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The University of Kent, Canterbury, Kent, CT2 7NZ, T +44 (0)1227 764000
Professor R. J. Newport
Profile
Professor of Materials Physics
Office: Room 213, Ingram Building
Telephone: (01227) 827887
Email: r.j.newport@kent.ac.uk
Departmental and University Roles
- Senior Tutor
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Biography
Following graduation in 1975, Bob went on to gain a PhD at the University of Leicester on the basis of his thesis "Electronic transport properties of some liquid metals and alloys". He arrived at the University of Kent in 1985 to take the post of Lecturer in Condensed Matter Physics, having spent the intervening years as a postdoctoral researcher, and then as Senior Scientific Officer at the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory working on the development of their pulsed neutron source - part of which involved secondment to a national neutron facility in the USA during 1983/4. He has played a central role in several developments since then, including the creation of one of the first Graduate Schools on campus and the definition of early web-site strategies. In 1997 he became the founding Head of Department for the new School of Physical Sciences, and continued in that role until 2000.
Bob, unusually, has been elected a Fellow of both the Institute of Physics and the Royal Society of Chemistry, and was a Leverhulme Research Fellow for the year 1995/6. In 2007 he was awarded the higher research degree, a DSc, by the University of Leicester on the basis (in their words) of his eminence in his field and his published work, which constitutes a sustained, original and distinguished contribution to knowledge, including seminal publications which have led to significant developments in the area of research. He has been a member of or has chaired several national research panels/committees, in the UK and in France, and has been consulted by, or has taught at, universities and companies in Sweden, Germany, Italy, Canada, Australia and the USA.
He currently chairs the Science & Technology Facilities Council's Physical & Life Sciences Committee and in that role sits on their Science Board
Research Interests
Bob's team is focused on understanding the atomic-scale structure of novel amorphous (non-crystalline) materials of contemporary interest such as non-linear optical glasses and "sol gel" glasses which may be catalytically or biologically active. Current research activity is primarily centred on the synthesis and basic understanding of a wide range of bioactive glasses, which have a range of potential applications including bone regeneration, antibacterial materials and drug delivery systems. The structure of a given material is arguably the key factor in determining its macroscopic properties: the ethos of his work derives from his central interest in explaining why novel amorphous materials behave in the way they do: in other words to provide the research that will underpin a full understanding of their technologically useful attributes. His firm belief is that complex materials or systems can rarely, if ever, be fully understood at the atomic/molecular or mesoscopic level if only a single experimental technique is used. He has therefore sought to adopt, and to develop, a research methodology which embraces a wide range of traditionally disparate structural probes in an attempt to provide a more complete, and hence robust and widely applicable, picture. These include the use of a number of X-ray and neutron scattering techniques, together with computer simulation and modelling and many other complementary methods such as IR and Raman spectroscopy, ......... . His team's work is truly multi-disciplinary, involving experimental and theoretical work in, and links with chemistry, engineering, materials science and bio/medical-engineering. His team’s primary tools are the diffractometers and other spectrometers at the world-leading neutron and synchrotron X-ray facilties UK scientists have access to in the UK and beyond.
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Also view these in the Kent Academic Repository
Books
Anderson, R. and Brennan, T. and Cole, J.M. et al. (1999)
An extended x-ray absorption fine structure study of rare-earth phosphate glasses near the metaphosphate composition.
MATERIALS RESEARCH SOCIETY, 506 KEYSTONE DR, WARRENDALE, PA 15086 USA
Abstract
A variable-temperature (79, 145, and 293 K) extended x-ray absorption fine structure study, using rare-earth L-III absorption edges, is reported for phosphate glasses doped with rare-earth elements (R, where R = La, Ce, Pr, Nd, Sm, Eu, Gd, Tb, Dy, Ho, and Er) with compositions close to metaphosphate, R(PO3)(3). The results yield nearest-neighbor R-O distances that demonstrate the lanthanide contraction in a glassy matrix and an R-O coordination intermediate between 6 and 7 for ran-earth ions with smaller atomic number (Z) and 6 for rare-earth ions with larger Z, Thermal parameters show no significant changes in R-O distances or coordination numbers between 293 and 79 K. There is evidence of an R-P correlation between 3.3 and 3.6 Angstrom and the beginning of a second R-O correlation at approximately 4 Angstrom. No R-R correlations up to a distance of approximately 4 ii were observed.
Newport, R.J. and Williams, W.G. (1983)
Electron Volt Spectroscopy On A Pulsed Neutron Source Using Resonance Absorption Filters.
Science and Engineering Research Council, Oxford
Abstract
The design aspects of an inelastic neutron spectrometer based on energy selection by the resonance absorption filter difference method are discussed. Detailed calculations of the accessible dynamical range (Q, ?), energy and momentum transfer resolutions and representative count rates are presented for Sm and Ta resonance filters in an inverse geometry spectrometer on a high intensity pulsed source such as the RAL spallation neutron Source (SNS). A discussion is given of the double-diffraction method, which provides a means of improving the resonance attenuation peak shape. As a result of this study, as well as preliminary experimental results, recommendations are made for the future development of the technique.
