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September 2022:

• Prof. David Harrowven presented work from Photo-Electro at the one-day conference “Celebrating the Stunning Career of Professor Phil Parsons as he turns 70”. The talk was entitled “Flow Photochemical Ring Expansion, Ring Contraction and Ring Closure Sequences for Heterocyclic Synthesis”.

• Prof. Richard Brown presented materials supported by the Photo-Electro project in his talk entitled “Photochemical Synthesis for the Generation of Complexity” at the above conference.  This event was also attended by Prof. Kevin Booker-Milburn, as a guest speaker.

May 2022:

• Prof. Martyn Poliakoff gave a question-and-answer session on Photochemistry, Green Chemistry, and, Sustainability to a large group of students at DSB International School, Mumbai, India.

February 2022:

• A team of chemists which includes Photo-Electro researchers from Nottingham’s School of Chemistry have shared the first prize in a major international competition! Bryan Tambosco, Jonathan Moore, Darren Lee, Marcos Veguillas Hernando, Rodolfo Teixeira, Toby Waldron Clarke, James Herron, Adam Lee are joint winners with a team from Yale of the 3rd Compound Challenge organised by the Merck Group. They are only the second UK team to win this competition. They will share a cash prize with the Yale team and 6 months free access to the Merck SYNTHIA retrosynthesis software. Congratulations to the whole team!

 

• The Photo-Electro team say goodbye and good luck to Nasiru Sharif who is taking up a role as Lecturer II at the Federal University Gusau, Zamfara-Nigeria.

 

January 2022:  

• The Photo-Electro team published "Wavelength Dependent Photoextrusion and Tandem Photoextrusion Reactions of Ninhydrin bis-Acetals for the Synthesis of 8-Ring Lactones, Benzocyclobutenes and Orthoanhydrides" , D. C. Harrowven, W. Sun, S. Kayal, W. A. T. Raimbach, X.Z. Sun, M.E. Light, M.W.D. Heine and M.W. George, Chem. Commun, 2022,  doi.org/10.1039/D1CC06800H

• The Photo-Electro team published  " New approaches to ondansetron and alosetron inspire a versatile, flow photochemical method for indole synthesis"  W. Sun,  W. A. T. Raimbach,  L. D. Elliott,  K. I. Booker-Milburn  and  D. C. Harrowven, Chem. Commun, 2022, 58, 383-386, doi.org/10.1039/D1CC05700F 

• Alastair Lennox published "Electrochemistry in Natural Product Synthesis" , K. Lam, M. C. Leech and A. J. J. Lennox, Science of Synthesis: Electrochemistry in Organic Synthesis, Ackermann, L., Ed.; Thieme: Stuttgart, 2021; Vol. 1, p 435- www.thieme-connect.de/products/ebooks/lookinside/10.1055/sos-SD-236-00280 

• The Photo-Electro team published "Electrochemistry in Laboratory Flow Systems", A.A Folgueiras-Amador, J.W. Hodgson, R.C.D. Brown, Science of Synthesis: Electrochemistry in Organic Synthesis,  Ackermann, L., Ed.; Thieme: Stuttgart, 2021, Vol. 1, p 387-434 https://www.thieme-connect.de/products/ebooks/lookinside/10.1055/sos-SD-236-00258

December 2021:

• Congratulations to Photo-Electro Professor Sir Martyn Poliakoff who has had a Nottingham tram named in his honour. The tram was unveiled on Martyn’s 74^th birthday in recognition of his achievements in research and teaching at the University of Nottingham, as well as demonstrating science in a fun and engaging way via the global hit Periodic Table of Video’s series which he presents.

 

• The team say goodbye and good luck to Dr Wei Sun who is sadly leaving Photo-Electro for a new position with Astra Zeneca. We wish him every success!

• Congratulations to Toby Waldron-Clarke for passing his PhD Viva!

• The Photo-Electro team published " Self-Optimization of Continuous Flow Electrochemical Synthesis Using Fourier Transform Infrared and Gas Chromatography",  J. Ke, C. Gao, A.A. Folgueiras-Amador, K.E. Jolley, O. De Frutos, C. Mateos, J.A. Rincon, R.C.D. Brown, M. Poliakoff, M.W. George, Applied Spectroscopy. December 2021,doi:10.1177/00037028211059848

November 2021:

• Dr Ana Folgueiras-Amador from the University of Southampton visited Nottingham to carry out joint experiments with Dr Darren Lee exploiting our new electro-vortex reactor.

 

• Richard Brown spoke in the Flow Chemistry session at the Lorentz Center Workshop on Electrifying Chemistry: from fundamentals to industrial application held in Leiden, the Netherlands.

• Congratulations to Nasiru Sharif for passing his PhD Viva!

October 2021:

• The Photo-Electro team are delighted to welcome Dr Zakaria Mansouri who joins the group as Computational Fluid Dynamics Research Fellow based in the School of Engineering at Nottingham.

September 2021:

• The Photo-Electro team held their first in-person meeting since the start of the pandemic at the University of Nottingham. The All Hands Meeting was a great opportunity to reflect on research progress and develop plans and strategies to ensure maximum impact from our innovations.

