| 1. | Crystal and Thin-Film Engineering of
Oligothiophenes. We are investigating the
synthesis of
thionitrile-substituted oligomers of thiophene. The
thionitrile
(SCN) group has the ability to form intermolecular hydrogen
bonds, and
we are investigating the structural consequence of this
group - will
the group act as a supramolecular synthon to generate p-stacked structures? We are
also
interested in the ability of the SCN group to react with
gold surfaces
and nanoparticles to generate thin-films and coated
nanoparticles. |
| 2. | The Nitrile-Silver Bond as a Supramolecular Synthon.
We
are synthesising a number of aromatic nitriles that contain
heteroatoms in the aromatic ring, which we are attempting to
coordinate
to the silver(I) cation. We aim to test the robustness
of the
silver-nitrile interaction in the presence of other
potential binding
sites. In addition, the use of smaller aromatic rings
allows the
possibility of observing the rare Ag-Ag bond. We are
also
interested in increasing the number of heteroatoms (e.g. going from
thiophene to
thiazole) to see the effect of these atoms on the
self-assembly. |
| 3. |
Green Reactions. We
are interested in determining the efficacy of green
synthetic
methodologies in the presence of heteroaromatic rings (most
methods are
optimized for use on benzene-containing aromatic systems). |
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Last updated, July 4, 2013
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MacKinnon