BEDFORD RESEARCH GROUP
Welcome to the website for the Bedford Research Group. Here you will find information on all the group’s research activities, publications and various musings. The group is always looking for talented, enthusiastic, and passionate students eager to develop scientific principles for the generation of new materials with interesting/improved properties. Our group is highly collaborative as well, so feel free to contact us if you would be interested in working together!
Welcome to the website for the Bedford Research Group. Here you will find information on all the group’s research activities, publications and various musings. The group is always looking for talented, enthusiastic, and passionate students eager to develop scientific principles for the generation of new materials with interesting/improved properties. Our group is highly collaborative as well, so feel free to contact us if you would be interested in working together!
Interested in joining our team?
WHAT WE DO
Our group is interested in two things: 1) Uncovering the fundamental structural science behind what gives materials the properties that they exhibit and 2) using this information to make new materials with emergent properties. We strive to accomplish both of these interests through creative thinking coupled with the rigorous study of fundamental science. Many of our students work in very collaborative projects across campus, Australia, and beyond and work in areas including catalysis, advanced ceramic materials, biosensors, and rare earth materials.
Our team
Learn more about our crew and information to join the team.
Research
We make really interesting materials. Then we shoot X-rays at them to figure out how they work and how to make better materials.
Publications
Dissemination of new research is vital to the progress of technology.
Just wrapped with experiments at BESSY-II 😎🇩🇪🍻🧑🔬👩🔬👨🔬🐮🐄. Using the Energy Materials In-Situ Laboratory (EMIL) and the OAESE beamline, we examined metal oxides catalyst under operando conditions during biomass conversion reactions 🤯🙂↔️😱😸. Awesome datasets collected for sure, and very supportive staff. We’ll be back 🤖for sure. thanks to @yuweii77vv for the assist and being excellent at opening doors 🙂 #synchrotron #synchrotronlife #synchrotronscience #bessy #softxrays #copper #cobalt #biomass #carbonnanotubes #cantstopwontstop💪 #dataordie
Just wrapped with experiments at BESSY-II 😎🇩🇪🍻🧑🔬👩🔬👨🔬🐮🐄. Using the Energy Materials In-Situ Laboratory (EMIL) and the OAESE beamline, we examined metal oxides catalyst under operando conditions during biomass conversion reactions 🤯🙂↔️😱😸. Awesome datasets collected for sure, and very supportive staff. We’ll be back 🤖for sure. thanks to @yuweii77vv for the assist and being excellent at opening doors 🙂 #synchrotron #synchrotronlife #synchrotronscience #bessy #softxrays #copper #cobalt #biomass #carbonnanotubes #cantstopwontstop💪 #dataordie
Feels good to be….😊😁😀☺️😎…after a two year hiatus for upgrades, we just wrapped on XAS experiments at the Advanced Photon Source 🩻⭕️☠️. Lots of great data across a lot of collaborative work. Thanks to @darastrix354 for keeping 10-ID-B pumping 🐈🐈⬛, and our collabs from INL 🥔☢️🐈⬛⚡️ for the help. Looking forward to more beam time at the APS in the future 🙂😀. #welcomeback #synchrotron #synchrotronlife #synchrotronscience #xas #criticalmaterials #rareearthelements #nitride #borides #electrocatalysis #cantstopwontstop #dataordie
Feels good to be….😊😁😀☺️😎…after a two year hiatus for upgrades, we just wrapped on XAS experiments at the Advanced Photon Source 🩻⭕️☠️. Lots of great data across a lot of collaborative work. Thanks to @darastrix354 for keeping 10-ID-B pumping 🐈🐈⬛, and our collabs from INL 🥔☢️🐈⬛⚡️ for the help. Looking forward to more beam time at the APS in the future 🙂😀. #welcomeback #synchrotron #synchrotronlife #synchrotronscience #xas #criticalmaterials #rareearthelements #nitride #borides #electrocatalysis #cantstopwontstop #dataordie
