Biography
Alfred Tok (PK; Ph.D, NTU; C.Eng, MIMMM; MBA, NTU) has been a faculty in the School of Materials Science and Engineering since 2003. He studied Mechanical Engineering at the Queensland University of Technology, Australia, and graduated with a first class honors in 1995. He was also conferred the Dean's Award for Excellence for being top graduate on the course. After graduation, he had worked as a mechanical engineer at ST Aerospace Engineering.
In 1997, he was awarded 2 scholarships at Nanyang Technological University (NTU) to pursue his PhD in Mechanical Engineering. After graduation, he joined the Materials Engineering school as a Research Fellow in 2000 and took up the position of Assistant Professor in 2003. In 2009, he was bestowed the National Day Commendation Medal (PK) from the Singapore Prime Minister’s Office. In the same year, he obtained his Nanyang MBA in the Dean’s Honors List. He was then appointed Division Head of Materials Technology in MSE in 2009 and presently, he is the Deputy Director of the Institute for Sports Research. He also consults extensively for companies from various industries.
The research group collaborates actively with NIMS (Japan), Loughborough University (UK), The Hebrew University of Jerusalem (Israel), Ben-Gurion University of the Negev (Israel), Austrian Institute of Technology (Austria), Vestas Wind Systems (Denmark), University of New South Wales (Australia), ST Kinetics (SG), Defence Science and Technology Agency (SG), DSO National Laboratories (SG), Globalfoundries (SG) and Ministry of Defence (SG).
Current Research Interests
Prof Tok leads the Nanomaterials Group that focuses on the synthesis, processing, consolidation and applications of nanomaterials (rare earth, carbon-based, functional ceramic nanoparticles). His current research is broadly based on 3 areas: carbon-based sensors, synthesis of nanostructured materials and hard & tough materials.
Project: Light & Thermal Management in Electrochromic & Electrophoretic Smart Windows for Building Energy Efficiency
The focus of this project is to enable the dynamic control of heat conduction and radiation in windows by novel approaches. To achieve this dynamic control, periodic inverse opal structure and ceramics-coated carbon derivatives structures for Electrochromic Photonic Crystal-based (EPC) and ElectroPhoretic (EP) smart glass respectively are proposed.
Selected Publications
L.T. Su, S.K. Karuturi, J. Luo, L. Liu, X. Liu, J. Guo, T.C. Sum, R. Deng, H.J. Fan, X Liu*, A.I.Y. Tok*, “Photon Upconversion in Heteronanostructured Photoanodes for Enhanced Near-Infrared Light Harvesting,” Advanced Materials 25 11 1603-1607 (2013). Back Cover Article [IF: 15.41]
R.I. Made, E.J.R. Phua, S.S. Pramana, C.C. Wong, Z. Chen, A.I.Y. Tok, C.L. Gan*, “Improved Mechanical and Thermomechanical Properties of Alumina Substrate via Iron Doping,” Scripta Materialia 68 869-872 (2013) [IF: 3.16]
J. Huang, M. Larisika, D.W.H. Fam, Q. He, M.A. Nimmo, C. Nowak*, A.I.Y. Tok*, “The extended growth of graphene oxide flakes using ethanol CVD,” Nanoscale, 5 7 2945-51 (2013) [IF: 6.23]
Xie, S. S.; Su, L. T.; Guo, J.; Vasylkiv, O.; Borodianska, H.; Zhu, X.; Krishnan, G. M.; Su, H.; Tok, A. I. Y*. “Non-Catalytic Facile Synthesis of Superhard Phase of Boron Carbide (B13C2) Nanoflakes and Nanoparticles.” Journal of Nanoscience and Nanotechnology 12 596 (2012). [IF:1.44]
Karuturi, S. K.; Cheng, C.; Liu, L.; Su, L. T.; Fan, H. J.; Tok, A. I. Y*. “Inverse opals coupled with nanowires as photoelectrochemical anode.” Nano Energy 1 322-327 (2012) Journal Cover [IF: 10.21]
J. Luo, S.V. Karuturi, L. Liu, L.T. Su, A.I.Y. Tok, H.J. Fan*, “CdSe Sensitization of Complex Nanostructures using Atomic Layer Deposition for Solar to Hydrogen Conversion”, Nature Scientific Reports 2 451 (2012) [IF: NA]
X. Teng, Y.H. Zhu, W. Wei, S.C. Wang, J.F. Huang, A.I.Y Tok, Y. Han, Q.C. Zhang, J.A. Capobianco, L. Huang*, “Lanthanide-Doped NaScFx Nanoparticles: Crystal Structure Evolution and Multicolor Tuning,” Journal of the American Chemical Society 134 8340-8343 (2012) [IF: 11.44]
S. K. Karuturi, J. S. Luo, C. W. Cheng, L. J. Liu, L. T. Su, H. J. Fan*, and A. I. Y Tok*, “Three-dimensional Ordered Hierarchical Nanobushes Photoanode for Highly Efficient Photoelectrochemical Cells” Advanced Materials 24 (30) (2012) [IF: 10.88]
C. Cheng, S.K. Karuturi, L. Liu, H. Li, L.T. Su, A.I.Y. Tok* & H.J. Fan*, “Quantum-Dot-Sensitized TiO2 Inverse Opals for Photoelectrochemical Hydrogen Generation.” Small 8 37-42 (2012). Frontispiece Article. [IF: 7.33]