Research Labs

A time lapse of the Fairlamb Group working in the lab (2016).

The group is well equipped for conducting mechanistic investigations and synthetic chemistry.

There are 5 research groups housed in office and available lab space (3 lobes). The Fairlamb group has one lobe which contains 8 individual fumehoods with several glove boxes available to use. Analytical equipment is kept in the instrument room available to all groups situated in the three research lobes.

The Fairlamb group also has an automation lab housing the robotic Chemspeed system which can perform high-throughput reactions for organic reaction screening and catalytic mechanism understanding.

Having an open plan office allows collaborative work to be carried out between groups – Ian Fairlamb, Jason Lynam, John Slattery, Robin Perutz and Andy Weller.

Two Schlenk lines – one adapted for use of O2.
Typical Schlenk line – each fumehood is fitted with these.
Communal rotavaporators for the group.
GC equipment.
UV-Vis equipment.
ReactIR for in situ spectroscopic analysis (Si and diamond probes available).
Continuous flow equipment.
Chemspeed robotics for high-throughput reaction optimisation.
Robotic solid dispenser unit to dispense substances into HTE arrays.
CombiFlash for automated column chromatography purification.

The chemistry department also has excellent analytical facilities for our research which are used regularly.

We have access to a 700 MHz, 2x 500 MHz and 2x 400 MHz NMR spectrometers. The Fairlamb group is also part of the Centre for Hyperpolarisation in Magnetic Resonance (CHYM).

We also regularly use the superb mass spectrometry facilities. We often use ESI-MS, APCI and LIFDI techniques. We have studied metal-clusters using an FT-ICR instrument with MALDI-TOF and ESI.

The current and main research topics of interest in the group are:

Metal Catalysis: C-X and C-H Bond Activation

  • Catalysis and Mechanistic Chemistry
  • Photochemistry in Organic and Organometallic Chemistry
  • Stabilized Metal Nanoparticles for Cross-coupling Reactions
  • Ligand and catalyst Design

Automation of Catalytic and Organic Reaction and Reaction Optimisation

  • Reaction automation using robotics
  • Reaction optimization
  • Enabling technologies for catalysis