James Hallett

Email:
j.e.hallett@reading.ac.uk
Phone:
+44 (0) 118 378 4402
Job title:
Lecturer in Physical Chemistry and International Tutor

Responsibilities:

Lecturer in Physical Chemistry
Undergraduate lab (physical) coordinator
International Tutor

Office

227

Building location

Chemistry

Areas of interest

Dr Hallett’s current research interests involve the role of specific electrolytes in the structure and morphology of soft matter systems, such as films, membranes and gels.

These materials are studied using a variety of techniques, including 3D microscopy, surface force measurements and surface pressure measurements of supported films. He also has a longstanding interest in the use of X-ray and Neutron techniques at large facilities (Diamond, ISIS, ILL, MAXLAB, ESRF) to study soft matter systems.

Research centres and groups

Dr Hallett is part of the Soft Matter research group.

Learn more about our research groups

Background

Dr Hallett was appointed as a Lecturer in November 2021. Prior to that he was a Stipendiary Lecturer in Physical Chemistry for Trinity College Oxford and senior postdoctoral researcher working in the group of Professor Susan Perkin (University of Oxford, Physical and Theoretical Chemistry), starting in February 2018. Prior to this he was a postdoctoral researcher in the group of Professor Paddy Royall at The University of Bristol (Physics) using dense suspensions of nanoparticles to study the phenomenology of vitrification and gelation.

He undertook his PhD studies under the supervision of Professors Paul Bartlett and Robert Richardson at the University of Bristol (chemistry), studying colloidal and liquid crystal systems for energy-efficient display applications.

Academic qualifications

PhD Functional Nanomaterials, University of Bristol, 2014

MSci Physics, University of Bristol, 2010

Professional bodies/affiliations

Associate member of the Royal Society of Chemistry

Publications

Ortlieb, L. , Ingebrigtsen, T. , Hallett, J. ORCID: 0000-0002-9747-9980 , Turci, F. , Royall, C. (2023) Probing excitations and cooperatively rearranging regions in deeply supercooled liquids. Nature Communications , 14 ISSN: 2041-1723 | doi: https://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41467-023-37793-2
Hallett, J. ORCID: 0000-0002-9747-9980 , Agg, K. , Perkin, S. (2023) Zwitterions fine-tune interactions in electrolyte solutions. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences , 120 (8). ISSN: 1091-6490 | doi: https://dx.doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2215585120

Royall, C. , Faers, M. , Fussell, S. , Hallett, J. ORCID: 0000-0002-9747-9980 (2021) Real space analysis of colloidal gels: triumphs, challenges and future directions. Journal of Physics: Condensed Matter , 33 (45). ISSN: 1361-648X | doi: https://dx.doi.org/10.1088/1361-648X/ac04cb

Cornel, E. , Smith, G. , Rogers, S. , Hallett, J. ORCID: 0000-0002-9747-9980 , Growney, D. , Smith, T. , O'Hora, P. , Van Meurs, S. , Mykhaylyk, O. , Armes, S. (2020) Time-resolved small-angle neutron scattering studies of the thermally-induced exchange of copolymer chains between spherical diblock copolymer nanoparticles prepared via polymerization-induced self-assembly. Soft Matter , 16 (15). pp. 3657-3668. ISSN: 1744-6848 ISBN: 17446848 1744683X | doi: https://dx.doi.org/10.1039/c9sm02425e
Hallett, J. ORCID: 0000-0002-9747-9980 , Hayler, H. , Perkin, S. (2020) Nanolubrication in deep eutectic solvents. Physical Chemistry Chemical Physics , 22 (36). pp. 20253-20264. ISSN: 1463-9076 | doi: https://dx.doi.org/10.1039/D0CP03787G
Smith, G. , Grillo, I. , Hallett, J. ORCID: 0000-0002-9747-9980 (2020) Molecular exchange in spherical diblock copolymer colloids synthesised by polymerisation-induced self-assembly. Journal of Colloid and Interface Science , 579 pp. 243-249. ISSN: 0021-9797 ISBN: 10957103 00219797 | doi: https://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jcis.2020.06.022
Hallett, J. ORCID: 0000-0002-9747-9980 , Turci, F. ORCID: 0000-0002-0687-0715 , Patrick Royall, C. (2020) The devil is in the details: pentagonal bipyramids and dynamic arrest. Journal of Statistical Mechanics: Theory and Experiment , 2020 (1). ISSN: 1742-5468 | doi: https://dx.doi.org/10.1088/1742-5468/ab5369
Hallett, J. ORCID: 0000-0002-9747-9980 , Grillo, I. , Smith, G. (2020) A Neutron scattering study of the structure of poly(dimethylsiloxane)-stabilized poly(methyl methacrylate) (PDMS–PMMA) latexes in dodecane. Langmuir , 36 (8). pp. 2071-2081. ISSN: 0743-7463 | doi: https://dx.doi.org/10.1021/acs.langmuir.9b03911

Smith, A. , Hallett, J. ORCID: 0000-0002-9747-9980 , Perkin, S. (2019) Solidification and superlubricity with molecular alkane films. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America , 116 (51). pp. 25418-25423. ISSN: 1091-6490 ISBN: 10916490 00278424 | doi: https://dx.doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1910599116
Smith, G. , Derry, M. , Hallett, J. ORCID: 0000-0002-9747-9980 , Lovett, J. , Mykhaylyk, O. , Neal, T. , Prévost, S. , Armes, S. (2019) Refractive index matched, nearly hard polymer colloids. Proceedings of the Royal Society A: Mathematical, Physical and Engineering Sciences , 475 (2226). ISSN: 1471-2946 | doi: https://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rspa.2018.0763