Research Research Areas Inorganic Chemistry and Organometallic Chemistry toc About Inorganic chemistry focuses on all of chemistry except hydrocarbons and their derivatives (organic chemistry), while organometallic chemistry encompasses compounds with at least one bond between a carbon of an organic fragment and a metal or metalloid. Inorganic chemistry and organometallic chemistry are employed in all areas of chemical industry, including catalysis, medicine, agriculture, and materials science. Groups Brothers Group New dyes for electron and energy transfer, Modular fluorescent tags and Lighting up sugars. View the group Colebatch Group We are interested in synthesis, reactivity and catalysis with multimetallic transition metal complexes. View the group Cox Group Our group studies transition metal catalysts using both magneto-optical spectroscopy and magnetic resonance techniques. View the group Hicks Group Research in the Hicks group focuses on the reactivity of earth abundant, non-toxic metals in regards to sustainable chemical synthesis. View the group Hill Group Our work covers organometallic chemistry with a particular focus include unsaturated ligands involving metal–carbon multiple bonding. View the group Humphrey Group Our research uses synthesis, spectroscopy, electrochemistry, and computational chemistry to generate new molecular materials with unusual optical properties. View the group Preston Group The Preston group works on supramolecular systems in solution. We develop architectures from metal ions and organic ligands, and then explore their behaviour. View the group Sherburn Group Our research program involves the design of sequences of cycloaddition reactions, free radical reactions and transition metal-mediated reactions View the group White Group Our research focuses on supramolecular chemistry – the chemistry of non-covalent interactions such as hydrogen bonding, halogen bonding and coordination bonds. View the group Projects Molecular Switches This project will involve the synthesis of new organic and organometallic switches and characterization of their accessible states using various techniques including UV/vis/NIR/IR spectroelectrochemistry. Read more Student intake Open for Honours, Master, PhD, Summer scholar students Read more New dyes for electron and energy transfer This project will investigate the synthesis of BODIPY pyrazole and cobaloxime complexes and their use as sensitizers. Read more Student intake Open for Honours, Master, PhD, Summer scholar students Read more Non-classical Pincer Ligands for Catalytic Applications We are developing new pincer frameworks that include unconventional donors, e.g., o-silyl (–SiR3), carbene and o-boryl (-BR2) groups in the equatorial position. Read more Student intake Open for Honours, Master, PhD, Summer scholar students Read more Redox non-innocent first row transition metal complexes - collaboration with Prof. Sally Booker (Otago University, New Zealand) EPR and related double resonance techniques allow us to elucidate changes in the localization of electron density (metal or ligand centred) following reduction or oxidation, and thus predict likely routes of chemical reactions/catalysis. Read more Student intake Open for Honours, PhD students Read more Squaramide cages This project will involve the synthesis of two simple ligands containing a squaramide, and the formation of their [MnL2n]2n+ cages (M = PdII and PtII, n = 2 or 3). The ability of these architectures to recognize relevant anions will then be explored. Read more Student intake Open for Honours, Master, PhD, Summer scholar students Read more Syntheses and reactivity of high-nuclearity clusters We have developed a remarkably easy route into certain high-nuclearity ruthenium carbonyl clusters (the figure shows a Ru12 cluster, the largest Ru cluster so far); this project will explore the chemistry of these unique compounds. Read more Student intake Open for Honours, Master, PhD, Summer scholar students Read more Load more Members Academic staff Prof. Penelope Brothers Director Dr Annie Colebatch Senior LecturerRita Cornforth Fellow Prof. Nick Cox Professor Dr Jamie Hicks Senior Lecturer Prof. Anthony Hill Professor Prof. Mark Humphrey Professor Prof. Michael Sherburn Associate Director (Education)Professor A/ Prof. Nicholas White Associate ProfessorAustralian Research Council Future Fellow Articles Dr Ben Frogley awarded the University of Auckland L. H. Briggs Medal Congratulations to Dr Ben Frogley who was awarded the University of Auckland L. H. Briggs Medal, recognising “the person judged to be the most distinguished research worker in the School of Chemical Sciences who has submitted a thesis for the degree of PhD in Chemistry." Read the article Congratulations Nick White - ARC Future Fellowship Congratulations to Dr Nick White who has been awarded an ARC Future Fellowship. This is fantastic news, and a tribute to all of Nick’s hard work and achievements in supramolecular chemistry. Read the article toc
