Background:

Dr Nacho Martin-Fabiani is a UKRI Future Leaders Fellow and Senior Lecturer in Materials Science in the Department of Materials at 含羞草视频. He leads an experimental research group working in the fields of colloid, interface, and soft matter science. Nacho combines extensive expertise in those fields together with vast knowledge in the use of advanced microscopies and scattering techniques to retrieve insightful information from such systems. He is currently working on the development of the new generation of functional coatings, including antibacterial and abrasion resistant surfaces. Moreover, he is also interested in other soft materials applications such as inks, adhesives, cosmetics, or crop protection.

Prior to his current appointment, he held a Vice-Chancellor’s Research Fellowship at 含羞草视频 from 2016 to 2020, and was a Research Fellow at the University of Surrey between 2014 and 2016.

Awards:

• 2020: UKRI Future Leaders Fellowship
• 2019: Polymer Lecture Exchange Award by the Institute of Physics and the American Physical Society
• 2016: Vice-Chancellor’s Research Fellowship at 含羞草视频
• 2016: Santander Mobility Award
• 2015: Award to the best PhD Thesis using synchrotron light in the year 2013/14 by the Spanish Synchrotron User Association (AUSE)
• 2013: Best Oral Communication Award at the Young Researchers in Polymer Science conference, Cala Galdana, Spain.

Outline of main research interests:

• Diffusion and self-assembly in aqueous colloidal blends – bimodal, trimodal, and polydisperse.
• Design, fabrication, and testing of functional polymer and composite coatings, including antibacterial, self-cleaning, and abrasion resistant.
• Use of X-ray and neutron scattering techniques, either on lab-based instruments or at large facilites such as synchrotrons and neutron sources, to investigate the structure of colloidal and polymer films as well as their dynamics.
• Combination of atomic force microscopy with high-end optical microscopies for materials characterisation, including confocal fluorescence lifetime imaging microscopy.

Grants and contracts:

• 2020-2027 UKRI Future Leaders Fellowship (PI, £1.4 million, MR/T02061X/1). A bioinspired platform technology for next-generation functional paints and coatings.
• 2019-2021 EPSRC Strategic Equipment Grant (PI, £817k, EP/T006412/1). Integrated AFM-CFLIM with fibre-coupled infrared detector for materials research.

Current teaching responsibilities:

• MPB209 Materials Characterisation
• Undergraduate project supervision
• Postgraduate project supervision

Robbins, A.B., Drakopoulos, S.X., Martin-Fabiani, I., Ronca, S., Minnich, A.J. (2019) Ballistic thermal phonons traversing nanocrystalline domains in oriented polyethylene. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 116(35). 10.1073/pnas.1905492116

Martín-Fabiani, I., Lesage De La Haye, J., Schulz, M., Liu, Y., Lee, M., Duffy, B., D'Agosto, F., Lansalot, M., Keddie, J.L. (2018) Enhanced Water Barrier Properties of Surfactant-Free Polymer Films Obtained by MacroRAFT-Mediated Emulsion Polymerization. ACS Applied Materials and Interfaces, 10(13). 10.1021/acsami.8b01040

Lesage De La Haye, J., Martin-Fabiani, I., Schulz, M., Keddie, J.L., D'Agosto, F., Lansalot, M. (2017) Hydrophilic MacroRAFT-Mediated Emulsion Polymerization: Synthesis of Latexes for Cross-Linked and Surfactant-Free Films. Macromolecules, 50(23). 10.1021/acs.macromol.7b01885

Fortini, A., Martín-Fabiani, I., De La Haye, J.L., Dugas, P.-Y., Lansalot, M., D'Agosto, F., Bourgeat-Lami, E., Keddie, J.L., Sear, R.P. (2016) Dynamic Stratification in Drying Films of Colloidal Mixtures. Physical Review Letters, 116(11). 10.1103/PhysRevLett.116.118301

Martín-Fabiani, I., Fortini, A., Lesage De La Haye, J., Koh, M.L., Taylor, S.E., Bourgeat-Lami, E., Lansalot, M., D'Agosto, F., Sear, R.P., Keddie, J.L. (2016) PH-Switchable Stratification of Colloidal Coatings: Surfaces "on Demand". ACS Applied Materials and Interfaces, 8(50). 10.1021/acsami.6b12015

Martín-Fabiani, I., Rebollar, E., García-Gutiérrez, M.C., Rueda, D.R., Castillejo, M., Ezquerra, T.A. (2015) Mapping the structural order of laser-induced periodic surface structures in thin polymer films by microfocus beam grazing incidence small-angle x-ray scattering. ACS Applied Materials and Interfaces, 7(5). 10.1021/am5074968

Soccio, M., Alayo, N., Martín-Fabiani, I., Rueda, D.R., García-Gutiérrez, M.C., Rebollar, E., Martínez-Tong, D.E., Pérez-Murano, F., Ezquerra, T.A. (2014) On the assessment by grazing-incidence small-angle X-ray scattering of replica quality in polymer gratings fabricated by nanoimprint lithography. Journal of Applied Crystallography, 47(2). 10.1107/S160057671400168X

View publications in our central  publications database

External collaborators:

• University of Surrey
• Spanish National Research Council (CSIC)
• Université Claude Bernard Lyon 1
• European Synchrotron Radiation Facility (ESRF)
• Sherwin-Williams
• University of the Basque Country
• AkzoNobel
• Crown Paints
• Pant Research Association
• Indestructible Paint

External roles and appointments:

• Committee Member of the Joint Colloids Group (RSC/SCI)
• Member of the Materials Horizons Community Board