| Areas of expertise |
Inorganic elements represent the most abundant elements on earth and the ability of scientists to explore, understand, and exploit their fundamental materials chemistry will have critical implications for the future. Research in the Manners group focuses on the development of new synthetic reactions in inorganic chemistry and their applications in molecular synthesis, polymer and materials science, supramolecular chemistry, and nanoscience.
Due to the outstanding processability of polymers, we particularly focus on the synthesis, properties, and applications of new classes of functional macromolecular materials constructed from main group or transition elements. Projects in our group aim at developing routes to new main group and transition metal compounds particularly strained rings which may function as precursors to new inorganic polymer structures via ring-opening polymerization (ROP) techniques. At a fundamental level we are interested in the structures, bonding, and strain in such species and the mechanisms for ring-opening polymerization.
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