Recent News    (Click here for news archive)

December 2017

Sharon attended the NMRDG and BRSG Christmas Meetings in London just before Christmas. While there she was able to catch up with ex group members John Griffin and Valerie Seymour, both now at Lancaster University.

The School’s Annual Postgraduate Meeting took place this month. Rob, Joe and Arantxa all gave talks on the work they had completed during their PhD. Nasima, Dave, Suzi, Zhipeng, Giulia, Eliot and Cameron all presented posters.

Congratulations to Giulia, Zach, Richard and Dave whose work on 17O enrichment of MOFs was accepted for publication in Chem. Sci this month. The paper will appear in print in the new year.

Congratulations to Andrew who passed his PhD viva this month. Andrew has worked with SASOL on the study of industrial catalysts using NMR spectroscopy. We wish him all the best for his new job in France.

The group has had a number of papers accepted this month. Joe, Daniel and Sharon’s work (with Richard Walton at the University of Warwick) on the synthesis and characterisation of GaPO-34 was accepted in Dalton Transactions. Daniel, Valerie and Sharon’s paper investigating the relationships between crystal structure and NMR parameters in phosphates was accepted for publication in J. Phys. Chem. C, while work by Giulia and Sharon (with Russell Morris) was accepted in J. Mater. Chem A.

October 2017

Sharon gave a seminar at Durham University this month on recent work in ADOR-able zeolites and high-pressure minerals. While there she caught up with ex group member, Dr Karen Johnston, who is a lecturer at Durham.

September 2017

Sharon, Nasima, Dave, Rob, Joe, Suzi, Giulia and Arantxa attended he Alpine Conference in Chamonix this month. Sharon gave a plenary lecture on Giulia’s recent work on ADOR-able zeolites. The rest of the group gave short talks in a set of round table discussions. There was also time for a sight-seeing visit to the Aiguille du Midi.

The group welcomes new PhD students Cameron Rice and Eliot Austin-Forbes. Both Cameron and Eliot will be jointly supervised by Professor Russell Morris and will be focussed on NMR of microporous materials. More information can be found on the group page.

The group also welcomes five project students this month. Alison will work with Rob on AIRSS investigations of minerals. Oliver will work with Dave computing J couplings. Ben will be working on 17O enrichment of MOFs with Joe, and Anna will also be using 17O NMR spectroscopy, working with Arantxa investigating ceramics. Adam will work alongside Suzi using NMR to study zeolite-based catalysts. More information can be found on the group page.

A paper by Daniel, Zhipeng, Sharon and collaborator Michael Buhl, has been accepted for publication in Chem. Commun. as part of a themed collection (Commemorating Michael Faraday (1791-1867). Congratulations!

Daniel and Joe spent time at the 850 MHz facility this month doing some work on 71Ga NMR. Sharon also visited Warwick at this time and all three met with collaborator Richard Walton.

Daniel attended the annual meeting of the Scottish NMR user group (SNUG) this month at the Firbush Centre on Loch Tay. He gave a talk on the advantages of high field for solid-state NMR spectroscopy. He also celebrated his 30th birthday while he was there!

Sharon visited the group of ex PhD student Karen Johnston, who now has an independent position at the University of Durham. Sharon and Karen spent some time working on a review they are writing together, and discussing some future collaborations.

Ben finished his summer project this month. Ben has been working with Arantxa using 17O NMR to investigate the structure of pyrochlores. Ben will return to St Andrews for his fifth and final year of study in September.

June 2017

All members of the group attended the Seventh Annual Meeting of the St Andrews Centre for Magnetic Resonance, sponsored by Bruker. The event comprised a poster session, a day of talks on NMR, EPR and computation and a conference dinner. Giulia gave a talk on her recent work on ADOR-able zeolites and 17O NMR of MOFs. Nasima, Dave, Daniel, Giulia, Andrew, Rob, Joe, Arantxa, Suzi, Bonifac, Zhipeng, Daniel T and Freddie all presented posters. Congratulations go to Dave and Daniel T who won joint second prize for their posters. Former group member John Griffin also gave a talk at the event, and spent the next day talking with the group over some collaborative work.

Daniel, Dave, Rob, Joe and Arantxa attended the Annual ScotCHEM Computational Meeting in Glasgow. Dave gave a talk on the AIRSS work he and Rob have been carrying out recently. The other group members presented posters.

