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Research Overview

Research in our group involves the study of inorganic polymers/materials and main group coordination complexes. On a fundamental level, we are reimagining the structures that molecules can adopt and revealing how their geometries can unlock new reactivity and new classes of materials. On an applied level, we are developing safer catalysts for making biodegradable plastics, discovering new reactions to build molecules used in pharma, and developing low-carbon "inorganic plastics" for a NetZero emissions future.

Our group offers a collaborative and interdisciplinary training atmosphere across the molecular and macromolecular length scales using a wide range of experimental and computational techniques. We have successfully trained researchers to be independent thinkers and skilled scientists in both industry and academia.

Inorganic polymers & Materials

Synthetic materials are an integral part of modern life as commodity plastics, coatings, fabrics, adhesives, elastomers, foams, and packaging. Most materials have carbon-rich backbones due to the availability of precursors (monomers) from fossil fuels, the strength of C-C, C-N, and C-O bonds, and centuries of organic chemistry knowledge to guide development of new monomers or polymerization methods involving carbon. There are, however, several and limitations associated with the use of such organic polymers. First, they maintain our reliance upon fossil fuels for material precursors. Second, they do not readily degrade in the biosphere, resulting in environmental accumulation. Third, hydrocarbon polymers are not suitable in extreme conditions (e.g. growing aerospace industry) due to their thermal, oxidative and radiation sensitivity. Finally, such polymers are limited to the properties of light elements (C, H, N, O), and cannot access the exciting ones available to heavy elements (e.g. neutron or UV-capture cross-section, high nuclear spin, magnetism, spin-orbit coupling, relativistic effects). We are developing universal inorganic connectors that can be use to incorporate any inorganic element into polymers or materials. Depending upon the inorganic element employed, the materials synthesized in this project have a applications in agriculture, biomedicine, nanolithography, and as stimuli-responsive materials or coatings.

Lead References:
J. Am. Chem. Soc., 2025, In Press
Angew. Chem. Int. Ed., 2025, e202503568
Chem. Commun.,2024, 60, 2629-2632
J. Am. Chem. Soc., 2023, 145 7569-7579
Angew. Chem. Int. Ed., 2022, e202204851.

Main group coordination chemistry

The use of multidentate ligands is ubiquitous in transition metal chemistry, but less developed for main group centres. Such ligands can engender novel electronic structure and reactivity at main group centres by enforcing nonclassical geometries. Understanding the design rules governing changes in frontier orbital energies and reactivity as a function of geometry and ligand environment is a necessary first step in discovering applications in catalysis. We are particularly interested in coordination chemistry with the heavy main group elements as these show exotic effects such as relativistic contraction of atomic orbitals, redox-flexibility, and high dispersion. We enage these elements within the coordination sphere of multidentate or pincer ligands. Thus, we have made complexes that show non-VSEPR geometries, discovered new hydrometallation reactions, and made exotic intermetallic bonds. Research projects in this area emphasize fundamental understanding but we have also used our complexes as catalysts for making biodegradable polymers and discovered stoichiometric applications in synthesis.

Lead References:
Chem. Eur. J., 2024, e202402851.
Chem. Eur. J., 2024, e202403258.
Chem. Sci., 2023, 14, 4549.
Chem. Commun., 2020, 56, 8015.
Angew. Chem. Int. Ed., 2019, 58, 7850.

"to sights unseen, and beyond"