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Research Groups

The Messerle Research Group

Directed by Prof. Barbara Messerle

 Prof. Barbara Messerle

Research Interests - Catalyst Design

The design and synthesis of organometallic complexes which are catalysts for bringing about the formation of highly functionalised organic compounds is fundamental to achieving efficient catalysts. By changing the nature of the metal donor, and the structure of the ligand system, the metal catalysts can be made more effective for selected processes.

The ligands we use include bidentate as well as tridentate ligands. We target ligands which contain sp2-N donors, including those with solely sp2 N-donors as well as those with mixed N/P donors, and mixed N/carbene donors e.g. Figure 1.

Figure 1

We have synthesised a number of new metal complexes with our ligands eg. Figure 1. The metal centres which we focus on include Rh, Ir (Figure 2), Ru, Os and Fe.

Figure 2