New paper out in ACS Omega 🇺🇸🧪🏘️♎️. In partnership with the our friends at AFRL🛩️, we examine the local structure of polymer derived SiOC, an industrially relevant material that is poorly understood 😎. Here, we use a range of synchrotron techniques (at APS 🇺🇸, CLS 🇨🇦, and Aussitron 🇦🇺) to show how this material isn’t simply a mix of carbon, oxides, and/or carbides, but demonstrates local Si-O and Si-C coordination in a disordered environment. Cool new insights 👍. Thanks to our colleagues at the synchrotron facilities, and @yuweii77vv @haihackbarth for their efforts. Read the paper here: https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acsomega.4c09094 #sioc #carbides #oxides #oxycarbides #polymerderivedceramics #synchrotron #synchrotronscience #collabos #dataordie
New paper out in ACS Omega 🇺🇸🧪🏘️♎️. In partnership with the our friends at AFRL🛩️, we examine the local structure of polymer derived SiOC, an industrially relevant material that is poorly understood 😎. Here, we use a range of synchrotron techniques (at APS 🇺🇸, CLS 🇨🇦, and Aussitron 🇦🇺) to show how this material isn’t simply a mix of carbon, oxides, and/or carbides, but demonstrates local Si-O and Si-C coordination in a disordered environment. Cool new insights 👍. Thanks to our colleagues at the synchrotron facilities, and @yuweii77vv @haihackbarth for their efforts. Read the paper here: https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acsomega.4c09094 #sioc #carbides #oxides #oxycarbides #polymerderivedceramics #synchrotron #synchrotronscience #collabos #dataordie
Congrats to @gug_rj for receiving his PhD in Chemical Engineering 🍾🙌🎉🥳🎊🥂🕺💃🪩🇧🇷📚😺👍😎🧪⚗️🥼‼️!!! Great work, and some novel approaches for looking at biotic/abiotic interfaces for functional biosensors 🧬🔬🧫🩻. Great accomplishment! #phd #phlife #missionaccomplished✔️ #synchrotron #synchrotronlife #synchrotronscience #peptides #graphene #sensors #vocs #ontothenextone #dataordie
Congrats to @gug_rj for receiving his PhD in Chemical Engineering 🍾🙌🎉🥳🎊🥂🕺💃🪩🇧🇷📚😺👍😎🧪⚗️🥼‼️!!! Great work, and some novel approaches for looking at biotic/abiotic interfaces for functional biosensors 🧬🔬🧫🩻. Great accomplishment! #phd #phlife #missionaccomplished✔️ #synchrotron #synchrotronlife #synchrotronscience #peptides #graphene #sensors #vocs #ontothenextone #dataordie
New paper in Angewandte Chemie International Edition 🇩🇪🧪🌎🗞️😎👍😁🧐! In partnership with @ale.fraca and his team at the Universidad de Cordoba 🇦🇷, metal organic frameworks were used to selectively degrade glyphosate, one of the most commonly used pesticides, to far less harmful chemicals in water 🌱 🌾🧑🌾👩🌾👨🌾💧🦆. The trick is to engineering catalyst sites with liable ligands to form defects. Great work by all, especially Jhair and Tatiana for co-leading the work, @steeephch for helping with data collection, and our mates at the Australian Synchrotron 🇦🇺, Taiwan Photon Source 🇹🇼, and PETRA-III 🇩🇪 for keeping the X-rays humming 🩻🐦🔥. Read the paper here: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/anie.202424540 #pesticidefree #glyphosate #organophosphate #mofs #zirconium #synchrotron #synchrotronlife #synchrotronscience #collabos #dataordie
New paper in Angewandte Chemie International Edition 🇩🇪🧪🌎🗞️😎👍😁🧐! In partnership with @ale.fraca and his team at the Universidad de Cordoba 🇦🇷, metal organic frameworks were used to selectively degrade glyphosate, one of the most commonly used pesticides, to far less harmful chemicals in water 🌱 🌾🧑🌾👩🌾👨🌾💧🦆. The trick is to engineering catalyst sites with liable ligands to form defects. Great work by all, especially Jhair and Tatiana for co-leading the work, @steeephch for helping with data collection, and our mates at the Australian Synchrotron 🇦🇺, Taiwan Photon Source 🇹🇼, and PETRA-III 🇩🇪 for keeping the X-rays humming 🩻🐦🔥. Read the paper here: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/anie.202424540 #pesticidefree #glyphosate #organophosphate #mofs #zirconium #synchrotron #synchrotronlife #synchrotronscience #collabos #dataordie
