Dr JOHANNES KIEFER

Dr JOHANNES KIEFER The University of Aberdeen School of Engineering Senior Lecturer work +44 (0)1224 272495 pref j.kiefer@abdn.ac.uk pref Room 252, Fraser Noble Building

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Web Links

• BioMedChem group at LTT Erlangen: http://www.ltt.uni-erlangen.de/inhalt/ag_biomedchem.html (German)
• Erlangen Graduate School in Advanced Optical Technologies (SAOT): http://www.aot.uni-erlangen.de/
• Scottish Sensor Systems Centre (SSSC): http://sensorsystems.org.uk/
• Joint European Conference On Nonlinear Optical Spectroscopy (ECONOS) and European CARS Workshop (ECW) 2012: http://www.abdn.ac.uk/econos2012/

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Biography

Johannes joins the Chemical Engineering group at the University of Aberdeen. He graduated from the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg, Germany, in 2005 (Dipl.-Ing. in Chemical Engineering). After finishing his undergraduate studies he was a Fellow of the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) at Lund University, Sweden, (Division of Combustion Physics) before he returned to Erlangen in 2006 for his PhD studies at the Institute of Engineering Thermodynamics. He completed his PhD on "Nonlinear Optical Spectroscopy for Combustion Diagnostics" in 2008. Since 2008 he has been head of a research group and teaching fellow at Erlangen. He received a number of awards including the student award of the German Society for Chemical Engineering and Biotechnology in 2006 and the WLT award of the German Society for Laser Technology in 2009.

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Research Interests

My research interests are the areas of applying lasers and optical techniques for the characterization of advanced materials and processes. This includes the analysis of mixtures, multiphase systems and reactive flows.

Concerning material characterisation there is a focus on ionic liquids and nanoparticles. Applications include fundamental studies of molecular behaviour in pure chemicals and solvent mixtures, diagnostics in biology and life science, flow studies in combustion systems, and the development of devices for measurement of thermodynamic parameters and composition in industrial environments.

The list of experimental methods employed includes:  

• absorption spectroscopy (e.g., IR, NIR, UV/Vis)
• Raman scattering spectroscopy
• emission spectroscopy (e.g., LIBS, LIF)
• nonlinear optical techniques (e.g., CARS, LIG, PS, FWM in general)
• and combinations of them...  

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Current Research

• Hydrocarbon leakage detection in subsea environments
• Intermolecular interactions in room-temperature ionic liquids and their mixtures with solvents
• Detection of trace intermediate species in combustion systems
• Development of technologies for inline chemical composition measurement
• Stabilisation mechanisms of water-in-oil emulsions
• Turbulence-chemistry interaction in flames
• Analysis of electrochemical processes
• Analysis of crystallisation processes 
  

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Research Grants

The research of the group is funded by:

• Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC)
• Royal Society
• British Council
• Scottish Crucible (Royal Society of Edinburgh, NESTA, SFC)
• Scottish Funding Council (SFC)
• The Carnegie Trust for the Universities of Scotland
• Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG)
• College of Physical Sciences
• School of Engineering
• European Union
• Industrial partners

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Teaching Responsibilities

• Co-ordinator EG3020 "Process Thermodynamics"
• Co-ordinator EG5597 "Advanced Chemical Engineering"
• Co-ordinator EG40HC "Process Control"
• Contributor to a number of other courses

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External Responsibilities

• Guest professor at the Erlangen Graduate School in Advanced Optical Technologies (SAOT), University Erlangen-Nuremberg.
• External head of the BioMedChem research group at the Institute of Engineering Thermodynamics, University Erlangen-Nuremberg.
• Reviewer for >25 international journals listed on the science citation index (SCI).
• Reviewer for 8 funding organisations including EPSRC, NSF, and NSERC.
• Program committee of the Conference on Lasers and Electro-Optics (CLEO); Member of sub-committee 13: Active Optical Sensing
• Program committee of the European Optical Society Annual Meeting (EOSAM); Topical Meeting 7: Optical systems for the energy and production indutries
• International steering committee of the European Conference On Nonlinear Optical Spectroscopy (ECONOS)
• Host and program chair of the 2012 joint European Conference On Nonlinear Optical Spectroscopy (ECONOS) and European CARS Workshop (ECW)
• Memberships in professional societies: DECHEMA (German Society for Chemical Engineering and Biotechnology), VDI (The Association of German Engineers), DPG (German Physical Society), DBG (German Bunsen Society for Physical Chemistry), British Section of The Combustion Institute, German Section of The Combustion Institute, IChemE (Institution of Chemical Engineers), SAS (Society for Applied Spectroscopy), OSA (Optical Society of America), Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC)

