Dr Jennifer A Garden

UKRI Future Leaders Fellow, Ramsay Memorial Trust Research Fellow

Research summary

Organometallic chemistry, catalysis, polymerisation, sustainable materials, mixed-metal cooperativity

Research overview

I am honoured to be the first recipient of the Christina Miller Research Fellowship, which I currently hold at the University of Edinburgh. My research activity focuses on the design and synthesis of new homo- and heterometallic complexes, and their application towards real world challenges.

This work combines different fields of chemistry including organometallic synthesis, catalyst development and sustainable polymer materials. The emerging concept of mixed-metal cooperativity can be exploited to give enhanced activities and selectivities. My research has helped to advance this concept within deprotonative metallation, alkylation chemistry and ring-opening copolymerisation.

I received my MSci (1st Class Hons, 2010) and PhD (2014) from the University of Strathclyde, the latter under the direction of Prof. Robert Mulvey. My PhD research dealt with the design, synthesis, characterisation and reaction chemistry of new zinc and zincate complexes, for which I was awarded the Ritchie Prize. Following this, I spent two years as a postdoctoral researcher in the group of Prof. Charlotte Williams at Imperial College London, where I researched the design, synthesis and development of catalysts for carbon dioxide-epoxide copolymerisation, in collaboration with Econic Technologies.

  1. Greater than the Sum of its Parts: A Heterodinuclear Polymerization Catalyst, Garden, J. A., Saini, P. K., Williams*, C. K.,  J. Am. Chem. Soc., 2015, 137, 15078.
  2. Dinuclear Zinc Salen Catalysts for the Ring Opening Copolymerization of Epoxides and Carbon Dioxide or Anhydrides, Thevenon, A., Garden,  J. A., White, A. J. P., Williams*, C. K., Inorg. Chem., 2015, 54, 11906.
  3. Donor-Activated Alkali Metal Dipyridylamides: Co-Complexation Reactions with Zinc Alkyls and Reactivity Studies with Benzophenone, Armstrong, D. R., Brouillet, E. V., Garden*, J. A., Granitzka, M., Kennedy, A. R., Mulvey*, R. E., Trivett, J. J., Dalton Trans., 2014, 43, 14409.
  4. Modifying Alkylzinc Chemistry with 2,2’-Dipyridylamide: Activation of tBu-Zn Bonds Towards Para-Alkylation of Benzophenone, Garden, J. A., Kennedy, A. R., Mulvey*, R. E., Robertson, S. D.,  Angew. Chem. Int. Ed., 2013, 52, 7190.
  5. Dizincation of a 2-Substituted Thiophene:  Constructing a Novel Cage with a [16]crown-4 Zincocyclic Core, Balloch, L., Garden, J. A., Kennedy, A. R., Mulvey*, R. E., Rantanen, T., Robertson, S. D., Snieckus, V., Angew. Chem. Int. Ed., 2012, 51, 6934. *Hot Paper*
  6. Ambient Temperature Zincation of N-Boc Pyrrolidine and its Solvent Dependency, Garden, J. A., Kennedy, A. R., Mulvey*, R. E., Robertson, S. D., Chem. Commun., 2012, 48, 5265.
  7. Patent: Saini, P. K., Romain, C., Garden, J. A., Williams, C. K., Improved Heterodinuclear Mixed Catalysts for CO2/Epoxide Copolymerisation, Patent application number 1308978.4.
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