DrRob Davies

Overview
Research interests in the Davies group are primarily focussed upon main-group organometallic and coordination chemistry, but also encapsulate a range of inorganic, organic and organometallic topics. Applications lie in the areas of novel reagents for greener and more selective organic transformations, catalysis, functionalised materials, gas storage and separation (including hydrogen gas fuels tanks and carbon dioxide capture), and bio-fuel additives.

Metal Organic Frameworks
An active area of research in the group is the development of new Metal-Organo Framework (MOF) materials. These are microporous 3D-coordination polymers consisting of metal based nodes and organic linking units. These materials are of high interest due to their applications in gas storage technologies (including hydrogen gas for automobile fuel tanks and carbon dioxide for carbon sequestration from the exhaust flues of coal power plants), gas separations and heterogeneous catalysis. Particular expertise lies in the preparation of novel MOF materials containing “light” s-block metal centres such as lithium and magnesium, and the application of highly branched and robust silicon-based linking units for MOF construction.

Current areas of application for MOFs under study in the group include direct air capture of carbon dioxide, detection of water pollutants (including heavy metals, antibiotics and PFAS) and their removal from contaminated suppliers, heterogenization of active catalysts for hydrogenation, and the use of bespoke MOFs in the treatment of medical conditions including pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) and nonalcholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD).

Copper catalysis

The Davies group is interested in the application and development of novel stoichiometric and catalytic copper based reagents, with a key focus on building an underlying understanding of the structures, behaviour and mechanism of operation of these reagents. To achieve this we use combined synthetic, spectroscopic and kinetic studies with particular emphasis on the coordination chemistry of the copper in its resting, active and transition states.

Copper salts and complexes have shown themselves to be versatile catalysts for cross coupling and condensation reactions with breadth of scope similar to that of palladium, although significantly less expensive (approximately 100,000 cheaper) and employing more readily available and cheaper ligands (usually trivial nitrogen or oxygen based ligands). However, the use of copper in coupling protocols has mainly been limited to small-scale studies in research labs. Perhaps the biggest drawback of copper assisted cross-coupling chemistry is the complete lack of understanding of the mechanism of these reactions and in particular the effect of ligands. To date, most copper catalytic systems have been developed empirically, i.e. via experimental trial and error, rather than by any rational approach based on a fundamental understanding in the area. We are focussed upon building a more thorough mechanistic appreciation which we then apply to the development of copper catalysts for new coupling applications and for the refinement of existing ones.