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The Westwood group has interests in the application of oxidative cleavage methods to the asymmetric synthesis of novel chemical entities and natural products (for example The Synthesis of Atropisomeric Diazonanes and Diazecanes. Chemistry-A European Journal, 2011, 17(20), 5714-5718). In this project we will extend our interests in this area through applications of our methodology to the cleavage of alternative polycyclic systems. This will involve the synthesis of these systems and optimisation of Ru-based catalytic cleavage methods. In addition, we will also apply our methods to key substrates that are available from renewable resources. The future of oil as the mainstay of most of our important high value chemicals is dwindling and it is essential that we direct our skills at developing novel chemical methods to process renewable resources efficiently .
Potential applicants are welcome to arrange to visit St Andrews at any time.
Please see:http://ch-www.st-andrews.ac.uk/PGadmissions.html for the application procedure or e-mail njw3@st-andrews.ac.uk for more information. The Westwood group website can be found at http://chemistry.st-andrews.ac.uk/staff/njw/group/
Funding Notes:
This PhD position is linked to EaStCHEM's recently funded EPSRC critical mass application (SuBiCat). This grant aims to discovery novel homogenous catalytic methods to process renewable resources.
References:
Jones, A.M., Liu, G., Lorion, M.M., Patterson, S., Lebl, T., Slawin, A.M.Z., Westwood, N.J.* The Synthesis of Atropisomeric Diazonanes and Diazecanes. Chemistry-A European Journal, 2011, 17(20), 5714-5718.
Research Assessment Exercise (RAE) 2008 Results