The team just wrapped on back to back experiments at MEX-1 and MEX-2 beamlines of the Australian Synchrotron 🦘🐨🕷️🕸️⭕️💪📈📊. Great work by @maryam.jamshidi93 and the rest of the team 👍, where we looked at a range of catalysts, ceramics and sorbent materials ⚡️🧱🧽. Keep an eye out for upcoming papers soon 😎. #synchrotron #synchrotronlife #synchrotronscience #xas #catalyst #ceramics #mofs #rocks #theycantstopwontstop #dataordie
The team just wrapped on back to back experiments at MEX-1 and MEX-2 beamlines of the Australian Synchrotron 🦘🐨🕷️🕸️⭕️💪📈📊. Great work by @maryam.jamshidi93 and the rest of the team 👍, where we looked at a range of catalysts, ceramics and sorbent materials ⚡️🧱🧽. Keep an eye out for upcoming papers soon 😎. #synchrotron #synchrotronlife #synchrotronscience #xas #catalyst #ceramics #mofs #rocks #theycantstopwontstop #dataordie
New paper out in the Journal of Materials Chemistry A 📓🧱🧪🅰️🧪🇬🇧👍. In collaboration with ANSTO 🦘☢️and CEA 🥖☢️, Zr based sorbent materials for minor actinides were evaluated using a range of analytical techniques to probe their radiation tolerance 🙅🙅♀️🙅♂️. Great work to all….. read the paper here: https://pubs.rsc.org/en/content/articlelanding/2025/ta/d4ta08221d/unauth #nuclearfuel #actinides #americium #europium #phosphonates #synchrotron #synchrotronscience #dataordie
New paper out in the Journal of Materials Chemistry A 📓🧱🧪🅰️🧪🇬🇧👍. In collaboration with ANSTO 🦘☢️and CEA 🥖☢️, Zr based sorbent materials for minor actinides were evaluated using a range of analytical techniques to probe their radiation tolerance 🙅🙅♀️🙅♂️. Great work to all….. read the paper here: https://pubs.rsc.org/en/content/articlelanding/2025/ta/d4ta08221d/unauth #nuclearfuel #actinides #americium #europium #phosphonates #synchrotron #synchrotronscience #dataordie
New paper in ACS Applied Energy Materials 🇺🇸🧪👥⚡️🧱😊🎉. In this work led by our colleagues at the University of Sydney, computational studies 💻🤖were performed on a Na transport on class of borohydrides, important materials for future battery technologies 🔋. These efforts showcase the important in borohydride phase in ion conductivity, and what anion pairing is important for transport. 😎. Read to the paper here: https://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/acsaem.4c02634 #computionalchemistry #sodium #sodiumionbattery #borohydrides #dataordie
New paper in ACS Applied Energy Materials 🇺🇸🧪👥⚡️🧱😊🎉. In this work led by our colleagues at the University of Sydney, computational studies 💻🤖were performed on a Na transport on class of borohydrides, important materials for future battery technologies 🔋. These efforts showcase the important in borohydride phase in ion conductivity, and what anion pairing is important for transport. 😎. Read to the paper here: https://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/acsaem.4c02634 #computionalchemistry #sodium #sodiumionbattery #borohydrides #dataordie
Just wrapped on some nice XAS experiments at Diamond 💍💎🔷🔶💠🤓! During this beam time sleepy 🥱 (@yuweii77vv ) go some excellent looking data on a range of new catalysts 🐈⬛ and advanced ceramics 🧱. Also, holy HERFD Batman 🔬🦇. We’ll be back for sure 🏃🏃♀️🏃♂️🚀🏊🏊♀️🏊♂️. #synchrotron #synchrotronlife #synchrotronscience #xas #herfd #biomass #catalyst #ceramics #iron #nickel #cobalt #manganese #zirconium #niobium #cantstopwontstop #dataordie
Just wrapped on some nice XAS experiments at Diamond 💍💎🔷🔶💠🤓! During this beam time sleepy 🥱 (@yuweii77vv ) go some excellent looking data on a range of new catalysts 🐈⬛ and advanced ceramics 🧱. Also, holy HERFD Batman 🔬🦇. We’ll be back for sure 🏃🏃♀️🏃♂️🚀🏊🏊♀️🏊♂️. #synchrotron #synchrotronlife #synchrotronscience #xas #herfd #biomass #catalyst #ceramics #iron #nickel #cobalt #manganese #zirconium #niobium #cantstopwontstop #dataordie
Busy week last week… so busy there arent a lot of photos 🫠. First, I was thrilled to visit INL 🥔☢️ for an invited seminar and to discuss future collaborative efforts 😎. The latter half of the week consisted of coalition building between the DoD labs at Colorado 🏔️research entities. Exciting times again yall 😁 #seminar #famouspotatoes #collabs #newstuffcomingsoon #cantstopwontstop #dataordie
