Professor Robert Hillman

I was awarded the degrees of BSc in Chemistry at Imperial College London (1976) and DPhil at Oxford University (1979). After post-doctoral research at Imperial College (1979-1983), I was appointed to a Lectureship at the University of Bristol (1983), to the Chair of Physical Chemistry at the University of Leicester (1992), and Dean of the Faculty of Science (2003-2009).

I am a longstanding member of the International Society of Electrochemistry (ISE) and the Electrochemical Society (ECS), and am an elected Fellow of both Societies. I served the ISE as UK National Secretary (1994-1998), Secretary General (1999-2005), Chair of the Scientific Meetings Committee (2006-07) and President (2009-2010). Currently, I am a member of the ECS Sensor Division and Physical & Analytical Electrochemistry Division Executive Committees, and was previously a member of the Education Committee. In 2024 I was made an Honorary Member of the ISE. I am a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy, a Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC), a member of the Expert Panel of the Faraday Institution and a member of the EPSRC Peer Review College.

I am Development Editor (2025-present) of Electrochimica Acta (the Society journal of the ISE), having served as Editor in Chief (2014-2024). I was Scientific Editor of the RSC journals Faraday Transactions (the forerunner of PCCP) and Faraday Discussions (1994-1997).

The themes of my research are materials and sensors. The research spans the fundamentals of electrochemistry, analytical chemistry and interfacial science. Development of in situ techniques in conjunction with electrochemistry provides novel insights into the properties of diverse materials, both individually and in composites. Optimization of materials properties, refined by innovative design and fabrication strategies, leads to their exploitation in energy storage, sensing and remediation/recycling applications.

Fundamental aspects focus on development, under electrochemical control, of in situ techniques:

• visible, infra-red and X-ray spectroscopic methods for materials characterization
• acoustic wave methods for nanogravimetry and viscoelasticity characterization
• ellipsometry and neutron reflectivity
• optical probe beam deflection

When combined with electrochemical control of interfacial energetics, these in situ techniques (spectroscopic, optical, neutron, nanogravimetric) provide:

• real time materials structural characterization during electrodeposition/dissolution
• gravimetric assays of electrodeposition/dissolution at the nanogram scale
• analyte capture and ion (de-)insertion by surface-immobilised films
• spatial profiling of films at “buried” interfaces
• spatial profiling of interfacial solution layers
• polymer viscoelastic properties as functions of timescale

Combination of microscopy and surface imaging with electrochemistry and in situ physical characterization techniques is applied to a wide range of materials:

• polymers
• metals (pure and alloys) and their oxides
• carbons
• composite materials

The information acquired from these techniques is exploited in materials and sensing applications:

• electrochromic materials (notably conducting polymers) used for displays
• optimization of polymer and metal electrodeposition processes
• materials design for energy storage applications
• performance optimization of recognition entities for sensing applications
• optimization of materials and control parameters for water remediation and recycling

Controlling solvation in conducting redox polymers for selective electrochemical separation of nitrate from wastewater, S.-W. Tsai, A. Zagalskaya, Y. Li, C.-Y. Chen, M.P. Calegari Andrade, R. Candeago, J.F. Browning, A.R. Hillman, R.D. Cusick, T.A. Pham X. Su, Nature Commun., 2025, 16, 10207.

Time-resolved spatial distributions of individual components of electroactive films during potentiodynamic electrodeposition, R.M. Sapstead, R.M. Dalgliesh, V.C. Ferreira, C. Beebee, E. Watkins, A.R. Hillman, K.S. Ryder, E.L. Smith, and N.-J. Steinke, ACS Phys. Chem Au, 2024, 4, 615−619.

Dansyl fluorophore functionalized hierarchically structured mesoporous silica nanoparticles as novel latent fingerprint development agents, L.F.A.M. Oliveira, L.V.A.T. da Silva, A.F. Sonsin, M.S. Alves, C.V. Costa, J.C.S. Melo, N. Ross, P.T. Wady, T. Zinn, T.G. do Nascimento, E.J.S. Fonseca, A.M.L. de Assis, A.R. Hillman and A.S. Ribeiro, RSC Adv., 2024, 14, 22504.

Measuring and Enhancing the Ionic Conductivity of Chloroaluminate Electrolytes for Al-Ion Batteries, A.J. Lucio, I. Sumarlan, E. Bulmer, I. Efimov, S. Viles, A.R. Hillman, C. J. Zaleski, K.S. Ryder, J. Phys. Chem. C, 2023, 127, 28, 13866–13876.

Comparative study of guanidine‑, acetamidine- and urea-based chloroaluminate electrolytes for an aluminum battery, I. Sumarlan, A. Kunverji, A.J. Lucio, A.R. Hillman and K.S. Ryder, J. Phys. Chem. C, 2023, 127, 18891−18901.

