Research Group(s)

• Catalysis
• Efficient chemical synthesis
• Inorganic Synthesis
• Material Synthesis
• Molecular machines
• Nanomaterials
• Nanotechnology
• Organic materials and polymers
• Organic Synthesis
• Polymerization
• Supramolecular chemistry

David Leigh FRS obtained his PhD from the University of Sheffield in 1987 and, after postdoctoral research at the National Research Council of Canada in Ottawa, he returned to the UK as a Lecturer at the University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology in 1989. In 1998 he moved to the University of Warwick as Professor of Synthetic Chemistry and in 2001 he took up the Forbes Chair of Organic Chemistry at the University of Edinburgh. In 2012 he returned to Manchester as Professor of Organic Chemistry and, since 2014, Sir Samuel Hall Chair of Chemistry.

Leigh has won a number of major international awards including the 2007 Izatt-Christensen Award for Macrocyclic Chemistry, 2007 Descartes Prize and the 2007 Feynman Prize for Nanotechnology. He was elected to the Fellowship of the Royal Society (FRS) in 2009. 

Research interests

The Leigh group's research interests include the development of new strategies for interlocked molecule synthesis and the design, construction and application of artificial molecular motors and machines.

CHEMICAL TOPOLOGY
Developing novel strategies and methodologies for the synthesis of catenanes, rotaxanes and molecular knots.

MOLECULAR MOTORS AND MACHINES
The design, synthesis, characterisation and application of artificial molecular motors, molecules that can walk along tracks and functional molecular machines.

MOLECULAR MACHINES FOR SYNTHESIS
The design, synthesis, characterisation and application of artificial molecular machines for chemical synthesis, including switchable catalysts, molecular transporters and molecular robots that can make other molecules.

SUPRAMOLECULAR POLYMERS
The design, synthesis and characterisation of extremely strong hydrogen bond motifs and their incorporation into supramolecular polymers. The synthesis of complex molecular topologies as models of polymer entanglements.


KEYWORDS: Organic synthesis, supramolecular chemistry, chemical topology, catalysis, supramolecular polymers, molecular motors, molecular machines, nanotechnology, advanced materials

For more information see: www.catenane.net