Part II Research Projects Available 2012-2013
A range of part II projects are available in the Chemical Crystallography group for the academic year 2012/2013, working with Dr. Richard I. Cooper, Dr. Amber L. Thompson or Dr. Kirsten E. Christensen. Visit Chemical Crystallography in the CRL basement laboratory to meet the group and find out more information [contact details].
Some potential projects are listed below:
A Systematic Study of Ion Binding in Catenanes
Ion exchange reactions, crystallisation and X-ray structure determination to investigate anion binding in catenanes (in collaboration with Prof. Paul Beer).
Synthesis, Structure and Bioactivity of Thiosemicarbazone Ligands and Complexes
Synthesis of ligands and study of binding modes on complex formation, using X-ray diffraction (in collaboration with Prof. Stephen Faulkner).
Polymorphism in Pharmaceutical Compounds
Crystallisation and characterisation of pharmaceutically active materials by X-ray diffraction, solid state NMR, variable temperature microscopy and DFT.
Reproducibility of Results in Crystallographic Analysis
Comparison of the results of statistical analyses and chemical intuition.
Interactions of Guest Molecules in Framework Materials
Synthesis and characterisation of Bio-MOFs and related materials, analysing the nature and contents of the void space.
Automation of Crystallographic Restraints in Least-Squares Refinement
Development of new tools for use in least-squares refinement within the crystallographic suite, CRYSTALS.
When are High Z’ Structures Really Modulated?
Data mining and analysis to determine the causes of high Z’ structures and conclude whether a modulated description provides a better approach.
Polymorphism in Tartrates
Systematic study of the crystallisation behaviour of mono and binary tartrates using X-ray diffraction and microscopy.
Trimesic Acid and Analogous Materials as Building-blocks in Framework Materials
Structure, reactivity, polymorphic behaviour and framework forming tendencies of simple carboxylates.
Host-guest Complexes of Deoxycholic Acid (led by Dr. Nicholas Rees)
The steroid deoxycholic acid forms host-guest complexes with small organic molecules. These systems display interesting chiral selectivity, phase transition and dynamic behaviour, which will be studied using a combination of solid state NMR and X-ray crystallography.
Alternative Approaches to Hydrogen Atom Location in the Solid State (led by Dr. Nicholas Rees)
X-ray diffraction looks at electron density whereas neutron diffraction looks at the position of the nucleus. DFT calculations using the CASTEP code will be used to minimize the structures and predict the experimental solid state NMR parameters for a series of molecular crystals.
Structure and Physical Properties of Natrolite Zeolites (led by Dr. Asel Sartbaeva)
Experimental determination of structure and properties of natrolite zeolites by X-ray diffraction, solid state NMR, TEM, SEM and BET adsorption measurements.