Assembly of metallo supramolecular materials for guest sensing applications

Overview

The concept of creating molecular electronic devices has resulted in the development and rapid advance of the field of supramolecular chemistry. We are particularly interested in how we can use simple building blocks to self-assemble into complex, functional structures both in solution and at the solution:surface interface. These types of structures have shown great promise in applications such as catalysis, sensing, drug delivery and even in the development of molecular machines.

Research engagement

In this project we will design and synthesis metallosupramolecular cages from simple building blocks. Careful choice of appropriate transition metals and ligands allows the size and shape of the resulting self-assembled cage to be tuned towards target analytes. We will attempt to grow crystals of the cage assemblies to get an in-depth understanding of their structure in the solid phase.

Research activities

You will work in along side other researchers in the M6 synthesis lab to perform your lab work. Specifically for this project we will characterised the cages you make using a variety of technqiues including

-       ¹H, ¹³C and ¹⁹F NMR spectroscopy

-       X-ray crystallography

-       Ion-mobility mass spectrometry

-       ETD mass spectrometry

These results will give us a better understanding of the topology (shape), reactivity (ETD MS) and unique binding properties of these three-dimensional multi-component metallo-supramolecular cages and capsules.

Start date

18 November, 2024

End date

28 February, 2025

Location

M6 synthesis lab

Contact

Kathleen Mullen