August 2021:

• Congratulations to Bruna Lacerda Da Silva Abreu for passing her PhD viva and we wish her every success in her new job at Almac. 

 

July 2021: 

• The Photo-Electro team published "Daisy-chaining Photo- and Thermal Chemistry: Multistep Continuous Flow Synthesis of Visible-Light-Mediated Photochemistry with a High-Temperature Cascade Reaction" L.D. Elliott, K.I. Booker-Milburn, A.J.J. Lennox, Org. Process Res.Dev. 2021, doi.org/10.1021/acs.oprd.1c00187

• The Photo-Electro team published  “A Continuous-Flow Electrochemical Taylor Vortex Reactor: A Laboratory-Scale High-Throughput Flow Reactor with Enhanced Mixing for Scalable Electrosynthesis” A. Love, D.S. Lee, G. Gennari, R. Jefferson-Loveday, S.J. Pickering, M .Poliakoff and M. W. George, Org. Process Res.Dev. 2021, doi.org/10.1021/acs.oprd.1c00102

 

• Wei Sun presented "Sequencing Thermal and Photochemical Ring Expansion Reactions in Flow for the Synthesis of 8-Membered Nitrogen Heterocycles from Cyclobutenones" at the Royal Society of Chemistry Heterocyclic & Synthesis Group Postdoctoral Symposium.

June 2021: 

 

• The Photo-Electro team published“Multi-gram Synthesis of Trioxanes Enabled by a Supercritical CO₂ Integrated Flow Process” L. Wu ; B.L. Abreu, A.J. Blake, L.J.Taylor, W. Lewis, S. P. Argent, M. Poliakoff, H. Boufroura, M.W. George Org. Process Res. Dev. 2021. doi.org/10.1021/acs.oprd.1c00111

• Alastair Lennox gave an invited lecture at the 239th Electrochemical Society conference  “Advances in Organic and Biological Electrochemistry: In memory of Dennis Peters” symposium, which was held online this year between May 30th and June 3rd. 

• The Photo-Electro team say goodbye to Luke Elliott. Thank you for your contributions Luke. We wish him every success!

• Congratulations to Photo-Electro researcher Darren Lee and his wife Sarah on the birth of their son, Samuel, born on June 20th.

May 2021:

• Matthew Edwards and Samuel Widijatmoko join the Photo-Electro team as postdoctoral researchers based in Nottingham. We’re delighted to welcome you both Matt and Sam!

 

• The Photo-Electro team published “A new mode of cyclobutenedione ring opening for the synthesis of 2-oxobut-3-enamides and tetrasubstituted furans” Ryan M. Bennett, Wei Sun, Dharyl C. Wilson, Mark E. Light and David C. Harrowven, Chem. Commun, (2021), 57 https://doi.org/10.1039/D1CC02097H

 The addition of lithium amides to cyclobutenediones provides access to 2-oxo-but-3-enamides and tetrasubstituted furans via a new mode of ring opening involving enone cleavage via O-to-C-lithium transfer.

April 2021:

• Richard Brown presented ‘Organic Electrosynthesis in Flow Reactors with Extended Channels’ to the iPRD (Institute of Process Research and Development) Industrial Club at the University of Leeds via Microsoft Teams.

March 2021:

• The Photo-Electro team had 'A Photochemical Ring Expansion of 6-to8-Membered Nitrogen Heterocycles by (1,30) -Sigmatropic Rearrangement' accepted for publication in ChemComm. 

 

• Photo-Electro researchers Kateryna Zhyvitska and Katie Reynolds were members of the organising committee at this year's Women in Chemistry Conference which took place virtually due to the pandemic. Congratulations Kat and Katie on a successful and inspiring event!

 

February 2021

• Congratulations to Amy Flinn, a Photo-Electro PhD student, on successfully passing her Viva. Amy is taking on an exciting role as a process development chemist at Reaxa Limited. We wish her every success!

 

• Congratulations to Photo-Electro researcher Wei Sun and his wife Xinyi Cui on the birth of their daughter, Hanzhang Sun, born on February 9th.

January 2021

• Alastair Lennox was awarded the 2021 Thieme Chemistry Journals Award, one of just four UK awardees. The prize is awarded to early career scientists who have been recognized as high-potential researchers in the field of synthetic organic chemistry by the editorial board members of SYNTHESIS, SYNLETT and SYNFACTS. 

December 2020:

• Mike George was awarded the 2020 Norman Sheppard Award for his significant contribution to the field of Vibrational Spectroscopy. 

• Sir Martyn Poliakoff was awarded the Russian Academy of Sciences Commission on the Popularization of Science: Special Diploma for “high quality scientific popularization” (shared with Neil Barnes and Brady Haran)

 November 2020:

• Dr Rodolfo Teixera  joins the PhotoElectro team as Research Fellow. Hello and welcome Rodolfo!

