Once upon I time I used to like Chemistry – enough so that I studied for a Doctorate (DPhil) in Inorganic Structural Chemistry at the University of Oxford. If you like science then (eventually), I may put some stuff up here!
My research was into organically templated inorganic layered materials. A particular focus was on uranyl selenate materials, an example of which is shown to the right. This actually shows a hydrated uranyl selenate dimer, templated by diaminopropane. Further studies investigated the formation of these materials in situ, using apparatus designed for use in the UK SRS (synchrotron radiation source) in Daresbury, Cheshire. This fires a high energy X-ray at the sample, and can show the degradation of the starting materials as well as the formation of product materials. The graph below shows a typical plot of the results. These results can be used to probe the mechanism of the reaction directly and also to calculate reaction parameters such as the activation energy.
My supervisor was Prof. Dermot O’Hare in the CRL of the University of Oxford. His research group web-pages can be found here. As well as actinide chemistry, the group focusses on aspects of layered double hydroxide (LDH) intercalation chemistry, and organometallic chemistry.