Emeritus Professor Mark J. Winter
School of Mathematical and Physical Sciences
Emeritus Professor of Chemistry
Full contact details
School of Mathematical and Physical Sciences
Dainton Building
13 Brook Hill
葫芦影业
S3 7HF
- Profile
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Professor Mark Winter obtained his BSc in Chemistry from the University of Bristol in 1975, followed by a PhD in Chemistry from the same institution in 1978 with Prof Selby Knox and Prof Gordon Stone.
He was a SERC-NATO Postdoctoral Fellow working with Prof Peter Vollhardt at the University of California at Berkeley (USA) from 1978 to 1980. In 1980 he was appointed as a temporary lecturer at the University of 葫芦影业, where he is now the Director of Studies in the Department of Chemistry.
Mark believes firmly that molybdenum is the best element in the periodic table and that he doesn't play enough cricket. In 2014 he was promoted to Professor.
Awards
- RSC Sir Edward Frankland Fellow (1986/1987)
- Royal society of chemistry HE Teaching Award winner (1998)
- Senate Award Fellow (Sustained Excellence in Learning and Teaching)
- Qualifications
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- MRSC
- Research interests
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Migration Reactions
Hydrogen Transfer ReactionsMigration reactions are an important fundamental class of reactions in organometallic chemistry. The migration of alkyl to carbonyl is well known but we are interested in migrations of hydride, alkyl, and other groups to metal coordinated carbene in processes which result in new alkyl ligands. To date, most of our work has involved molybdenum, tungsten, iron, and ruthenium.
Such reactions are models for some important C锛岺 and C锛岰 bond formations but surprisingly little is known about these rearrangements. We are attempting to understand the the mechanisms by which they proceed. These migrations are the reverse of 伪-elimination reactions and we find that some of these compounds 伪-eliminate under photochemical excitation to regenerate the initial carbene starting materials.
Vinylidene chemistry
Cartogram of the Molar Volume of the ElementsVinylidene complexes contain the M=C=CR2 group and are implied by some in Fischer Tropsch processes. We are examining their tendencies towards the migration processes indicated above. Further, we have now developed good routes to chiral molecules of the type CpMXL(=C=CR2) and examining their use for fine chemical synthesis. Much of this work is challenging given the sensitivity of many of the compounds.
Chemical information and data visualisation
I am interested in applications of the world-wide web for chemistry. I developed a number of well known chemical information sources including WebElements and Chemdex. I am working on software to extend "social network" concepts to molecules. Visualisation of chemical data is often a challenge and I have produced new ways of visualising periodicity data for the periodic table including cartograms (illustrated).
- Publications
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Journal articles
Chapters
- Teaching interests
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Molecular Structure and Bonding; Transition Metal Chemistry, Internet.
- Teaching activities
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Undergraduate and postgraduate taught modules
- Molecules (Level 1)
This course introduces methods of predicting molecular shape (VSEPR) and models with which to interpret the bonding in simple molecules. - Introduction to d- and f-Block Elements 1 (Level 1)
This course introduces the concept of metal complexes, examines their geometric and electronic structures, and explains why metal complexes are often coloured materials with unusual magnetic properties. - d- and f-Block Elements 1 (Level 2)
This lecture course addresses how physical and bonding properties of transition metal complexes are, to a large extent, defined by their d-orbitals (and f-orbitals as appropriate). The course moves on to discuss distortions to metal complexes, the electronic nature of bonding of metals to ligands, and metal-metal bonds (including metal-metal quadruple bonds).
Support Teaching:
- Skills for Success: Database Project.
- Molecules (Level 1)