Articles
Martin, R.A. and Mountjoy, G. and Newport, R.J. (2009)
A molecular dynamics model of the atomic structure of dysprosium alumino-phosphate glass.
Journal of Physics-Condensed Matter, 21 (7). pp. 075102. ISSN 0953-8984.
Abstract
Molecular dynamics (MD) has been used to identify the relative distribution of dysprosium in the phosphate glass DyAl0.30P3.05O9.62. The MD model has been compared directly with experimental data obtained from neutron diffraction to enable a detailed comparison beyond the total structure factor level. The MD simulation gives Dy ... Dy correlations at 3.80(5) and 6.40(5) angstrom with relative coordination numbers of 0.8(1) and 7.3(5), thus providing evidence of minority rare-earth clustering within these glasses. The nearest neighbour Dy-O peak occurs at 2.30 angstrom with each Dy atom having on average 5.8 nearest neighbour oxygen atoms. The MD simulation is consistent with the phosphate network model based on interlinked PO4 tetrahedra where the addition of network modifiers Dy3+ depolymerizes the phosphate network through the breakage of P-(O)-P bonds whilst leaving the tetrahedral units intact. The role of aluminium within the network has been taken into explicit account, and A1 is found to be predominantly (78%) tetrahedrally coordinated. In fact all four A1 bonds are found to be to P (via an oxygen atom) with negligible amounts of Al-O-Dy bonds present. This provides an important insight into the role of Al additives in improving the mechanical properties of these glasses.
Carta, D. and Knowles, J.C. and Guerry, P. et al. (2009)
Sol-gel synthesis and structural characterisation of P2O5-B2O3-Na2O glasses for biomedical applications.
Journal of Materials Chemistry, 19 (1). pp. 150-158. ISSN 0959-9428.
Abstract
Glasses in the system 40(P2O5)-x(B2O3)-(60-x)(Na2O) (10 <= x <= 25 mol%) were prepared by the sol gel technique. A mixture of mono- and diethylphosphates was used as precursor for P2O5, boric acid and sodium methoxide were used as source compounds for B2O3 and Na2O, respectively. The dried gels obtained were heat treated at 200, 300 and 400 degrees C. Structural development occurring during heat treatment and changes with composition were investigated using X-ray diffraction, thermal analysis, infrared spectroscopy, B-11 and P-31 solid state NMR. Systems with x = 20 and x = 25 mol% are amorphous up to 400 degrees C, whereas systems with lower B2O3 content are partially crystalline. This work extends sol-gel preparation of amorphous borophosphate systems having P2O5 as the main component.
Abou Neel, E.A. and Pickup, D.M. and Valappil, S.P. et al. (2009)
Bioactive functional materials: a perspective on phosphate-based glasses.
Journal of Materials Chemistry, 19 (6). pp. 690-701. ISSN 0959-9428.
Abstract
The general trend in biomaterials is to use and employ materials that play an active role in tissue regeneration rather than passive and inert materials. Therefore, understanding how a material interacts with the surrounding environments, including cells and tissue fluid, allows material design to be tailored so that implants can be constructed to promote a specific biological response, helping them better perform their function. This class of materials has been described as the "Third Generation" of biomaterials. Phosphate based glasses fall into this category and it has been shown that the properties of these glasses can be tuned via their composition according to the desired end application. These glasses can be prepared as melt-quenched or sol-gel bulk form suitable for potential hard tissue engineering applications and as vehicles for antimicrobial agents. They can also be prepared as fibres suitable for soft tissue engineering applications such as those involving muscle, ligaments, and tendon, where, like the fibres, the tissue has a high degree of anisotropy.
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Teaching
- PH025 - Waves and Vibrations
- PH026 - Properties of Matter
- PH027 - Physics Tutorial
- PH603 - Group Project
- PH606 - Solid State Physics
- PH700 - Research Project
- Senior Tutor
- The Refreshing Physics Project
Teaching interests
Bob's teaching has covered a wide spectrum, but is currently focussed on aspects of condensed matter and materials physics at all stages from the Foundation Year through to the final year of the MPhys programme. Innovation has been a continual theme in his approach to teaching, for instance he led a successful curriculum development project aimed at moving suitable lecture courses into a hypertext media. He was a leading member of the "Refreshing Physics" project, which attracted much interest nationally (www.kent.ac.uk/physical-sciences/RePh/index.htm). He has served as Chief Examiner as Director of Undergraduate Studies for Physics and as Director of Learning and Teaching for the School of Physical Sciences, but is currently fulfilling the role of Senior Tutor for all the School’s undergraduates. He is the (founding) chair of the University’s Senior Tutor Network. Until 2010 he chaired of the University’s Senior Tutor Network. Bob served as the Chief External Examiner for Physics at the University of Leicester, 2005-2008. He was awarded the Faculty's Teaching Prize for 2009-2010 for his work in engaging Foundation Year students.
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