Personal Statement
Karl graduated with a First Class Chemistry degree and PhD from Leicester University, held an individual Marie Curie Research Fellowship in Strasbourg, France then a Royal Society University Research Fellowship in Chemistry at the University of Oxford. He joined Durham Chemistry in 2004 and was promoted to a Reader in 2010 and Chair in 2012. Karl has held a number of leadership roles whilst in Durham including Director of Research in the Chemistry Department and Head of Department from August 2017 to February 2022. He was also chair of the University Senate Agenda Setting Committee. Karl joined Liverpool as Dean of Physical Sciences in February 2022.
Karl’s research is focussed on nanomaterials in particular the chemistry of graphene and carbon nanotubes. His work has been recognised with numerous awards, including the international Royal Society of Chemistry Entrepreneur of the Year Award 2011 for his work on graphene, the Times Higher Education Research and Innovation Award 2012 and more recently the Royal Society of Chemistry 2017 Materials for Industry – Derek Birchall Award . He has served as Chair of the Chemical Nanosciences and Nanotechnology subject group of the Royal Society of Chemistry (2016 - 2021) and is an expert member on committee AMT/009 in the BSI, the UK national standards body. Karl recently completed a 5-year term (ended 2019) as a Member of the Digital Programme (formerly Innovation, Research and Development) Expert Group, operated by the UK Government Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy. This involved overseeing progress and offering strategic direction for a number of research programmes across the National Measurement System (NMS) remit (of which the National Physical Laboratory is part).
Karl is the editor of the Elsevier journal FlatChem: Chemistry of 2D Materials and sits on the editorial board of the scientific journals Crystals, ISRN Nanotechnology and the Journal of Carbon Research. Karl established the successful University spinout company Applied Graphene Materials in 2010, which is now listed on the FTSE AIM index, and he is currently the Chief Scientific Officer.

Research Overview
The group’s research interests are in the field of nanomaterials and nanotechnology. Nanotechnology is the science of creating structures or materials on a nanometre (one millionth of a millimetre) scale. Interestingly, the fundamental physical and chemical properties of materials are altered as they are decreased to the nanometre scale. Therefore, nanostructured materials offer great potential in the development of new electronic devices, bio-sensors and high strength composites. Our work in this area involves, amongst others, the synthesis and chemistry of graphene and carbon nanotubes. We use chemistry to improve the compatibility and dispersion in a range of matrices to facilitate the use of nanocarbons in a range of applications including advanced composites and coatings.
Synthetic procedures within the group often involve sensitive materials which are handled using inert atmosphere glove-box or Schlenk line techniques. As well as making use of the more routine analytical techniques to characterise the materials, such as NMR spectroscopy and mass spectrometry, the group makes extensive use of scanning probe microscopy (SPM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), Raman spectroscopy and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS).

Research interests:

- Graphene
- Carbon Nanotubes
- Nanocomposites
- Coatings
- Nanotechnology
- Nanomaterials

Key References:

1.Controlled Structure Evolution of Graphene Networks in Polymer Composites. S. C. Boothroyd, D. W. Johnson, M. P. Weir, C. D. Reynolds, J. M. Hart, A. J. Smith, N. Clarke, R. L. Thompson and K. S. Coleman. Chemistry of Materials 2018, 30, 1524.
2. Extrinsic Wrinkling and Single Exfoliated Sheets of Graphene Oxide in Polymer Composites. M. P. Weir, D. W. Johnson, S. C. Boothroyd, R. C. Savage, R. L. Thompson, S. R. Parnell, A. J. Parnell, S. M. King, S. E. Rogers, K. S. Coleman and N. Clarke. Chemistry of Materials 2016, 28, 1698.
3. A Manufacturing Perspective on Graphene Dispersions. D. W. Johnson, B. P. Dobson and K. S. Coleman. Current Opinion in Colloid & Interface Science 2015, 20, 367.
4. Graphene Film Growth on Polycrystalline Metals. R. S. Edwards and K. S. Coleman. Accounts of Chemical Research 2013, 46, 23.
5. Graphene synthesis: relationship to applications. R. S. Edwards and K. S. Coleman. Nanoscale 2013, 5, 38.
6. Unweaving the rainbow: a review of the relationship between single-walled carbon nanotube molecular structures and their chemical reactivity. S. A. Hodge, M. K. Bayazit, K. S. Coleman and M. S. P. Shaffer. Chemical Society Reviews 2012, 41, 4409.
7. Simple and scalable route for the 'bottom-up' synthesis of few-layer graphene platelets and thin films. C. R. Herron, R. S. Edwards, K. S. Coleman, B. Mendis, Journal of Materials Chemistry 2011, 21, 3378.
8. Pyridine-functionalized single-Walled carbon nanotubes as gelators for poly(acrylic acid) hydrogels. M. K. Bayazit, L. S. Clarke, N. Clarke, K. S. Coleman, Journal of the American Chemical Society 2010, 132, 15814.
9. Fluorescent single-walled carbon nanotubes following the 1,3-dipolar cycloaddition of pyridinium ylides. M. K. Bayazit, K. S. Coleman. Journal of the American Chemical Society 2009, 131, 10670.
10. A facile, solvent-free, noncovalent, and nondisruptive route to functionalize single-wall carbon nanotubes using tertiary phosphines. A. Suri, A. K. Chakraborty, K. S. Coleman. Chemistry of Materials 2008, 20, 1705.