Newcastle University

Research Interests

Research themes:

Current Work

I have been awarded an EPSRC Career Acceleration Fellowship to advance research on my project "Powering smart materials by oscillatory chemical reactions". This investigates extraordinary chemical systems that exhibit oscillatory behaviour in pH and reaction heat output and their applications to smart materials, i.e. materials that have the ability to sense the conditions in their environment and adjust accordingly. I am particularly interested in polymer gels that show a chemo-mechanical response. A change in the chemistry of the medium about the material results in a stepwise change in the volume that the material occupies by causing it to swell or collapse. This novel and strategically vital research will benefit chemical science, chemical engineering, industrial chemistry, nanoscience and healthcare. Envisioned applications are in drug delivery systems that would dispense drug molecules only where and when needed, control of fluid flow and mixing in micro-size systems, propelling at nano-level etc.

• Vicevic M, Novakovic K, Boodhoo KVK, Morris AJ. Kinetics of styrene free radical polymerisation in the spinning disc reactor. Chemical Engineering Journal 2008, 135(1-2), 78-82.
• Grosjean C, Novakovic K, Scott SK, Whiting A, Willis MJ, Wright AR. Product identification and distribution from the oscillatory versus non-oscillatory palladium(II) iodide-catalysed oxidative carbonylation of phenylacetylene. Journal of Molecular Catalysis A: Chemical 2008, 284(1-2), 33-39.
• Novakovic K, Grosjean C, Scott SK, Whiting A, Willis MJ, Wright AR. The influence of oscillations on product selectivity during the palladium-catalysed phenylacetylene oxidative carbonylation reaction. Physical Chemistry Chemical Physics 2008, 10(5), 749-753.
• Novakovic K, Willis MJ, Wright AR. Utilising high throughput technologies for the determination of the reaction network of the L-proline catalysed aldol reaction. Clean Technologies and Environmental Policy 2008, 10(2), 155-163.
• Novakovic K, Willis M, Wright A. Utilising high throughput technologies for the determination of the reaction network of the l-proline catalysed aldol reaction. Clean Technologies and Environmental Policy 2008, 10(2), 155-163.
• Novakovic K, Grosjean C, Scott SK, Whiting A, Willis MJ, Wright AR. Achieving pH and Qr oscillations in a palladium-catalysed phenylacetylene oxidative carbonylation reaction using an automated reactor system. Chemical Physics Letters 2007, 435(1-3), 142-147.
• Burnham SC, Novakovic K, Searson DP, Willis MJ, Wright AR. Deduction of reaction mechanism using data from a robotic workstation. In: National Symposium on Chemical Reaction Engineering (Nascre-2). 2007, Houston, Texas.
• Worth R, Novakovic K, Willis MJ, Wright AR. Engineering Scalability-Extending High Throughput Technologies to Chemical Process Development. In: National Symposium on Chemical Reaction Engineering (Nascre-2) 2007. 2007, Houston, Texas.
• Burnham SC, Novakovic K, Willis MJ, Wright AR. Identifying Chemical Reaction Network Models. In: European Congress of Chemical Engineering (ECCE6). 2007, Copenhagen, Denmark.
• Novakovic K, Willis MJ, Wright AR. Reaction network determination using calibration free analytical data. In: European Congress of Chemical Engineering (ECCE6). 2007, Copenhagen, Denmark.
• Novakovic K, Willis MJ, Wright AR. Towards the elucidation of a chemical reaction network for the palladium-catalysed phenylacetylene oxidative carbonylation reaction. In: European Congress of Chemical Engineering (ECCE6). 2007, Copenhagen, Denmark.
• Novakovic K, Grosjean C, Schutz T, Willis MJ, Wright A, Whiting A. Enhancing process development using high throughput technologies a case study using an L-proline catalysed aldol reaction. In: 17th International Congress of Chemical and Process Engineering (CHISA). 2006, Prague, Czech Republic: CSCHI.
• Novakovic K, Willis MJ, Wright AR. High throughput technologies and reaction network determination. In: Molecular Engineering Industrial Advisory Board.2006,Gateshead, UK
• Vicevic M, Novakovic K, Boodhoo KVK, Morris AJ. Kinetics of methyl methacrylate free radical polymerisation in the spinning disc reactor. In: 17th International Congress of Chemical and Process Engineering (CHISA). 2006, Prague, Czech Republic: CSCHI.
• Vicevic M, Novakovic K, Boodhoo KVK, Morris AJ. Kinetics of Styrene Free Radical Polymerisation in the Spinning Disc Reactor. In: Process Intensification and Innovation Process (PI)2 Conference II Cleaner, Sustainable, Efficient Technologies for the Future.2006,Christchurch, New Zealand
• Novakovic K, Morris J, Martin E. Mathematical analysis of the formation of molecule sizes on a spinning disc reactor. In: 8th Pacific Polymer Conference. 2004, Bangkok, Thailand: Wiley-Blackwell Publishing.
