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New Chemistry

A transition metal borylene

complex stabilized by a non-

carbonyl ligand set: formation

by spontaneous halide loss to

give an extremely short metal-

-boron bond (video).

(work by David Addy)

Aldridge

Opportunities in the Aldridge group

· Part 2 project students:

Each year the group typically accepts between two and four Part 2 (Oxford final year undergraduate) students to work on projects which are integral to the group efforts in our target research areas. For the academic year 2011-12 it is likely that the group will take two Part 2 students.

On a day-to-day basis students are overseen in the laboratory by an (individually assigned) senior DPhil student or post-doc whose project area will typically overlap with that of the Part 2 research. Formal meetings are held with Dr Aldridge every week (and more informal ones on a daily basis in the lab).

Typically the project will start with some reading material and an outline project plan distributed over the summer vacation, and will begin in earnest with a 15 minute presentation to the group in early October outlining the aims/background/relevance of the project. Some recent examples of project outlines in E-H bond activation chemistry and in anion recognition/sensing are provided here.

Most Part 2 students will have work published from their time in the lab. Some examples of such papers are provided:

David Addy (anion recognition) 2007-8: Chem.-Eur. J.

Cally Haynes (anion recognition) 2007-8: New J. Chem.

Will Smith (sterically bulky N-heterocyclic carbenes) 2007-8: Organometallics

Mike Kelly (sterically bulky N-donor ligands) 2008-9: Chem.-Eur. J.

Jan Lednik (sterically bulky N-heterocyclic carbenes) 2008-9: Chem. Commun.

Phil Fitzpatrick (anion recognition): 2009-10: Organometallics

Alex Rowe (sterically bulky N-donor ligands) 2010-11: Chem. Commun.

Mike O’Neill (boryl and borylene chemistry) 2010-11: J. Am. Chem. Soc.

Prospective Part 2 students are more than welcome to call in for a chat about available projects – probably easiest to email to sort out a time in advance. Most Part 2 students who have worked in the group have discussed project possibilities in advance and spoken to existing members of the group before putting us down as one of their principal choices via the centralized system.