• Sir Martyn Poliakoff presented ‘Frontiers of Green and Sustainable Chemistry’ as a video lecture via the University of Nottingham Ningbo and gave an online talk ‘The Elements of Chemistry’ to over 200 sixth form students via the West Midlands Chemistry teachers’ Forum in Birmingham.

• The PhotoElectro team published “Escaping from Flatland: Antimalarial Activity of sp³-Rich Bridged Pyrrolidine Derivatives” B. Cox, J. Duffy, V. Zdorichenko, C. Bellanger, J. Hurcum, B.Laleu, K. I. Booker-Milburn, L.D. Elliott, M. Robertson-Ralph, C.J. Swain, S.J. Bishop, I.Hallyburton, M. Anderson, CS Med. Chem. Lett.2020, 11, 12, 2497–2503 doi.org/10.1021/acsmedchemlett.0c00486

October 2020:

• The Photo-Electro Team published, "Total synthesis of polymorphatin A, a macrocyclic bisbibenzyl with boat configured arenes," F.A. Almalki, W. Sun, M.E. Light, D.C. Harrowven, Tetrahedron, 2020, 76 (42), 131521, DOI: 10.1016/j.tet.2020.131521. (photo above).                                       

September 2020:

• Genevieve Garwood, a Photo-Electro PhD student at the University of Nottingham, was awarded Best  Molecular Binding and Spectroscopy Poster at the University of Nottingham's Virtual Postgraduate Research Symposium (photo above).

• Photo-Electro welcomes Dr. Alastair Lennox to the team as a co-investigator at the University of Bristol.

August 2020:

• The Photo-Electro team published, "Rational Design of Treiplet Sensitizers for the Transfer of Excited State Photochemistry from UV to Visible," L.D. Elliott, S. Kayal, M.W. George, and K.I. Booker-Milburn, J. Am. Chem. Soc., 2020, in press, DOI: 10.1021/jacs.0c05069 (photo above).

• Bruna Lacerda da Silva Abreu, a Photo-Electro PhD student, was part of the team that organised the Women in Chemistry conference. This team was awarded the Vice-Chancellor's Medal for their work.

July 2020:

• Kevin Booker-Milburn presented Photo-Electro and photochemistry work at the University of Nottingham’s CDT Summer Colloquia series, chaired by Bruna Lacerda da Silva Abreu a Photo-Electro PhD student.

• We are excited to announce that Photo-Electro members from each university are back in the lab!

• Kevin Booker-Milburn has retired from the University of Bristol. We thank him for his tremendous contributions to Photo-Electro over the past three years and wish him well in his future endeavours.

June 2020:

• Photo-Electro researchers were busy making the laboratories Covid-19 safe as they prepare for their return.

May 2020:

• Photo-Electro collaborations continued during lockdown over videoconferencing.

April 2020:

• Congratulations to Dr. Rowena Howie who sadly is leaving PhotoElectro for a new position as a Flow Chemist at Arcinova. We wish her well in her new position!

March 2020:

• The PhotoElectro team published, “Escaping from Flatland: Substituted Bridged Pyrrolidine Fragments with Inherent Three-Dimensional Character”, B. Cox, V. Zdorichenko, P.B. Cox, K.I. Booker-Milburn, R. Paumier, L.D. Elliott, M. Robertson-Ralph, and G. Bloomfield, ACS Med. Chem. Lett., 2020, 11 (6), 1185-1190, DOI: 10.1021/acsmedchemlett.0c00039 (photo above).

• Congratulations to the J-A Team, a group of PhotoElectro researchers, who were selected to compete in the final round of the Royal Society of Chemistry’s 7^th National Retrosynthesis Competition (photo above).

• Vertex Pharmaceuticals joined PhotoElectro as a new stakeholder.

• Photo-Electro researchers played a major role in planning and executing the successful Women in Chemistry Conference at the University of Nottingham (photo above).

 

February 2020:  

  

• The PhotoElectro Team published, "A Design of Flow Electrolysis Cell for 'Home' Fabrication", A. A. Folgueiras-Amador, A. Teuten, D. Pletcher and R.C.D. Brown, React. Chem. Eng., 2020, 5, 712-718, DOI: 10.1039/D0RE00019A. (photo above) 

• The PhotoElectro Team published , "Scalable Continuous Vortex Reactor for Gram to Kilo Scale for UV and Visible Photochemistry," D. S. Lee, M. Sharabi, R. Jefferson-Loveday, S. J. Pickering, M. Poliakoff, and M. W. George, Org. Process. Res. Dev., 2020, 24 (2), 201-206, DOI: 10.1021/acs.oprd.9b00475 (photo above).

• Sir Martyn Poliakoff lectured "The Elements of Chemistry" at the 2019 Michael Faraday Price and Lecture at the Royal Society. Watch the lecture here!

 

January 2020:

 

• Sir Martyn Poliakoff  was awarded the 2019 International Science and Technology Cooperation Award of the People's Republic of China, the nation's highest honour foreign scientists, for his work on the international scientific stage (photos above).

