Our approach

Curiosity is our main driving force. No matter how simple or well-known a reaction may seem, we are devoted to interrogate it. We use reaction monitoring (NMR, UV, IR), isotope labelling and kinetic analyses to explain why reactions behave in the way they do and untap their potential.

Research areas

Our main research programme combines main-group and organofluorine chemistry. We seek to understand why common and abundant main-group chemical reagents that transfer fluorine-containing groups lack of application with respect to their non-fluorinated congeners. In particular, we want to extract the factors that govern their stability and reactivity under conditions of application. We will then use these insights to: 1) generate empirical scales of reactivity; 2) develop a single synthetic platform to target a diverse set of fluorinated molecules and reach new chemical space; 3) inform asymmetric organocatalytic approaches to access enantioenriched fluorochemicals. The high relevance of small fluorine-containing molecules as drug candidates and the intel generated through this programme is of broad interest, particularly to academia and the pharmaceutical industry.

We also have available other research projects outside the scope of this programme. If you want to know more, join our group or collaborate with us, feel free to contact Andrés or visit our opportunities section.

Funding

We are grateful for the generous support received by the School of Chemistry of The University of Edinburgh and The Royal Society.