Research summary

Main research areas

• Spectroscopy of unstable species and reaction intermediates (Infrared, Photoelectron, Microwave and Mass Spectrometry)
• Astrophysics (Interstellar Molecules and Circumstellar Dust)
• Cluster science (Carbon and Metal Clusters, Microparticles, Nanofibres)
• Fullerene chemistry, nanoscience and nanotechnology

Research highlights

• first detection of ¹Δ state of a polyatomic free radical (NCN by flash photolysis)
• theoretical studies of ground and electronically excited sates of small molecules
• detection of liquid phase intermolecular interactions using Raman Spectroscopy
• breakthrough in the detection of new unstable species (thioaldehydes, thiocarbonyls thioborines) using combination of microwave and photoelectron spectroscopy techniques
• synthesis in 1976 of the first phoaphaalkenes (compounds containing the free carbon phosphorus double bond) in particular CH2=PH (with N P C Simmons and J F Nixon, Sussex)
• monograph “Molecular Rotation Spectra”
• synthesis in 1976 of the first analogues of HCP, the phosphaalkynes which contain the carbon phoshorus triple bond – in particular CH3CP (with N P C Simmons and J F Nixon, Sussex)
• the discovery in 1976-8 of the cyanopolyynes, HCnN (n=5,7,9), in interstellar space (with D R M Walton, A J Alexander and C Kirby (Sussex) and T Oka, L W Avery, N W Broten and J M MacLeod (NRC Ottawa)), Ref 4-6, based on microwave measurements made at Sussex.
• the discovery of C60: Buckminsterfullerene in 1985 (with J R Heath, S C O’Brien, R F Curl and R E Smalley)
• the detection of endohedral metallofullerene complexes (with J R Heath, S C O’Brien, Q Zhang, Y Liu, R F Curl, F K Tittel and R E Smalley)
• the prediction that C60 should be produced in combustion processes and might indicate how soot is formed (with Q L Zhang, S C O’Brien, J R Heath, Y Liu, R F Curl and R E Smalley)
• the explanation of why C70 is the second stable fullerene (after C60) and the discovery of the Pentagon Isolation Rule as a criterion for fullerene stability in general
• the prediction of the tetrahedral structure of C28 and the possible stability of “tetravalent” derivatives such as C28H4
• in 1987 the first prediction that C60 and its analogues such as C60+, endohedral species M@C60, and complexes M.C60, will survive in space and are the best candidates for carriers of the diffuse interstellar bands
• the prediction that giant fullerenes have quasi-icosahedral shapes and the detailed structure of concentric shell graphite microparticles (with K G McKay)
• the mass spectrometric identification and solvent extraction (with J P Hare and A Abdul-Sada) of C60 from arc processed carbon in 1990 – independently from and simultaneously with the Heidelberg/Tucson group
• the chromatographic separation/purification of C60 and C70 and 13C NMR measurements which provided unequivocal proof that these species had fullerene cage structures (with J P Hare and R Taylor, Sussex)
• crystal structure of C60

Main Fullerene chemistry breakthroughs

• C60(ferrocene)2
• characterisation of C60Hal6
• C60(P4)2

Nanoscience and Nanotechnology advances

• condensed phase nanotubes
• nanoscale BN structures
• partly aligned-nanotube bundles
• nanotube formation mechanisms
• silicon oxide nanostructures
• Si surface-deposited fullererene studies
• insulated carbon nanotube conductors