, he would particularly welcome hearing from Francophone institutions.

Responsibilities within the university

Programme Leader

MSc Formulation Science

Course Co-ordinator

Case Studies in Non-Pharmaceutical Formulation
Computational Chemistry
Pharmaceutics and Formulation

Course participation

Advanced Physical Chemistry
Basic Chemistry for Life Sciences
Formulation Science Research Project
Further Physical Chemistry
Green Chemistry
Instrumental Analysis
Pharmaceutical Science Research Project
Practical and Professional Skills
Research and Professional Skills

PhD supervision

Rajitha Hanarasinghe
Craig Morton
Joanna Thorne
Shashi Rudrangi

Research interests

Dr Alexander's current research interests are collected under the groupings of:

• Solar energy conversion, photocatalysis and renewable fuels
• Computational chemistry used to probe primary and secondary structure
• Surface and structural analysis by spectroscopy
• Development of modified surfaces for micro-array sensors.

His current projects include:

• Solar generation of hydrogen using semiconductor electrodes
• Photocatalytic degradation of organic pollutants and wastewater remediation
• Photocatalytic reduction of carbon dioxide
• Molecular dynamics studies of the folding preference of peptide mimics
• Ab initio and density functional theory calculations and molecular modelling applied to the investigation of structure preference of a range of bio-organic systems
• Development of novel surface enhanced Raman (SERS) and fluorescence based sensors using self-assembled monolayers and colloidal microgel particles
• Spectroscopic determination of polymorphism
• Electrochemical and spectroelectrochemical studies of molecular electrocatalysts
• Surface enhanced Raman spectroscopy, its theory and applications to the study of thin films and modified electrodes.

Researcher ID profile

http://www.researcherid.com/rid/C-9842-2009

Publications

Alexander, B.D. et al (2011) Charge carrier dynamics on mesoporous WO3 during water splitting. Journal of Physical Chemistry Letters, 2, pp. 1900–03.

Alexander, B.D. et al (2011) Cyclic α,β-peptoid octamers with differing side chain patterns: synthesis and conformational investigation. Amino Acids, 41, pp. 663–72.

Augustynski, J., Alexander, B.D., and Solarska, R. (2011) Metal oxide photoanodes for water splitting. Topics in Current Chemistry. DOI: 10.1007/128_2011_135.

Morton, C.D., Slipper, I.J., Thomas, M.J.K., and Alexander, B.D. (2010) Synthesis and characterisation of Fe–V–O thin film photoanodes. Journal of Photochemistry and Photobiology A, 216, pp. 209–14.

Alexander, B.D. et al (2010) Tailoring the morphology of WO3 films with substitutional cation doping: effect on the photoelectrochemical properties. Electrochimica Acta, 55, pp. 7780–7.

Alexander, B.D. et al (2010) Low temperature crystal structure of N-Acetyl-L-Glutamic acid: comparison with the DFT calculated structure. Journal of Chemical Crystallography, 40, pp. 602–7.

Chowdhry, B.Z., Jabeen, S., and Alexander, B.D. (2009) Raman spectroscopy in pharmaceutical analysis. European Pharmaceutical Reviews, 14, pp. 34–39.

Kausar, N., Dines, T.J., Chowdhry, B.Z. and Alexander, B.D. (2009) Vibrational spectroscopy and DFT calculations of the di-amino acid peptide L-aspartyl-L-glutamic acid in the zwitterionic state. Physical Chemistry Chemical Physics, 11, pp. 6389–6400.

Alexander, B.D. et al (2009) Vibrational spectroscopy and DFT calculations of di-amino acid peptides: α- and β-N-acetyl-L-Asp-L-Glu in the solid state. Journal of Raman Spectroscopy, 40, pp. 661–69.

Alexander, B.D. et al (2009) Vibrational spectroscopy and DFT calculations of amino acid derivatives: N-acetyl-L-Asp and N-acetyl-L-Glu in the solid state. Journal of Raman Spectroscopy, 40, pp. 670–8.

Alexander, B.D. et al (2009) Remediation of a chlorinated aromatic hydrocarbon in water by photoelectrocatalysis. Environmental Pollution, 157, pp. 72–6.

Alexander, B.D., Dines, T.J., and Longhurst, R.W. (2008) DFT calculations of the structures and vibrational spectra of the [Fe(bpy)3]2+ and [Ru(bpy)3]2+ complexes. Chemical Physics, 352, pp. 19–27.