 

December 2019:  

• Mike George presented 'Towards Greener Photochemistry' at the 225^th Infrared and Raman Discussion Group Meeting at UCL. (photo above)

• Toby Waldron-Clarke, a PhD student at the University of Nottingham, was awarded the Young Chemist Award and presented at the 6^th Winter Process Chemistry Conference in Birmingham, UK. (photo above)

• PhotoElectro welcomes Dr. Dan Sun in her new role as a post-doctoral researcher at the University of Nottingham.

 

November 2019:

• PhotoElectro is now on Twitter. Follow us @PhotoElectroSci

• PhotoElectro's publication, "Cubane Electrochemistry: Direct Conversion of Cubane Carboxylic Acids to Alkoxy Cubanes Using the Hofer-Moest Reaction under Flow Conditions," was featured on the cover of Chemistry a European Journal (photo above).

 

Photography by: © Royal Society of Chemistry

• PhotoElectro presented 'Green Light for Chemistry' at the Royal Institution and Royal Society of Chemistry's event 'For Your Inspiration: the elements of success' at the Royal Institution in London, UK. (photo above).  A summary of the event from the Royal Society of Chemistry can be read here.

• PhotoElectro researchers met at the University of Nottingham for an All Hands Meeting where Dr. Karen Robertson, an Anne McLaren fellow, gave a guest lecture on flow crystallisation. (photo above)

October 2019:

• The PhotoElectro team published, “Escaping from Flatland: [2+2] Photocycloaddition; Conformationally Constrained sp3-rich Scaffolds for Lead Generation”, C. Cox, K.I. Booker-Milburn, L.D. Elliott, M. Robertson-Ralph, and V. Zdorichenko, ACS Med. Chem. Lett., 2019, 10 (11), 1512-1517, DOI:10.1021/ascmedchemlett.9b00409.

• The PhotoElectro team published, "Cubane Electrochemistry: Direct Conversion of Cubane Carboxylic Acids to Alkoxy Cubanes Using the Hofer-Moest Reaction under Flow Conditions," D.E. Collin, A.A. Folgueiras-Amador, D. Pletcher, M.E. Light, B. Linclau, R.C.D. Brown, Chem.: Eur. J., 2019, 26 (2), DOI: 10.1002/chem.201904479.

• Mike George presented, "Process Optimisation for Manufacturing with Light" at SCIX 2019 in Palm Springs, California, USA.

• PhotoElectro welcomes new PhD students, Gabriele Gennari and Kateryna Zhyvitska, who joined the team at the University of Nottingham.

• The PhotoElectro Team published, "In vitro cytotoxicity assessment of monocationic and dicationic pyridinium-based ionic liquids on HeLa, MCF-7, BGM, and EA.hy926 cell lines," S.A. Perez, M.G. Montalban, G. Carissimi, P. Licence, and G. Villora, J. Hazard. Mater., 2019, 5 (385), 121513, DOI: 10.1016/j.jhazmat.2019.121513.

September 2019:

• The PhotoElectro Team published, "In Situ Sulfidation of Pd/C: A Straightforward Method for Chemoselective Conjugate Reduction by Continuous Hydrogenation", J. C. Moore, R. A. Howie, S. L. Bourne, G. N. Jenkins, P. Licence, M. Poliakoff, and M. W. George, ASC Sustain Chem Eng, 2019, 7 (19), 16814-16819, DOI: 10.1021/acssuschemeng.9b04347. (photo above)

• Both Kevin Booker-Milburn and Richard Brown lectured  at the  "Flow Chemistry and Reagentless Synthesis" meeting hosted by the University of Southampton.

August 2019:

• Mike George presented, “Photochemistry, spectroscopy and supercritical fluids: Journey from organometallic alkane and noble gas complexes to manufacturing antimalarial compounds” at the ACS Fall 2019 National Meeting and Exposition in San Diego, California, USA.

• Congratulations to Dr. Medhat Sharabi who sadly is leaving PhotoElectro for a new position at the Belgian Nuclear Research Centre as a Nuclear Safety Analyst. We wish him well in his new position!

July 2019:

Photography by: Royal Society

• The PhotoElectro team exhibited 'Green Light for Chemistry' at the Royal Society's Summer Science Exhibition. (photos above)

 

• PhotoElectro presented to Science & Engineering Network at the Department of Business Enterprise & Industrial Strategy on “Moore’s Law for Chemistry. (photo above)

June 2019:

• The PhotoElectro Team exhibited 'Spotlight on Chemistry' at the University of Nottingham's public open day 'Wonder.'

• Martyn Poliakoff lectured, "Towards Greener Photochemistry" at the Statingh Institute in Gorningen, Netherlands.

• Richard Brown presented " Flow and electro-synthesis" at the LabFact Event Reagentless Summer School in Caen, France.

May 2019:

• The PhotoElectro team published, "Tuning the Reactivity of TEMPO during Electrocatalytic Alcohol Oxidations in Room-Temperature Ionic Liquids”, A. E. Delorme, V. Sans, P. Licence, D. A. Walsh, ACS Sustain Chem Eng, 2019, 7, 11691-11691, DOI: 10.1021/acssuschemeng.9b01823. (photo above)

• David Harrowven delivered a plenary lecture, "Using Flow to Understand, Develop and Exploit Thermal and Photochemical Rearrangements" at the LabFact Launch Event and Training Event on Flow Chemistry in Rouen, France.