• Novakovic K, Boodhoo KVK, Martin EB, Morris AJ. Data Analysis and Modelling of Spinning Disc Polymerisation from Minimal Data. In: First International Symposium on Process Intensification and Miniaturisation. 2003, Newcastle upon Tyne, UK.
• Novakovic K, Martin EB, Morris AJ. Modelling of Kinetics of Free Radical Polymerisation on Spinning Disc Reactor. In: Polymer Reaction Engineering: Modelling, Optimisation and Control. 2003, Lyon, France.
• Novakovic K, Martin EB, Morris AJ. Modelling of the Free Radical Polymerization of Styrene with Benzoyl Peroxide as Initiator. In: European Symposium on Computer Aided Process Engineering-13: 36th European Symposium of the Working Party on Computer Aided Process Engineering. 2003, Lappeenranta, Finland: Computer Aided Chemical Engineering: Elsevier BV.
• Novakovic K, Katsikas L, Popovic IG. The thermal degradation of poly(iso-butyl methacrylate) and poly(sec-butyl methacrylate). Journal of Serbian Chemical Society 2000, 65(12), 867-875.
• Gorodsky SN, Novakovic K. Self-oscillations of Unsaturated Compounds’ Concentrations in the Oxidative Carbonylation Processes 1. Processes of Acetylene and Phenylacetylene Oxidative Carbonylation (paper is published in Russian: Концентрационные автоколебания в процессах окислительного карбонилирования непредельных соединений. 1. Процессы окислительного карбонилирования ацетилена и фенилацетилена). Vestnik MITHT 2011, 6(4), 3-19.
• Novakovic K, Parker J. Catalyst initiation in the oscillatory carbonylation reaction. International Journal of Chemical Engineering 2011, 518592.
• Novakovic K. Modeling studies of the oscillatory phenylacetylene carbonylation reaction. In: Engineering of Chemical Complexity. 2011, Berlin, Germany.
• Novakovic K, Parker J. Oscillatory phenylacetylene carbonylation reaction. In: Gordon Research Conference on Oscillations and Dynamic Instabilities in Chemical Systems. 2010, Il Chiocco Resort, Barga, Italy.
• Novakovic K, Parker J. Palladium(II) iodide in the oscillatory phenylacetylene carbonylation reaction. In: 19th International Congress of Chemical and Process Engineering (CHISA) and the 7th European Congress of Chemical Engineering (ECCE-7). 2010, Prague, Czech Republic.
• Gorodsky SN, Novakovic K. Some Features of Concentration Oscillations in Phenylacetylene Oxidative Carbonylation Reaction (in Russian: Некоторые особенности концентрационных колебаний в реакции окислительного карбонилирования фенилацетилена). Vestnik MITHT 2010, 5(5), 47-51.
• Parker J, Novakovic K. The influence of reaction temperature on the dynamics of product formation during the oscillatory mode of the phenylacetylene oxidative carbonylation reaction. In: 19th International Congress of Chemical and Process Engineering (CHISA) and the 7th European Congress of Chemical Engineering (ECCE-7). 2010, Prague, Czech Republic.
• Worth R, Novakovic K, Willis MJ, Wright AR, Grace J. The Importance of Mass Transfer in Gas-Liquid Reactions. Chemspeed publications, 2009. Available at: http://www.chemspeed.com/remositoryfunc-startdown/109/remositoryfunc-startdown/109.
• Novakovic K, Mukherjee A, Willis M, Wright A, Scott S. The influence of reaction temperature on the oscillatory behaviour in the palladium-catalysed phenylacetylene oxidative carbonylation reaction. Physical Chemistry Chemical Physics 2009, 11(40), 9044-9049.
• Novakovic K, Willis MJ, Wright AR, Grace J. Utilising high throughput technologies for determination of the reaction mechanism of the L-proline catalysed aldol reaction. Chemspeed publications, 2009. Available at: http://www.chemspeed.com/remositoryfunc-startdown/427/remositoryfunc-startdown/427.
• Novakovic K, Willis MJ, Wright AR. Effect of gas-liquid mass transfer rates on the palladium catalysed phenylacetylene oxidative carbonylation reaction. In: AIChE Annual Meeting. 2008, Philadelphia, USA.
• Worth R, Novakovic K, Willis MJ, Wright AR. Are high throughput technologies useable for engineering scalability?. In: AIChE Annual Meeting. 2008, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA.
• Todd H, Novakovic K, Willis MJ, Wright AR. Towards predicting catalyst performance in reactive distillation systems. In: AIChE Annual Meeting. 2008, Philadelphia, USA.
• Novakovic K, Mukherjee A, Willis MJ, Wright AR, Scott SK. Using perturbation experiments to study the dynamic behaviour of the palladium-catalysed phenylacetylene oxidative carbonylation. In: Gordon Research Conference on Oscillations and Dynamic Instabilities in Chemical Systems. 2008, Colby College, Waterville.
• Novakovic K, Martin EB, Morris AJ. Modelling of the free radical polymerization of styrene with benzoyl peroxide as initiator. In: 13th European Symposium on Computer Aided Process Engineering (ESCAPE). 2003, Lappeenranta, Finland: Elsevier BV.