The group attended the NMRDG postgraduate meeting in Strathclyde University this month.  Giulia gave a talk on her recent work on ADOR-able zeolites, for which she was awarded second prize. Arantxa, Nasima, Zhipeng, Bonifac, Rob, Richard, Suzi, and Joe all presented posters. As Chair of the NMR-DG, Sharon presented the talk and poster prizes.

Daniel, Rob and Sharon’s paper investigating the relationships between crystal structure and NMR parameters in zeolites was accepted for publication in J. Phys. Chem. C this month. See the Publications page for more detail.

Sharon has been appointed Senate Assessor to the University Court (the governing body of the University. More information on the role of court can be found here.

Congratulations to three project students, Elliott, Freddie and Daniel T, who all graduated this month. Also graduating were former project student, Zach, and former summer student Rachel. Best wishes to all for the future.

May 2017

The group welcome Ben who will undertake a 6 week summer project this year, funded by EPSRC. Ben will be working on the synthesis, isotopic enrichment and NMR characterisation of pyrochlores with Arantxa and Rob.

Sharon and Daniel attended a meeting on quantum, electronic and magnetic materials in Edinburgh this month. Sharon gave a talk describing the group’s work on studying disorder using NMR and DFT calculations.

Former group member Scott Snedddon visited this month, to complete some paper drafts and discuss ongoing collaborations with Sharon and Paul Wright.

April 2017

The group attended the Annual Symposium of the UK 850 MHz Solid-State NMR facility in Warwick.  At the meeting Joe gave a talk about the work he has done at the facility using Ga NMR spectroscopy to study oxides and phosphates with collaborator Professor Richard Walton, Daniel and Sharon

Sharon gave a plenary talk at the 2017 British Crystallography Association Spring meeting in Lancaster. She talked about the group’s recent work on NMR crystallography, highlighting study of disorder in phosphates, ceramics and minerals.

Congratulations to Giulia whose work on the synthesis and characterisation of ADOR-able zeolites (in collaboration with her joint supervisor Professor Russell Morris) has been accepted for publication in Nature Chemistry and J. Am. Chem Soc. this month. See the Publications page for more detail. Also this month, work by David and Sharon with collaborators in France has been accepted for publication in Chem. Eur. J. and work by Paula and Sharon in Organometallics.

The group said goodbye to Elliott, Freddie and Daniel who completed their undergraduate projects this month. All three will be graduating in June, along with former project student Zach and summer student Rachel.

March 2017

Former group member Dr Karen Johnston got married this month, an event attended by Sharon and other former group members John Griffin and Martin Mitchell. Congratulations to both Karen (now a lecturer at the University of Durham, UK) and Charlie!

Sharon and Suzi (along with collaborators Professor Paul Wright and David Price) visited the BP site in Hull this month, to talk to CASE award supporters about Suzi and David’s work on zeolite catalysis.

Congratulations to project students Elliott, Freddie and Daniel who gave their honours projects talks this month. Elliott talked about his work on 17O enrichment of paramagnetic MOFs, Freddie his work on 13C NMR studies of paramagnetic oxime complexes and Daniel his structure searching work on hydrous minerals. All gave excellent presentations.

The group welcomed a visit from Simone Sturniolo and Albert Bartok-Partay collaborators from Oxford/STFC on the EPSRC-funded CCP-NC (NMR Crystallography). Also visiting this month was collaborator Professor Melinda Duer from Cambridge.

Sharon received a Suffrage Science award this month, a scheme that celebrates women in science for their scientific achievement and for their ability to inspire others (http://www.suffragescience.org).

January 2017

The group have had a number of papers accepted this month. Henri’s paper describing the use of composite pulse to improve the sensitivity of the MQMAS experiment was accepted for publication in a special edition of Solid State Nuclear Magnetic Resonance. Sharon and Daniel had a paper using NMR crystallography to understand the structure of AlPO-53 accepted for publication in a special edition of Acta Cryst. C (with collaborators Richard Walton and Steve Wimperis), and a paper exploring different forms of AlPO-34 (also with Richard and Steve) accepted for publication in J. Phys. Chem. C. Scott’s paper with Paul Wright on ZIFs was also accepted in CrystEngComm.

The group also has a visit from ex group member Scott Snedddon this month, who returned to complete some paper drafts and discuss ongoing collaborations with Sharon and Paul Wright.