• Pete Licence was a keynote speaker at the International Congress on Ionic Liquids (COIL-8) in Beijing, China.

• Pete Licence published, “On The Real Catalytically Active Species for CO₂ Fixation into Cyclic Carbonates Under Near Ambient Conditions: Dissociation Equilibrium of [BMIm][Fe(NO)₂Cl₂] Dependant on Reaction Temperature.” M. K. Leu, I. Vicente, J. Alves Fernandes, I De Pedro, J. Dupont, V. Sans,P. Licence, A. Gual and I. Cano, Appl Catal B: Environ, 2019, 245, 240-250, DOI: 10.1016/j.apcatb.2018.12.062.

• Wei Sun, a PhotoElectro Post-doctoral Researcher presented at the LabFact Launch Event and Training Event on Flow Chemistry in Rouen, France.

• Pete Licence presented at IUPAC for Africa --Postgraduate Summer School for Sustainable Chemistry in Salaam, Tanzania.

April 2019:

• Mike George presented 'Moore's Law for Chemistry' at the ACS Spring National Meeting and Exposition in Orlando, Florida, USA.

• The PhotoElectro team published, “Sequential Photochemical and Prins Reactions for the Diasteroselective Synthesis of Tricyclic Scaffolds,” K.I. Booker-Milburn, B. Donnelly, L. Elliott, and C. Willis, Angew. Chem. Int. Ed., 2019, 58, 9095-9098, DOI: 10.1002/anie.201903488. 

March 2019:

• Mike George and Martyn Poliakoff presented 'Developing a greener synthetic artemisinin' to the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Malaria and Neglected Tropical Diseases at the House of Commons.

• The University of Sheffield's Chemical Society invited Martyn Poliakoff and Mike George  to give a lecture on their current research. Their lecture, 'Spotlight on Chemistry', was well received. A review of the event can be read here.

February 2019:

• The PhotoElectro team published, “Photochemically Produced Aminocyclobutanes as Masked Dienes in thermal Electrocyclic Cascade Reactions”, L.D. Elliott and K.I. Booker-Milburn, Org. Lett., 2019, 21 (5), 1463-1466, DOI: 10.1021/acs.orglett.9b00211. (photo above)

• PhotoElectro researchers attended the SCI event 'Spotlight on Photoredox catalysis and Photochemistry'. (photo above)

• Pete Licence lectured "Ionic Liquids in-vacuo: Suck it and See!" at the Universitate Erlangen-Nurnberg, Erlandgen, Germany.

 

January 2019:

• The PhotoElectro Team met at the University of Nottingham for it's third All Hands Meeting where researchers attended a training session by the Haydn Green Institute (photo above).

• The PhotoElectro Team published, "The influence of non-ionic surfactants on electrosynthesis in extended channel, narrow gap electrolysis cells", A. Folgueiras-Amador, K.E. Jolley, P.R. Birkin, R.C.D.B. Brown, D. Pletcher, S. Pickering, M. Sharabi, O. de Frutos, C. Mataeos, and J.A. Rincon, Electrochem. Commun., 2019, 100, 6-10. DOI:10.1016/j.elecom.2019.01.009.

December 2018:

• Congratulations to Dr. Katie Jolley who sadly is leaving PhotoElectro for a new position at GSK. We wish her well in her new position!

November 2018:

• Mike George gave a plenary lecture on “Towards Greener Photochemistry” at the 4^th Mogan Mountain International Summit on Green Pharmaceuticals in Hangzhou-Deqing. 

• Pete Licence, Martyn Poliakoff, and Mike George won the United Nations Industrial Development Organisation (UNIDO) Bronze Award for Research in Chemical Leasing at the 2018 UNIDO Global Chemical Leasing Awards (see https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kvK8FhjKDWQ) for work describing "A New Approach to Sustainability : A Moore's Law for Chemistry" (see May 2018 news below, photo above).

• Huvepharma joined PhotoElectro as a new stakeholder.

October 2018:

• Mettler-Toledo AutoChem, Inc. joined PhotoElectro as a new stakeholder.

• PhotoElectro hosted its annual Stakeholders' Forum at the Carbon Neutral Laboratory at the University of Nottingham.

• Three PhD students, Bruna Lacerda Da Silva Abreu, Genevieve Garwood, and James Herron, joined the PhotoElectro team at the University of Nottingham.

• Dawn White, a PhD student, joined the PhotoElectro team at the University of Bristol.

• William Raimbach, a PhD student, joined the PhotoElectro team at the University of Southampton.

September 2018:

• The PhotoElectro Team published, “The Impact of Sulfur Functionalisation on Nitrogen-based Ionic Liquid Cations”, A. R. Santos,R. M. W. D. Hanson-Heine, N. A. Besley and P. Licence, Chem. Commun., 2018, 54, 11403-11406, DOI: 10.1039/c8cc05515g.

