go to UNSW home page
UNSW logo School of Chemistry Home Page
> Contacts   > Sitemap
About the School divider Research divider Graduate Study divider Undergraduate Study divider High School Resources

Staff Profiles

Dr Steve Colbran

 

Stephen Boyd Colbran

B.Sc. Ph.D. Otago
Senior Lecturer
E-mail: S.Colbran@unsw.edu.au

BIOGRAPHICAL DETAILS

Educated at the University of Otago, New Zealand (Ph.D., 1984). Post-doctoral research with Prof. the Lord Jack Lewis, FRS, and Prof. Brian F.G. Johnson, FRS, University Chemical Laboratories, University of Cambridge, England, 1984-1987. Appointed to the academic staff of UNSW in 1987. Visiting Scientist in the Department of Chemistry, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, USA, 1994 (on leave from UNSW).

RESEARCH INTERESTS

  • Metals in biology.
  • Biological catalysis: modelling of respiratory metalloprotein active sites and artificial proton pumps.
  • Biomimetic catalyses employing "classical" - "organometallic" heterometallic conjugates.
  • Inorganic chemistry on functionalised surfaces.

SELECTED PUBLICATIONS

  • He, Z.; Colbran, S. B.; Craig, D. C. Could redox-switched binding of a redox-active ligand to a copper(II) centre drive a conformational proton pump gate? A synthetic model study. Chem. Eur. J. 2003, 9(1), 116-129.
  • Colbran S. B.; Paddon-Row M. N. Could the tyrosine-histidine ligand to CuB in cytochrome c oxidase be coordinatively labile? Implications from a quantum chemical model study of histidine substitutional lability and the effects of the covalent tyrosine-histidine cross-link, J. Biol. Inorg. Chem., 2003, 8, 855-865.
  • Evans, A. J.; Watkins, S. E.; Craig, D. C.; Colbran, S. B. Copper complexes with ferrocenyl pendants: Evidence for an FeII~CuII <-> FeIII~CuI electron transfer equilibrium leading to a reaction with dioxygen: J. Chem. Soc., Dalton Trans. 2002, 983-994.
  • Watkins, S. E.; Craig, D. C.; Colbran, S. B. Towards co-operative reactivity in conjoint "classical" - "organometallic" heterometallic complexes: The co-ordination chemistry of novel ligands with triphenylphosphine and bis(pyridylethyl)amine or triazacyclononane domains: J. Chem. Soc., Dalton Trans. 2002, 2423-2436.
  • Lucas N. T.; Hook J. M.; McDonagh A. M.; Colbran S. B. Phosphine-functionalized titania nanoparticles: Synthesis and properties of TiO2-bound Pd and W complexes of a catecholphosphine ligand, Eur. J. Inorg. Chem., 2005, 496-503.
  • Lonnon D. G.; Craig D. C.; Colbran S. B.; Bernhardt P. V. Novel one-dimensional structures and solution behaviour of copper(II) bromide and chloride complexes of a new pentapyridyldiamine ligand, Dalton Trans., 2004, 778-787.
  • He, Z.; Colbran, S. B.; Craig, D. C. Structures and properties of 6-aryl substituted [tris(2-pyridylmethyl)amine] transition metal complexes: J. Chem. Soc., Dalton Trans. 2002, 4224-4235.