Alexander, B.D. et al (2008) Metal oxide photoanodes for solar hydrogen production. Journal of Materials Chemistry, 18, pp. 2298–2303.

Edwards, A.A., Alexander, B.D., Fleet, G.J.W., and Tranter, G.E. (2008) A spectroscopic study of 2,5-trans related furanose-based carbopeptoids. Chirality, 20, pp. 969–72.

Alexander, B.D., Crayston, J.A., and Dines, T.J. (2007) Cyclic voltammetry and spectroelectrochemical study of nickel and cobalt diphenyltetraazaannulene. Journal of Electroanalytical Chemistry, 605, pp. 109–17.

Alexander, B.D., Dines, T.J., and Longhurst, R.W. 2006. Scaled quantum chemical force field and interpretation of the resonance Raman spectra of transition metal tris-α-diimine complexes. In: Proceedings of the 20th International Conference on Raman Spectroscopy. Yokohama, Japan, p. 161.

Solarska, R., Alexander, B.D., and Augustynski, J. (2006) Electrochromic and photoelectrochemical characteristics of nanostructured WO3 films prepared by a sol-gel method. Comptes Rendus Chimie, 9, pp. 301–6.

Alexander, B.D. et al (2005) Photoelectrochemical oxidation of water at transparent ferric oxide film electrodes. Journal of Physical Chemistry B, 109, pp. 13685–92.

Alexander, B.D. and Dines, T.J. (2004) Ab initio calculations of the structures and vibrational spectra of ethene complexes. Journal of Physical Chemistry A, 108, pp. 146–56.

Alexander, B.D. and Dines, T.J. (2004) Ab initio calculations and normal coordinate analysis of ruthenium polypyridyl complexes. Inorganic Chemistry, 43, pp. 342–50.

Alexander, B.D., Crayston, J.A., and Dines, T.J. (2004) A resonance Raman and SERRS spectroscopic investigation of nickel (II) porphyrin complexes adsorbed at electrochemical interfaces. Physical Chemistry Chemical Physics, 6, pp. 3576–84.

Solarska, R., Alexander, B.D., and Augustynski, J. (2004) Electrochromic and structural characteristics of mesoporous WO3 films prepared by a sol-gel method. Journal of Solid State Electrochemistry, 8, pp. 748–56.

Alexander, B.D., Solarska, R., and Augustynski, J. 2004. Electrochromic and structural characteristics of mesoporous WO3 films prepared by a sol-gel method. In: Proceedings of the XIXth International Conference on Raman Spectroscopy, Fredericks, P.M., Frost, R.L., and Rintoul, L. (eds.) CSIRO Publishing, Collingwood, Australia.

Alexander, B.D. 2004. Modelling the structure and vibrational spectra of sulphonate anions: problems to know and overcome. In: Proceedings of the XIXth International Conference on Raman Spectroscopy, Fredericks, P.M., Frost, R.L., and Rintoul, L. (eds.) CSIRO Publishing, Collingwood, Australia.

Alexander, B.D. et al (2003) Photoelectrochemical oxidation of water at transparent ferric oxide film electrodes. Chemical Physics Letters, 376, pp. 194–200.

Alexander, B.D., and Dines. T.J. 2002. The chemical mechanism in the SERS spectrum of pyrazine. In: Proceedings of the XVIIIth International Conference on Raman Spectroscopy, Mink, J., Jalsovszky, G., and G. Keresztury (eds.). Chichester: John Wiley, p. 281.

Invited book chapters

Edwards, A.A., and Alexander, B.D. (2010) Organic Applications of UV-Visible Absorption Spectroscopy. In: Encyclopedia of Spectroscopy and Spectrometry, 2nd ed. Linden, J., Tranter, G.E., and Koppenaal, D. (eds.). Academic Press.ISBN: 978-0-12-374417-3, pp. 2030–89.

Alexander, B.D., and Augustynski, J. (2009) Nanostructured Thin-Film WO3 Photoanodes for Solar Water and Sea-Water Splitting. In: On Solar Hydrogen and Nanotechnology, Vayssieres, L. (ed.). Singapore/Chichester: John Wiley & Sons, pp. 333–48.

Patent applications

Augustynski, J., Odziemkowski, M., Alexander, B.D., and Fedurco, M. 2006. Photoelectrochemical silver roughening for surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy.

Our research was the highlight article in the Journal of Materials Chemistry (2008, vol. 18, p. 2298) and in Eureka magazine (January 2009).