• Richard Brown gave a keynote lecture entitled, "Organic Synthesis in Extended Channel Electrochemical Flow Reactors," at Electrochemistry 2018 in Ulm, Germany.

• Martyn Poliakoff was the recipient of the 2019 James T. Grady-James H. Stack Award for Interpreting Chemistry for the Public, sponsored by the American Chemical Society.

• Lingqiao Wu, a PhotoElectro PhD student at the University of Nottingham, was awarded 2^nd Place for Excellence in Chemical Research for her posters titled, "Photo-oxidation of cyclopentadiene and derivatives using CO₂ as a solvent," at the 25^th Annual SCI-CSCST conference of the SCI Chinese UK Group in Manchester, UK (photo above).

• Kevin Booker-Milburn presented at the GDCh 26^th lecture Conference on Photochemistry in Garching, Germany.

• Michael George and Martyn Poliakoff participated in a Grant-holders meeting at the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation in Seattle, Washington, USA to update the Foundation on the current state of their project (photo above).  

• The PhotoElectro team published, "The Impact of Sulfur Functionalisation on Nitrogen-based Ionic Liquid Cations", A. R. Santos, R. M. W. D. Hanson-Heine, N. A. Besleyand P. Licence, Chem. Commun. 2018, 54, 11403-11406, DOI: 10.1039/c8cc05515g.

August 2018:

• Michael George presented at the American Chemical Society's National Conference in Boston, Massachusetts on using time-resolved spectroscopy to unravel catalytic mechanisms.

• Martyn Poliakoff lectured on Sustainable Chemistry and Photochemistry at the U3A Science Network annual Meeting in Nottingham, UK.

July 2018:

• David Harrowven attended the Dial-a-Molecule Annual General Meeting and Steering Group at Imperial College White City Campus, facilitating the session 'What could be enabling for synthesis in the future?'

• PhotoElectro's publication, "Photooxidation of Fulvenes in a Continuous Flow Photoreactor using Carbon Dioxide as a Solvent," appeared in hard copy and was featured on the cover of CHEMPHOTOCHEM (cover photo above).

June 2018:

• The PhotoElectro Team published, "A Thermally Induced Hydride Transfer from an Amine to an Allene Triggers and Annulation Reaction, Giving Dihydrofuropyridinones", W. Sun, D.C. Wilson, M.E. Light, and D.C. Harrowven, Org. Lett., 2018, 20 (14), 4346-4349, DOI:10.1021/acs.orglett.8b01792. (photo above)

 

 

• PhotoElectro researchers met at the University of Southampton for an All Hands Meeting. This meeting helped further collaborative projects and inspire new ideas. (photo above)

May 2018:

• The PhotoElectro Team published, “A New Approach to Sustainability: A Moore's Law for Chemistry”, M. Poliakoff, P. Licence, M. W. George, Angew. Chem., 2018, 57, DOI: 10.1002/anie.201804004.

• Amy Flinn, a Nottingham PhD student, organised chemistry sessions for the Pint of Science event in Nottingham; in one of these sessions, Pete Licence lectured on, '12 Principles of Sustainable Chemistry - understanding and application.'

April 2018:

• Kevin Booker-Milburn presented at the Beilstein Photocatalysis Symposium in Potsdam, Germany.

• Michael George, Martyn Poliakoff, and Steve Pickering received a Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation award under the Foundation's Novel Artemisinin Manufacturing Technologies RFP, for the Manufacture of Anti-malarial Compounds.

• The PhotoElectro Team published, “UN Sustainable Development Goals: How Can Sustainable/Green Chemistry Contribute? By Doing Things Differently”, M. Poliakoff, P. Licence, M. W. George, Curr. Opin. Green Sustain. Chem., 2018, 13, 146-149, DOI: 10.1016/j.cogsc.2018.04.011.

                                

• The PhotoElectro Team published, “Photooxidation of Fulvenes in a Continuous Flow Photoreactor using Carbon Dioxide as a Solvent”, L. Wu  D. S. Lee, H. Boufroura, M. Poliakoff and M. W. George, ChemPhotoChem, 2018, 2, DOI: 10.1002/cptc.201800033. (photo above)

• Richard Brown presented, "Organic Electrosynthesis in Flow Reactors", at Eli Lilly and Company, DCRT Alcobendas, Spain.

• Southampton held training sessions for Industrial Scientists on flow organic electrosynthesis, and electrochemical techniques such as cyclic voltammetry. An introduction to some of the underpinning theory, and practical demonstrations were provided, and these were very well received. A delegate commented, "The face-to-face training we received from the electrosynthesis experts at the University of Southampton has been instrumental in breaking down barriers associated with the first independent steps we have taken to apply the techniques to problems faced by both our medicinal and process chemists".

• Michael George, Pete Licence, and Martyn Poliakoff, in participation with Arcinova, were awarded an Innovate UK grant entitled, 'Flow-inova: Innovation in Manufacturing Medicines'.

• Richard Brown presented, "Preparative Scale Organic Synthesis using Electrochemical Flow Reactors with Extended Channels", to Charles River at Chesterford Research Park, UK.

