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Professor Matthew Unthank

Professor

Department: Applied Sciences

Matt Unthank is a Professor of Chemistry at Northumbria University and has an established track record in coatings and surfaces research. Specifically, his expertise in thermoset coatings and surface pre-treatment, for industrial applications is demonstrated with >10 years of patents, publications and speaker awards in this field. His career boasts both industrial leadership roles (AkzoNobel – Polymer Research Manager, GlaxoSmithKline – Senior Process Chemist) and academic roles (visiting academic at University of Manchester, Professor of Chemistry at Northumbria University). Over the last five years he has been awarded research grants from a wide range of funders including UKRI, EPSRC, DSTL and OfWAT in addition to higher TRL projects working with industrial partners such as AkzoNobel, Altana, Allnex, Northumbrian Water and others. He is an EPSRC Researcher in Residence Fellow, with the High Value Manufacturing Catapult (CPI and NCC) to develop sustainable high-performance composites and coatings, a member of the EPSRC Early Career Forum (ECF) in Manufacturing Research (https://ecfmanufacturing.com/current-members/) and co-lead for the bulk chemical sector in the £5M EPSRC-TransFire Hub involving 12 academic institutions, >100 companies and 14 non-governmental organisations (EP/V054627/1, https://transfire-hub.org/). Further to this he is a founding member of the ‘Synthesis and Polymer Innovation’ centre at Northumbria (SPIN, www.northumbria.ac.uk/spin) to support polymer, coatings and composite scale-up and commercialisation projects with industrial partners. 

Matthew Unthank

Campus Address

Room D225, Ellison Building,
Northumbria University,
Newcastle upon Tyne,
NE1 8ST

  • Please visit the Pure Research Information Portal for further information
  • A Novel Molecular Imprinting Polymerbased Optical Fiber Sensor for Valsartan, Ma, H., Zhang, M., Ghassemlooy, Z., Yao, Y., Yuan, J., Unthank, M., Wu, Q. 19 Jul 2024, 2024 14th International Symposium on Communication Systems, Networks and Digital Signal Processing (CSNDSP), IEEE
  • Capillary wave tweezer, Orme, B., Torun, H., Unthank, M., Fu, Y., Ford, B., Agrawal, P. 30 May 2024, In: Scientific Reports
  • Conversion of Contaminated Post-Consumer Polyethylene Terephthalate into a Thermoset Alkyd Coating Using Biosourced Monomers, Thomas, B., Lopez,  ., Railton, J., Bousbaa, J., Perry, J., Unthank, M. 29 Apr 2024, In: ACS Applied Materials and Interfaces
  • pH-Responsive, Thermoset Polymer Coatings for Active Protection against Aluminum Corrosion, Watson, J., Balmforth, V., Gray, E., Unthank, M. 13 Mar 2024, In: ACS Applied Materials and Interfaces
  • Recyclable thermosets based on modified epoxy-amine network polymers, Anderson, L., Sanders, E., Unthank, M. 1 Mar 2023, In: Materials Horizons
  • Synergistic depolymerisation of alginate and chitosan by high hydrostatic pressure (HHP) and pulsed electric fields (PEF) treatment in the presence of H2O2, Rivero Ramos, P., Unthank, M., Sanz, T., Rodrigo, M., Benlloch Tinoco, M. 15 Sep 2023, In: Carbohydrate Polymers
  • Acrylate resins and powder coatings compositions and powder coated substrates including the same, Unthank, M., Fleetham, V., Gray, E. 7 Jul 2022
  • Engineered living photosynthetic biocomposites for intensified biological carbon capture, In-na, P., Sharp, E., Caldwell, G., Unthank, M., Perry, J., Lee, J. 4 Nov 2022, In: Scientific Reports
  • Self-assembled, hierarchical structured surfaces for applications in (super)hydrophobic antiviral coatings, Dawson, F., Yew, W., Orme, B., Markwell, C., Ledesma Aguilar, R., Perry, J., Shortman, I., Smith, D., Torun, H., Wells, G., Unthank, M. 30 Aug 2022, In: Langmuir
  • The influence of mechanical grinding on the microstructure and corrosion behaviour of A356 aluminium alloys, Goodall, M., Pawar, S., Curioni, M., Morsch, S., Unthank, M., Gibbon, S., Zhou, X. 17 Feb 2022, In: Corrosion Engineering, Science and Technology

  • James Cubitt An exploration of polymer network structure in high-performance epoxy-amine thermosets for use in marine environments Start Date: 01/10/2024
  • Rebecca Cass Sustainable Biomaterials and Biopolymers for Next Generation Industrial Applications Start Date: 01/10/2023
  • Neave White Functionalized nano-structured silica surfaces for robust self-cleaning and anti-scratch coating applications. Start Date: 01/10/2022
  • Hoang Nguyen INVESTIGATING NOVEL COVALENT ADAPTABLE NETWORKS POLYMERS FOR APPLICATIONS IN LOW-TEMPERATURE-CURE POWDER COATINGS Start Date: 01/10/2021


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