Jennifer's current research interests involve the synthesis and structural characterisation of inorganic materials. The main focus of her research is on mircoporous materials such as zeolites and also zeotypes such as titanium and zirconium silicates and the relationship between the structure of materials and their physical properties. These materials have a wide range of uses in everyday life. Some are used as ion-exchange materials, where harmful cations can be removed from water and replaced by less harmful species. As the pore sizes in these materials can be altered during the synthesis stage they can be used as molecular sieves and selective adsorbents. Here, our aim is to determine the optimum materials to selectively adsorb environmental pollutants such as those found in pharmaceutical waste or those used in the recovery of unconventional hydrocarbons. Another area of research is in metal-organic frameworks. These are hybrid materials that can be used in catalysis and as sensors and adsorbents. The research being carried out here is focused on investigating their stability and degradation, which will impact how long they can be used in a particular industrial processes.