• Pete Licence lectured at the U3A visit to the CNL at the University of Nottingham.

March 2018:

                                  

• The PhotoElectro Team published, “UV PhotoVap: Demonstrating How a Simple and Versatile Reactor Based on a Conventional Rotary Evaporator Can Be Used for UV Photochemistry”, C. A. Clark, D. S. Lee, S. J. Pickering, M. Poliakoff, and M. W. George, Org. Process Res. Dev., 2018, 22, 595-599, DOI: 10.1021/acs.oprd.8b00037.(photo above)

• Photodiversity joined PhotoElectro as a new stakeholder.

• PhotoElectro welcomes Dr. Surajit Kayal in his new role as a post-doctoral researcher at the University of Nottingham. 

February 2018:

• Dr. Katie Jolley presented "Organic Electrochemistry in Extended Channel Flow Reactors" at Flow Chemistry Europe 2018 in Cambridge, UK.  

• Martyn Poliakoff lectured to the Royal Society of Chemistry, Belgium Section at an event entitled "An evening with Professor Poliakoff".

• Kevin Booker-Milburn gave an invited lecture entitled, "Complexity Generation by Photochemistry in Flow: From Grams to Kilograms" to the Flow Chemistry Society in Cambridge, UK.

• Martyn Poliakoff lectured, "Towards Greener Chemistry", at ChemCys 2018 in Blankenberge, Belgium.

January 2018:

                          

• PhotoElectro researchers met in Bristol for an All Hands Meeting to discuss current progress. This meeting harboured a collaborative atmosphere from which many ideas originated. (photo above)

• Martyn Poliakoff lectured, "Towards Greener Photochemistry" at the University of Surrey.

                                            

• The PhotoElectro Team published, "Using batch reactor results to calculate optimal flow rates for the scale-up of UV photochemical reactions", L.D. Elliott, J.P. Knowles, C.S. Stacey, D.J. Klauber, K.I. Booker-Milburn, React. Chem. Eng., 2018, 3, 86-93, DOI: 10.1039/C7RE00193B. (photo above)

• Four chemists from AstraZeneca visited Richard Brown's lab at the University of Southampton for training in the operation of electrochemical procedures.

• Pete Licence led the Seminario Green Chemistry Awareness Raising Workshop in Medellin, Columbia.

December 2017:

• PhotoElectro welcomes Dr. Hamza Boufroura in his new role as a post-doctoral researcher at the University of Nottingham. 

               

• The PhotoElectro Team published, "Combining Engineering and Chemistry for the Selective Continuous Production of Four Different Oxygenated Compounds by Photooxidation of Cyclopentadiene using Liquid and Supercritical CO₂ as Solvents", L. Wu, Z. Abada, D.S. Lee, M. Poliakoff, M.W. George, Tetrahedron, 2018, 74 (25), 3107-3112, DOI: 10.1016/j.tet.2017.11.048. (photo above)

November 2017:

• Johnson Matthey joined PhotoElectro as a new stakeholder.

• Martyn Poliakoff gave a CHEMSOC lecture at the University of Nottingham.

• Martyn Poliakoff was an invited speaker at  the Joint NSFC-RSC Symposium on Sustainable Chemistry and Processes in Beijing, China.

• Richard Brown presented "Practical Organic Electrosynthesis in Laboratory Flow Electrolysis Cells with Extended Channels: Milligrammes to Multigrammes/Hour" at the UK Automated Synthesis Forum, Festo Ltd, in Northampton, UK.

• PhotoElectro welcomes Dr. Ana Folgueiras in her new role as a post-doctoral researcher at the University of Southampton.

                                

• Michael George and Martyn Poliakoff presented at the International Conference on Green and Sustainable Chemistry and Chemical Engineering at the University of Nottingham, Ningbo China. (photo above)

• Kevin Booker-Milburn lectured "Generating Molecular Complexity by Synthetic Photochemistry: From Grams to Kilograms” at Bayer's Photochemistry for the Life Sciences Conference: The Future is Bright in Dusseldorf, Germany.

October 2017:

• Chris Wiseall, a PhD student sponsored by PSE, was awarded with the Federation of Analytical Chemistry and Spectroscopy Societies Poster Award at the SciX Conference in Nevada, USA.

• Martyn Poliakoff was a Plenary Lecturer (via video) at the IUPAC Green Chemistry Conference in Moscow.

• Dr. Katie Jolley presented a poster "Flow electrosynthesis: A scalable tool for organic synthesis" at The Eli Lilly 50 Year Celebratory Symposium in Erl Wood.

• Martyn Poliakoff was a Keynote Speaker at the International Conference on Green and Sustainable Chemistry and Engineering at the University of Nottingham, Ningbo, China campus.

• Dr. Katie Jolley gave a seminar, "Organic electrochemistry in extended channel flow reactors" at the University of Southampton, Chemistry Department Postdoctoral Symposium.

• Martyn Poliakoff was elected as a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering.

