Doctoral Training Centre: Recent student publications

Congratulations to all the students of the Doctoral Training Centre who have had papers accepted over the last few months. Jessica Bristow, Lee Burton, Julia Griffen, William Mahy, Serena Marshall, Paul McKeown, Daniel Minett and William Reynolds all have papers either recently published or currently in press.

• William Mahy has contributed towards the synthesis of chiral sugars to be used as probes to investigate the promiscuous metabolic nature of an aldolase isolated from a bacteria; Sulfolobus solfataricus. This enabled study and identification of the way the enzyme metabolizes a wide variety of molecules.
  R. M. Archer, S. F. Royer, W. Mahy, C. L. Winn, M. J. Danson, and S. D. Bull, Chem. - Eur. J., 2013, 19, 2895–2902.
• Jessica Bristow conducted materials modelling to determine the ground state of neighbouring iron and titanium cations in the sapphire structure. Her paper proposes this ground state to be the trivalent cations as opposed to the generally thought Fe ^II/Ti ^IV pairs.
  J. K. Bristow, S. C. Parker, C. R. A. Catlow, S. M. Woodley, and A. Walsh, Chem. Commun., 2013, 49, 5259–5261.
• Lee Burton's article shows that new metal contacts are needed if sustainable materials are ever to be properly incorporated into solar panels.
  L. A. Burton and A. Walsh, Appl. Phys. Lett., 2013, 102, 132111.
• Julia Griffen's paper outlines novel synthetic methodolgy of aminocylitols as potentially biological active compounds for the treatment of diseases such as type II diabetes. Although the compounds tested were inactive, this work showcases the versitility of a known fermentation product and it's synthetic capabilities towards complex molecules through short synthetic procedures.
  J. A. Griffen, J. C. White, G. Kociok-Köhn, M. D. Lloyd, A. Wells, T. C. Arnot, and S. E. Lewis, Tetrahedron, 2013, 69, 5989–5997.
• Serena Marshalls' paper describes how vesicles dispersed in a matrix can be a useful cell mimic to analyse potential harmful effects of plasma treatment in wound care. This approach allows for controlled conditions without large variations in biological response often observed in cell and tissue based assays.
  S. E. Marshall, A. T. A. Jenkins, S. A. Al-Bataineh, R. D. Short, S.-H. Hong, N. T. Thet, J.-S. Oh, J. W. Bradley, and E. J. Szili, J. Phys. D: Appl. Phys., 2013, 46, 185401.
• The washing of clothes is a ubiquitous task with chemical, water and energy; in this project the mechanical aspects of flow, flexing and abrasion have been evaluated individually. Paul McKeown has contributed to a better understanding of how each aspect effects cleaning which will minimise the environmental and resource burden of the process.
  A. C. Muir, P. McKeown, Y. Li, J. J. Kobine, and M. R. Bird, Chem. Eng. Res. Des., 2013, In Press.
• Daniel Minett and colleagues have published a paper on a new method of preparing iron/carbon nanotube catalysts for the conversion of CO2. The new method to re-activate residual iron nanoparticles, significantly improves both the performance and sustainability of the catalyst.
  J. P. O’Byrne, R. E. Owen, D. R. Minett, S. I. Pascu, P. K. Plucinski, M. D. Jones, and D. Mattia, Catal. Sci. Technol., 2013, 3, 1202.
• William Reynolds and his supervisor Professor Chris Frost have published a book chapter reviewing palladium-catalysed cross-coupling reactions in continuous flow processes, including catalyst systems and technological advancements. Conducting chemical synthesis in flow can greatly improve process efficiency, by reducing raw material and energy use and also minimising waste.
  W. R. Reynolds and C. G. Frost, in Palladium-Catalyzed Coupling Reactions, ed. Á. Molnár, Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, 2013, pp. 409–443.