Amidine-based ionic liquid analogues with AlCl₃: a credible new electrolyte for rechargeable Al batteries, A.J. Lucio, I. Efimov, O.N. Efimov, C.J. Zaleski, S. Viles, B.B. Ignatiuk, A.P. Abbott, A.R. Hillman and K.S. Ryder, Chem. Commun., 2021, 57, 9834-9837.

Highly Efficient Defluoridation of Water through Reusable poly(aniline-co-o-aminophenol) Copolymer Modified Electrode Using Electrochemical Quartz Crystal Microbalance, A. Unal, A.R. Hillman, K.S. Ryder and S. Cihangir, J. Electrochem. Soc., 2021, 168, 022502.

Effect of electrochemical control function on the internal structure and composition of electrodeposited polypyrrole films: A neutron reflectometry study, C. Beebee, E.B. Watkins, R.M. Sapstead, V.C. Ferreira, K.S. Ryder, E.L. Smith, A.R. Hillman, Electrochim. Acta, 2019, 295, 978-988.

Electrochemical deposition of silver and copper from a deep eutectic solvent studied using time-resolved neutron reflectivity, A.D. Ballantyne, R. Barker, R.M. Dalgliesh, V.C. Ferreira, A.R. Hillman, E.J.R. Palin, R.M. Sapstead, E.L. Smith, N.-J. Steinke, K.S. Ryder, J. Electroanal. Chem., 2018, 819, 511-523.

Real-time in situ dynamic sub-surface imaging of multi-component electrodeposited films using event mode neutron reflectivity, A.R. Hillman, R. Barker, R.M. Dalgliesh, V.C. Ferreira, E.J.R. Palin, R.M. Sapstead, E.L. Smith, N.-J. Steinke, K.S. Ryder, A.D. Ballantyne, Faraday Discuss., 2018, 210, 429-449.

Graphene-poly(nickel complex) as novel electrochromic nanocomposite for the fabrication of a robust solid-state device, M.P. Araújo, M. Nunes, J. Fonseca, C. Moura, A.R. Hillman and C. Freire, J. Coll. Interf. Sci., 2017, 504, 790-799.

Time-temperature superposition for viscoelastic properties of regioregular poly(3-hexylthiophene) films, A.R. Hillman, I. Efimov and M. Skompska, J. Am. Chem. Soc., 2005, 127, 3817-3824.

Modelling the responses of TSM resonators under various loading conditions, H.L. Bandey, S.J. Martin, R.W. Cernosek and A.R. Hillman, Anal. Chem., 1999, 71, 2205-2214.

Mechanism of the reduction and oxidation reaction of cytochrome c at a modified gold electrode, W.J. Albery, M.J. Eddowes, H.A.O. Hill and A.R.Hillman, J. Am. Chem. Soc., 1981, 103, 3904-3910.

I supervise research involving diverse areas of electrochemistry, interfacial science, materials and analytical chemistry. This spans fundamental science in the development of in situ techniques and material characterization through to applications in the areas of recycling/remediation and consequent materials recovery and forensic science. A wide range of materials are of interest, from polymers to metals and their oxides, to composites. The applications may be focused at the molecular level (trace analysis/sensing) or with a view to the engineering scale (recycling/remediation applications). The challenges addressed and the diversity of materials, techniques and application scale require a wide range of expertise: this commonly involves international collaborations.

During my career, I have taught a wide range of physical chemistry, analytical chemistry (in the UK and US) and forensic science courses at undergraduate and masters level. I have expertise in course design at module and full programme level.

• Electrochemistry and its applications to sensing and energy storage
• Electroactive materials
• Forensic science

• Faraday Institution: Member of the Expert Panel (2015-present)
• International Society of Electrochemistry: Editor in Chief (2014-2024) and Development Editor (2025-present) of the Society journal Electrochimica Acta
• Electrochemical Society: Currently Member of Sensor Division and Physical & Analytical Electrochemistry Divisional Executive Committees; formerly member of Education Committee
• Member of the EPSRC Peer Review College
  
  

• Elected Fellow of the International Society of Electrochemistry and of the Electrochemical Society.
• Honorary Fellow of the International Society of Electrochemistry

I am a regular contributor (as speaker and symposium organiser) to International Society of Electrochemistry (ise-online.org) annual meetings and Electrochemical Society (electrochem.org) biannual meetings. I am a regular speaker at EU International Association for Identification and at International Fingerprint Research Group meetings.

Qualifications:

• Oxford University (DPhil, 1979)
• Imperial College London (BSc, 1976)
• Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy

Professional recognition and Society memberships:

•  Member: Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC), International Society of Electrochemistry (ISE), Electrochemical Society (ECS), Chartered Society for Forensic Sciences (Ch Soc For Sci), EU section International Association for Identification (IAI)
• Honorary Fellow of ISE (awarded to less than 10 members of the Society)
• Elected Fellow: ISE, ECS
• Fellow: RSC
• Senior Fellow: Higher Education Academy