Excited to present 'Amorphous intermediates and discovery of a kinetic polymorph of BiVO4 from heating V+Bi+Zn single-source precursors' in Nature Comms @natureportfolio.nature.com www.nature.com/articles/s41... Congrats to Alex, Tom, @niobiumalkoxide.bsky.social and expert collabs Javi & Dominik!

Amorphous intermediates and discovery of a kinetic polymorph of BiVO4 from heating V+Bi+Zn single-source precursors - Nature Communications

Molecular precursors containing V, Bi and Zn are thermally transformed into oxide materials. Detailed studies reveal and characterise the formation of amorphous intermediates, a new kinetic polymorph ...

nature.com

Excited to share Tom, Bin and Eniola's work on size-dependent electronic structure of Ti(-oxo)-alkoxides in @inorgchemfront.rsc.org. Size effects increase the HOMO-LUMO gap relative to band gap of bulk TiO2, with greatest effect on the LUMO position. pubs.rsc.org/en/content/a...

Very grateful for opportunity to do exciting experiments @diamondlightsource.bsky.social in February. XANES on I20 and photochemistry of single crystals on I19. Massive thanks to beamline teams and also my team, who were all fantastic, especially to Dr Callum Rosenberg for heroic overnight efforts!

Plenty of festive fun and nonsense with this wonderful team yesterday! Celebrating a busy year in the lab and lots of exciting science.

Excited to see Ashwani’s paper published in @chemicalscience.rsc.org! We investigate the selective photooxidation of diolates on Ti-oxo clusters. A crucial PCET step in the redox mechanism is only possible when the diolate is large and flexible. pubs.rsc.org/en/content/a...

Switching on photoreactivity in Ti4-oxo clusters by increasing the size of 1,n-alkane diolate bridging ligands

A series of new isostructural Ti-oxo clusters containing bridging bidentate 1,n-alkane diolate ligands with the formula [Ti4O4(O2PR2)4{O(CH2)nO}2] (R = Ph, n = 2–5; R = Cy, n = 2–4) were prepared by a...

pubs.rsc.org

PhD studentship at Uni Warwick with CENTA! Join us to study the decomposition of potent greenhouse gas N2O using Earth abundant Ti-based molecular photocatalysts. Exciting joint project with @chaplinlab.bsky.social group. Please contact Seb for details. centa.ac.uk/studentship/... Please re-post.

Congrats to Dr Callum Rosenberg who has been awarded a 6-month EPSRC Postdoctoral Pathway Fellowship, which he will undertake with the Pike Group! Excited to see some new and exciting titanium-oxo cluster molecules and photo-crystallography during the project!

The Pike Group visit Bath for the 2025 Big Research Day Out! We had a great time with the @scottchemistry.bsky.social and Phanopoulos Groups. Great talks from RAs, PhDs, Masters and summer project students. Excellent mini golf, followed by West-country cider and enormous pizzas!

New group preprint comparing the optical and electronic properties of hydrogen terminated group IV nanoparticles as predicted using GW-BSE and TD-DFT doi.org/10.26434/che... #compchem #chemsky

Massive congratulations to Dr. Stephen Brown @niobiumalkoxide.bsky.social on completing his PhD studies and also being awarded the Uni Warwick Department of Chemistry PhD Publication Prize for his paper in @jacs.acspublications.org! Check it out here pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/...

Photoinitiated Single-Crystal to Single-Crystal Redox Transformations of Titanium-Oxo Clusters

Titanium-oxo clusters can undergo photochemical reactions under UV light, resulting in the reduction of the titanium-oxo core and oxidation of surface ligands. This is an important step in photocatalytic processes in light-absorbing Ti/O-based clusters, metal–organic frameworks, and (nano)material surfaces; however, studying the direct outcome of this photochemical process is challenging due to the fragility of the immediate photoproducts. In this report, titanium-oxo clusters [TiO(OiPr)(L)]n (n = 4, L = O2PPh2, or n = 6, L = O2CCH2tBu) undergo a two-electron photoredox reaction in the single-crystal state via an irreversible single-crystal to single-crystal (SC-SC) transformation initiated by a UV laser. The process is monitored by single crystal X-ray diffraction revealing the photoreduction of the cluster with coproduction of an (oxidized) acetone ligand, which is retained in the structure as a ligand to Ti(3+). The results demonstrate that photochemistry of inorganic molecules can be studied in the single crystal phase, allowing characterization of photoproducts which are unstable in the solution phase.

pubs.acs.org

Over the moon that the first paper from Anja's studies on metal chelate rotaxanes is now online in @angewandtechemie.bsky.social. doi.org/10.1002/anie... Massive congratulations Anja, @daisypooler.bsky.social Huseyn, Monika and @screspi.bsky.social 🥳🎉🎊🍀🥃 Thread below --》

Delighted to see Stephen's paper on the light absorption properties of Ce-oxo clusters out in @chemicalscience.rsc.org. We look at the effects of mixed valency, dye ligands and size on the electronic structure of molecular nanoparticles of ceria! pubs.rsc.org/en/content/a...

Great Pike Group news this week! Congratulations to Stephen Brown for winning a Poster prize at the BCA spring conference and to Amina Humayun for the runner-up MRes Poster Prize!