Professor John McMurtrie

Biography

Research discipline: Chemistry

John McMurtrie completed his BSc (Chemistry) at Macquarie University (Sydney) in 1998 followed by Honours in Chemistry (1999) under the supervision of Prof. Robert Vagg. John then moved to The University of New South Wales for his doctoral studies under the supervision of Prof. Ian Dance FAA and graduated with a PhD in 2003 with a thesis titled "The Crystalline Supramolecular Chemistry of bis-Terpyridyl and Related Metal Complexes". This was followed by a postdoctoral appointment at the University of Sydney (2003-4) in the group of Prof. Len Lindoy FAA. John was appointed Lecturer in Inorganic Chemistry at Queensland University of Technology in 2004 where he remains, now as an ARC Future Fellow and Associate Professor of Inorganic Chemistry.

Areas of expertise
John has wide ranging expertise and research interests across several chemistry sub-disciplines including

• organic and coordination chemical synthesis
• structural chemistry
• supramolecular and metallosupramolecular chemistry
• crystal engineering
• coordination polymers and metal-organic-frameworks
• halogen bonded architectures
• porphyrin chemistry
• X-ray crystallography (single crystal and powder)

Current Research Projects
Elastic Flexibility in Crystals: Crystals are normally considered to be hard and brittle. We have discovered a suite of crystals containing metal complexes that show remarkable elastic flexibility. Our group, in collaboration with A/Prof Jack Clegg (University of Queensland), are currently designing new crystalline materials that bend, stretch and twist. We are exploring the mechanisms that allow this flexibility and the resulting responses (optical/magnetic) that result from elastic deformation.

Chiral Supramolecular Architectures: Molecular architectures with intriguing geometries and physical properties can be constructed by combining concepts of design and synthesis. In this research we are building metallo-supramolecular architectures based on chiral ligands. Technologically useful molecular and coordination framework materials are the target compounds.

Molecular Alloys: The key to preparation of useful solid state materials is the ability to tune their physical properties. We are exploring the potential for solid solutions of metal complexes (molecular alloys) to be synthesised as crystalline materials with tunable physical (e.g. optical and magnetic) properties. A range of new supramolecular alloys have been prepared and early results are promising.

Halogen Bonded Architectures: Halogen bonds are similar in energy to hydrogen bonds but are much more directional (and therefore much more predicable) in a crystal engineering context. We are exploiting halogen bonding to engineer new crystalline materials containing transition metals with tunable magnetic (e.g. spin switching) and optical properties (e.g. non-linear optics) for potential applications as high-tech temperature and pressure responsive sensors.