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Office: CAP 1.22 Email: p.belton@uea.ac.uk Tel: +44 (0) 1603-593984 School Position: Professor of Chemistry |
Peter Belton graduated in chemistry from Chelsea College London, where he also obtained his PhD in 1972 for work on transport properties in liquids. His post-doctoral research was on NMR and was carried out at UEA with Prof. KJ Packer FRS. He joined Unilever research at the Port Sunlight Laboratories in 1974 and, following a brief spell as a visiting professor at the University of Sao Paulo, Brazil, moved to the Institute of Food research to set up a spectroscopy laboratory. During his stay at the Institute he was variously Head of Department, Head of Norwich Laboratory and more lately was head of the Food Materials Division. He joined UEA in February 2001 to take up a joint IFR / UEA Chair in Biomaterials Science. He is a past President of the Institute of Food Science and Technology and chair of the Science Council’s Small Societies’ Forum.
Main research interests are in the application of spectroscopy to the understanding of the structure function relationships in biopolymer assemblies and carbohydrates and for analysis of complex systems. Principal techniques are solid state NMR, NMR relaxometry, infrared spectroscopy and dielectrics. There is a long standing interest in the structure and dynamics of wheat proteins and other plant storage proteins. Another area of interest is the dynamics of simple carbohydrates in crystalline and glassy systems. Current research activities are to understand the nature of the interactions of biopolymers, water and sugar glasses in pharmaceutical applications and the use of photothermal methods for analysis. Interest in cereals has extended to the African cereal sorghum; research at the moment is concerned with making biodegradable plastics and other products for pharmaceutical applications from sorghum and other proteins and enhancing the nutritional value of sorghum.
Selected Publications
Plasticization of a Protein-Based Film by Glycerol: A Spectroscopic, Mechanical, and Thermal Study,
C Gao, M Stading, N Wellner, ML Parker, TR Noel, ENC Mills and PS Belton
J. Agric. Food Chem., 2006, 54, 4611-4616.
DOI: 10.1021/jf060611w
Changes in Protein Secondary Structure during Gluten Deformation Studied by Dynamic Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy
N. Wellner, E. N. C. Mills, G. Brownsey, R. H. Wilson, N. Brown, J. Freeman, N. G. Halford, P. R. Shewry, P. S. Belton
Biomacromolecules, 2005, 6, 255-261.
DOI: 10.1021/bm049584d
Molecular Motions of a-L-Rhamnopyranose and Methyl a-L-Rhamnopyranoside in the Glassy and Crystalline States: A Proton NMR Study
H.R. Tang Y.L. Wang, P.S. Belton
Phys. Chem. Chem. Phys., 2004, 6, 3694-3701.
DOI: 10.1039/b402812k
The Hydration of Gluten: A Dielectric and FTIR study
A. Almutawah, S. Barker and P.S. Belton, ,
Biomacromolecules, 2007, 8, 1601-1606.
DOI: 10.1021/bm061206g
