Coleman became a lecturer in physics at TCD in 2001 rising to Professor of Chemical Physics (2011 - 2022) and later Erasmus Smith's Professor (2022 - present). The theme of his research is the production and processing of
nanomaterials in liquids. The main focus is
liquid phase exfoliation of layered crystals such as
graphite and inorganic layered compounds. This produces liquid
suspensions of two-dimensional nanosheets such as
graphene,
BN,
MoS2 or
MoO3. He has also performed research on other nanomaterials such as
carbon nanotubes and metallic
nanowires. In addition to his publications on liquid phase exfoliation of graphene and other layered materials, he has published a number of papers on applications of solution processed 1D and 2D materials. Examples include: the demonstration of highly sensitive polymer-graphene composite strain sensors; printed nanosheet-based transistors and high-capacity lithium-ion batteries. Coleman's papers have been cited 120,000 times yielding a h-index of 125. ==Awards and recognition==