September 2017:

• Process Systems Enterprise (PSE) joined PhotoElectro as a new stakeholder.

• PhotoElectro hosted it's first annual Stakeholders' Forum at the Carbon Neutral Laboratory at the University of Nottingham.

• Beta Technology (Beta) joined PhotoElectro as a new stakeholder.

• Richard Brown presented "Approaches to Preparative Electrosynthesis" at Dial-a-Molecule-- Enabling Technologies for Synthesis Sandpit in Loughborough, UK.

• Kevin Booker-Milburn lectured "Flow Photochemistry in Organic Synthesis- Generating Molecular Complexity on the Gram and Kilogram Scales", at the Advancing Chemical Synthesis through Automation, Processes and Thinking, Beilstein Organic Chemistry Symposium, in Potsdam, Germany.

• Dr. Katie Jolley presented a poster entitled "Flow electrosynthesis: A scalable tool for organic synthesis," at the Joliot Curie Conference at the University of Bath.

                                  

• The PhotoElectro Team published,"Flow Electrolysis Cells for the Synthetic Organic Chemistry Laboratory", D. Pletcher, R.A. Green, R.C.D. Brown, Chem. Rev., 2018, 118 (9), 4573-4591, DOI: 10.1021/acs.chemrev.7b00360. (photo above)

July 2017:

• Martyn Poliakoff was a keynote speaker at the RACI Centenary congress in Melbourne, Australia.

                                               

• The PhotoElectro Team published, "Continuous Photo-Oxidation in a Vortex Reactor: Efficient Operations Using Air Drawn from the Laboratory", D.S. Lee, Z. Amara, C.A. Clark, Z.Y. Xu, B. Kakimpa, H.P. Morvan, S.J. Pickering, Poliakoff, M.W. George, Org. Process Res. Dev., 2017, 21, 1042–1050, DOI: 10.1021/acs.oprd.7b00153. (photo above)

• Kevin Booker-Milburn lectured, "Generating Molecular Complexity by Synthetic Photochemistry: From Grams to Kilograms", at the Evotec Seminar in Abingdon, UK.

June 2017:

• Martyn Poliakoff lectured "Chemistry for a Greener World" at the Ashbourne Festival in Derbyshire.

• Kevin Booker-Milburn lectured "Generating Molecular Complexity by Synthetic Photochemistry: From Grams to Kilograms" at the Charles River Seminar in Cambridge.

• Martyn Poliakoff performed live science experiments to demonstrate how light can be used as an energy source to make chemical reactions more sustainable at the University of Nottingham's Wonder Outreach Event.

May 2017:

• Darren Lee presented “Towards Greener Photochemistry" at the 2^ndGreen and Sustainable Chemistry Conference in Berlin, Germany.

• Martyn Poliakoff presented "This Molecular World" at the CSC Centenary Conference in Toronto, Canada.

• Martyn Poliakoff gave research lectures to Givaudan, Novartis, and EPFL in Zurich, Basel, and Lausanne, Switzerland, respectively.

April 2017:

• Michael George presented “Photochemistry, Spectroscopy and Supercritical Fluids: 

  From Organometallic Alkane Complexes and C-H Activation to the Synthesis of Anti-Malarial Drugs” at the University of Otago, New Zealand.

• Martyn Poliakoff presented "Towards Greener Photochemistry" at ENEQUI V at Ciombra University in Portugal.

• Martyn Poliakoff gave The James Walker Memorial Lecture at the University of Edinburgh in Edinburgh, Scotland. 

March 2017:

• Martyn Poliakoff presented "Continuous Green Chemistry" at St Andrew and Edinburgh Universities' CRITICAT CDT Annual Conference.

• Richard Brown presented “Flow Electrosynthesis: A Scalable Tool for Organic Synthesis" at the University of Nottingham's CDT/CNL Symposium.

• Martyn Poliakoff presented "Towards Greener Chemistry" at a Stokes Society event at Pembroke College Cambridge.

                                             

• PhotoElectro published its first paper: "A laboratory-scale annular continuous flow reactor for UV photochemistry using excimer lamps for discrete wavelength excitation an dits use in a wavelength study of a photodecarboxlyative cyclisation", E.N. Delaney, D.S. Lee, L.D. Elliott, J. Jin, K.I. Booker-Milburn, M. Poliakoff, M.W. George, Green Chem., 2017, 19, 1431-1438, DOI: 10.1039/C6GC02888H. (photo above)

February 2017:

• Richard Brown presented “Preparative Electrosynthesis Using Undivided, Extended Channel Length, Flow Reactors” at Flow Chemistry Europe in Cambridge, UK and at a seminar for GSK in Stevenage, UK.

• Martyn Poliakoff lectured to the Chemical Engineering Department at Imperial College London.  

• Richard Brown presented "Extended Path Flow Electrosynthesis Reactors as a Simple and Scalable Tool for Organic Synthesis" at SELECTBIO-Flow Chemistry Europe 2017.

 January 2017:

• Martyn Poliakoff presented "Towards Greener Chemistry" at ENEQUI XXV at Sao Paulo University in Brazil.