Busy week last week… so busy there arent a lot of photos 🫠. First, I was thrilled to visit INL 🥔☢️ for an invited seminar and to discuss future collaborative efforts 😎. The latter half of the week consisted of coalition building between the DoD labs at Colorado 🏔️research entities. Exciting times again yall 😁 #seminar #famouspotatoes #collabs #newstuffcomingsoon #cantstopwontstop #dataordie
New paper out in the JACS 📓🇺🇸🧪🧑🧑🧒🧒😎🥳🫡😲🤳👍. Lead by our colleagues at the University of Queensland 👸, composite PbCsI3 - MOF glasses were synthesized for use as stable artificial photosynthesis 🌿🌴catalyst for CO2 conversion. The pervoskite exhibits visible light absorption and charge separation ⚡️, while the Rh catalytic sites in the MOF mimic photosystem I for CO2 fixation. Good stuff 😺👽! Our work used synchrotron facilities at the Aussitron 🦘🇦🇺, ESRF 🥖🇪🇺, and PETRA-III 🍺🇩🇪 that really made our understanding of electron transfer process possible. Great work by all ‼️. Read the paper here: https://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/jacs.4c12619 #artificialphotosynthesis #perovskite #mof #leadhalideperovskite #rhodium #zinc #synchrotron #synchrotronlife #synchrotronscience #collabos #dataordie
New paper out in the JACS 📓🇺🇸🧪🧑🧑🧒🧒😎🥳🫡😲🤳👍. Lead by our colleagues at the University of Queensland 👸, composite PbCsI3 - MOF glasses were synthesized for use as stable artificial photosynthesis 🌿🌴catalyst for CO2 conversion. The pervoskite exhibits visible light absorption and charge separation ⚡️, while the Rh catalytic sites in the MOF mimic photosystem I for CO2 fixation. Good stuff 😺👽! Our work used synchrotron facilities at the Aussitron 🦘🇦🇺, ESRF 🥖🇪🇺, and PETRA-III 🍺🇩🇪 that really made our understanding of electron transfer process possible. Great work by all ‼️. Read the paper here: https://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/jacs.4c12619 #artificialphotosynthesis #perovskite #mof #leadhalideperovskite #rhodium #zinc #synchrotron #synchrotronlife #synchrotronscience #collabos #dataordie
New paper out in ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces 🇺🇸🧪🧑🧑🧒🧒📌🧱🙈🎉👍. In a collaborative effort with our friends at AFRL✈️, a mechanistic study was performed to determine how the chemistry of peptide-functionalized CNTs influence their properties in detecting low concentrations of volatile organic compounds. Using a range of interface characterization techniques, we determine that peptides side chain chemistry and displacement mobility of the peptide at the CNT interface is critical for determining sensing response, even more so than similarities in polarity and dielectric properties 🤓🧐🔬. Cool stuff 😎! Big thanks to the folks at SXR 🦘🕷️for helping with the vapor dosing experiments in particular 🙏. Read the paper here, and happy New Year 🎉🎉: https://pubs.acs.org/doi/full/10.1021/acsami.4c14021 #peptide #cnt #voc #biosensors #acs #happynewyear #synchrotron #synchrotronscience #collabos #dataordie
New paper out in ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces 🇺🇸🧪🧑🧑🧒🧒📌🧱🙈🎉👍. In a collaborative effort with our friends at AFRL✈️, a mechanistic study was performed to determine how the chemistry of peptide-functionalized CNTs influence their properties in detecting low concentrations of volatile organic compounds. Using a range of interface characterization techniques, we determine that peptides side chain chemistry and displacement mobility of the peptide at the CNT interface is critical for determining sensing response, even more so than similarities in polarity and dielectric properties 🤓🧐🔬. Cool stuff 😎! Big thanks to the folks at SXR 🦘🕷️for helping with the vapor dosing experiments in particular 🙏. Read the paper here, and happy New Year 🎉🎉: https://pubs.acs.org/doi/full/10.1021/acsami.4c14021 #peptide #cnt #voc #biosensors #acs #happynewyear #synchrotron #synchrotronscience #collabos #dataordie
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