Dr Javier Castells-Gil PhD, MRSC

• PhD in Chemistry, Institute of Molecular Sciences (ICMol), University of Valencia (Spain), 2020
• MSci in Nanoscience and Molecular Nanotechnology, Institute of Molecular Sciences (ICMol), University of Valencia (Spain), 2016
• 5-Year Degree in Chemistry, University of Valencia (Spain), 2014
• Member of the Royal Society of Chemistry

Originally from Valencia, Javier studied Chemistry at the University of Valencia (Spain) from 2009 – 2014. In his final year, he received an Erasmus scholarship to work on Prof. Detlef Bahnemann’s group in Leïbniz Universität Hannover (Germany) studying the photocatalytic reduction of nitroaromatic compounds over TiO₂ nanoparticles.

He then completed a MSci in Nanoscience and Nanotechnology 2016 and a PhD in Chemistry in 2020 at the Institute of Molecular Science (ICMol, University of Valencia, Spain), where he studied the synthesis, photocatalytic activity and chemical reactivity of Titanium-Organic Frameworks under the supervision of Prof. Carlos Martí-Gastaldo. During his doctoral work, he carried out a 3-months research stay at the KAUST Catalysis Centre (Saudi Arabia) under the supervision of Prof. Jorge Gascón, where he studied the catalytic activity of MOF-derived nanomaterials for the hydrogenation of CO₂ to value-added products.

In November 2020, Javier moved to Birmingham as a postdoctoral researcher with Dr Phoebe Allan and Prof Peter Slater. Here, he studied cation-disordered rock salt materials as Li-ion battery cathodes with a strong focus on in-situ characterisation using Pair Distribution Function analysis. In 2024, Javier took up a Leverhulme Early Career Fellowship to study the use of metal-organic precursors for the generation of compositionally complex materials.