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Admin Responsibilities

• Member of the School of Engineering Safety Committee
• Member of the School of Engineering Research Committee
• Member of the University's "Health and Safety Convener's Advisory Group"
• Adviser of Studies
• Member of the Senatus Academicus

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News from the group

• We have organised the recent joint European Conference On Nonlinear Optical Spectroscopy (ECONOS) and European CARS Workshop (ECW), which was held at the University of Aberdeen on July 8-11 2012. Further information is available: http://www.abdn.ac.uk/econos2012/
  
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• Dinesh Kumar (MSc student in Johannes's group) won the 3^rd Prize of the European Regional Student Paper Contest 2011 of the Society of Petroleum Engineers (SPE) for the excellent presentation of his paper "Detection of hydrocarbon leakage from wellhead and pipeline in subsea environment". The event was held in the framework of the Offshore Europe exhibition. 
  
  
• Kristina Noack (PhD student in Johannes's group at the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg, Germany) received the Student Award 2011 of the Erlangen Graduate School in Advanced Optical Technologies (SAOT) for her paper "The role of the C2 position in interionic interactions of imidazolium based ionic liquids: a vibrational and NMR spectroscopic study" which was published in Physical Chemistry Chemical Physics 12 (2010) 14153-14161. In this work, she applied a combination of Raman, IR, and NMR spectroscopies to provide the basis for a comprehensive explanation of the intuitively unexpected thermophysical and physicochemical behaviour of a series of imidazolium ionic liquids.
  
  
• Johannes and his collaborators Chris Kliewer, Brian Patterson, Tom Settersten (Sandia National Labs Livermore, USA), Yi Gao, and Thomas Seeger (University of Erlangen-Nuremberg and University of Siegen, Germany) received the Distinguished Paper Award on Diagnostics of the 33rd International Symposium on Combustion for their paper "Picosecond time-resolved pure-rotational coherent anti-Stokes Raman spectroscopy in sooting flames", published in Proceedings of the Combustion Institute 33 (2011) 831-838. In their work they present a novel thermometry approach for sooting combustion environments based on frequency-resolved time-domain nonlinear Raman scattering.

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Recent Research Highlights

• Engineering at Molecular Level: In collaboration with colleagues at the University Erlangen-Nuremberg, Germany the influence of interionic interactions on the structure and macroscopic properties of imidazolium based ionic liquids has been studied. The combination of Raman, IR, and NMR spectroscopies provided the basis for a comprehensive explanation of the intuitively unexpected thermophysical and physicochemical behaviour  of the ILs. Further information can be found in:
  Noack, K., Schulz, P., Paape, N., Kiefer, J., Wasserscheid, P. & Leipertz, A. (2010). 'The role of the C2 position in interionic interactions of imidazolium based ionic liquids: a vibrational and NMR spectroscopic study'. Physical Chemistry Chemical Physics, 12 (42), pp. 14153-14161.
  [Online] DOI: 10.1039/c0cp00486c  
  
  
• INXS: A detailed IR study in binary mixtures of an imidazolium ionic liquid with acetone revealed peculiarities in the intermolecular interactions. A new interaction model was developed proposing that molecular trimers and tetramers form before ion pair dissociation begins. This behaviour is consistent with the volumetric mixture properties. Further information can be found in:
  Kiefer, J., Martinez Molina, M. & Noack, K. (2012). 'The peculiar nature of molecular interactions between an imidazolium ionic liquid and acetone'. ChemPhysChem, 13, (5), pp. 1213-1220.
  [Online] DOI: 10.1002/cphc.201100845
  
  
• Cheap but Powerful: In collaboration with colleagues at the University Erlangen-Nuremberg, Germany and the Lund University, Sweden the first application of ultraviolet light emitting diodes (LED) to in situ detection of flame radicals has been demonstrated. Significantly cheaper than lasers, LEDs have great potential to act as light source for low budget trace species detection instruments. Further information can be found in:
  Schorsch, S., Kiefer, J., Leipertz, A., Li, Z. & Alden, M. (2010). 'Detection of flame radicals using light emitting diodes'. Applied spectroscopy, 64 (12), pp. 1330-1334.
  [Online] DOI: 10.1366/000370210793561538
  
  
• Cells Under Pressure: In collaboration with colleagues at the University Erlangen-Nuremberg, Germany the influence of high pressure treatment on Escherichia coli bacteria has been studied. Absorption spectroscopy in the UV, Vis, and NIR spectrum revealed differences in the inactivation mechanism in comparison with the traditional thermal treatment. Further information can be found in:
  
  Kiefer, J., Ebel, N., Schluecker, E. & Leipertz, A. (2010). 'Characterization of Escherichia coli suspensions using UV/Vis/NIR absorption spectroscopy'. Analytical Methods, 2 (2), pp. 123-128.
  [Online] DOI: 10.1039/b9ay00185a

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Publications

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