Andrei Nikolaevich Khlobystov (russian: Андрей Николаевич Хлобыстов) is a Russian-British scientist who is the Professor of
Nanomaterials at the
University of Nottingham. He serves as Director for Research for the
School of Chemistry in the Faculty of Science and has received several awards during his career, including the
European Young Investigator award
European, or Europeans, or Europeneans, may refer to:
In general
* ''European'', an adjective referring to something of, from, or related to Europe
** Ethnic groups in Europe
** Demographics of Europe
** European cuisine, the cuisines of Europe a ...
and the
Corday–Morgan Prize
The Corday–Morgan Medal and Prize is awarded by the Royal Society of Chemistry for the most meritorious contributions to experimental chemistry, including computer simulation. The prize was established by chemist Gilbert Morgan, who named it af ...
in 2015. Khlobystov is currently the Director and
principal investigator of th
Metal Atoms on Surfaces and Interfaces EPSRC Programme Grant
Early life and education
Andrei Nikolaevich Khlobystov was born in
Soviet Russia in 1974. He obtained a Master of Science degree in chemistry from
Moscow State University in 1997, and received a PhD in 2002 from the
University of Nottingham under the supervision of
Martin Schröder Martin Schröder may refer to:
* Martin Schröder (chemist) (born 1954), professor of inorganic chemistry
* Martin Schröder (aviator)
Johan Martin Schröder (born 13 May 1931 in Amsterdam) is a Dutch pilot and founder of Martinair, the second D ...
and Neil Champness.
Career and research
Khlobystov started his post-doctoral career at the
Department of Materials at the
University of Oxford from 2002 until 2004 under
Andrew Briggs
(George) Andrew Davidson Briggs (born 1950) is a British scientist. He is Professor of Nanomaterials in the Department of Materials at the University of Oxford. He is best known for his early work in acoustic microscopy and his current work in ...
, where he began exploring
carbon nanotube
A scanning tunneling microscopy image of a single-walled carbon nanotube
Rotating single-walled zigzag carbon nanotube
A carbon nanotube (CNT) is a tube made of carbon with diameters typically measured in nanometers.
''Single-wall carbon na ...
as
nanoscale containers for molecules. He applied
transmission electron microscopy (TEM) for imaging structures of individual molecules and studying their dynamic behaviour in direct space and real time, which shed light on
intermolecular interactions
An intermolecular force (IMF) (or secondary force) is the force that mediates interaction between molecules, including the electromagnetic forces of attraction
or repulsion which act between atoms and other types of neighbouring particles, e.g. a ...
, and the translation and rotational motion of molecules at nanoscale. He was part of the team awarded a Guinness World Record for performing a chemical reaction inside carbon nanotubes.
In 2004, Khlobystov moved to the University of Nottingham as a
Leverhulme Trust research fellow. At Nottingham, he built the Nottingham Nanocarbon Group, which has demonstrated that nanoscale confinement can lead to new products inaccessible by other synthetic methods. In 2005, his research group was awarded a
European Young Investigator award and a
Royal Society University Research Fellowship. Around this time, he was featured in
Times Higher Education's series of emerging researchers in the
physical sciences. In 2008, the Nanocarbon Group presented at the
Royal Society's Summer Science Exhibition, with a display entitled "Wonder in carbon land: how do you hold a molecule?", showcasing the potential of utilising nanocages and nanotubes to control chemical reactions. Khlobystov's team has discovered mechanisms of interactions between carbon nanostructures and molecules or
nanoparticles which enabled the design of nanoreactor systems with tuneable size and
functionality. This research was supported by numerous grants including a
European Research Council Starting Grant in 2011.
In 2016, to commemorate the opening of the nano- and micro-Research Centre (nmRC) at the University of Nottingham, Khlobystov led a team that utilised a
Focused Ion Beam
Focused ion beam, also known as FIB, is a technique used particularly in the semiconductor industry, materials science and increasingly in the biological field for site-specific analysis, deposition, and ablation of materials. A FIB setup is a s ...
Scanning Electron Microscope (FIB-SEM) to etch a birthday message onto a
corgi hair to commemorate Queen
Elizabeth II's 90th birthday. In 2020, Khlobystov led a team that captured a video of the chemical bond between two metal atoms breaking and forming for the first time. This followed previous work which embraced the
observer effect Observer effect, observer bias, observation bias, etc. may refer to a number of concepts, some of them closely related:
General experimental biases
* Hawthorne effect, a form of reactivity in which subjects modify an aspect of their behavior, in ...
, utilising the electron beam present in an electron microscopy to provide the source of energy to drive chemical reactions and enable them to be directly observed, and was given the moniker ChemTEM.
Since 2021, Khlobystov has been PI for the MASI programme grant, which is investigating
solvent-free routes to preparing and understanding single metal atoms and metal
nanoclusters on surfaces for use as
catalysts for
electrochemical hydrogen production,
ammonia synthesis and carbon dioxide reduction.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Khlobystov, Andrei
Academics of the University of Nottingham
Fellows of the Royal Society of Chemistry
British materials scientists
Living people
Inorganic chemists
Academics of the University of Oxford
British physical chemists
21st-century British chemists
Alumni of the University of Nottingham
Moscow State University alumni
1974 births