Welcome to the website of the McKeown research group here in Cardiff.
Research News:
Paper published in Science on nanoporous crystals
Our research involves the application of organic synthesis to the preparation of materials with interesting and unusual properties. These include multifunctional aromatic macrocycles such as phthalocyanines, liquid crystals and polymers. Of particular current interest is the design of organic materials, such as our 'polymers of intrinsic microporosity' (anyone for PIMs!), that possess molecular-sized holes, which like their inorganic counterparts, such as zeolites or Metal-Organic-Frameworks (MOFs), can be used for separations, adsorptions, heterogeneous catalysis and hydrogen storage.
More information about the materials and their applications can be found on the Research News page and details of our papers, with links to pdf copies, can be found under Publications. Members of the group are primarily engaged in organic and polymer synthesis although they will also perform some physical measurements (e.g. porosity measurements and crystal structure determination). If you are interesting in joining the group, check out the Opportunities Page
Examples of microporous organic materials prepared in our group: a) a phthalocyanine cubic clathrate; b) a channel clathrate formed by hexahydroxytriptycene and c) a fragment of a PIM.
Most projects are collaborative in nature and a list of current major collaborators is given below.
Dr. Peter Budd (University of Manchester) - PIMs characterization and applications.
Prof. Kenneth Harris (Cardiff University) - Structural characterisation of crystalline organic materials.
Dr. David Book (University of Birmingham) - Hydrogen storage measurements.
Dr. Detlev Fritsch (GKSS, Geesthacht, Germany) - Gas separation membranes.
Dr. Madeleine Helliwell, (University of Manchester) - X-ray crystal structure determination using synchrotron radiation.
Dr. Mark Gumbleton and Dr. Peter Griffiths (Cardiff University) - Polymer therapeutics.
Prof. Saad Makhseed (Kuwait University) - Phthalocyanine-based PIMs and crystals.
Current funding for research projects comes mainly from the EPSRC this includes two consortium grants:
Supergen XIV: The Delivery of Sustainable Hydrogen
Innovative Gas Separations for Carbon Capture
EU FP7 consortium: DoubleNanoMem
Contact information