Official Fellow in Chemistry; Director of Studies
Chemistry
Fellow
Degrees & Honours:
MA (Cantab)
PhD (Cantab)
Research Interests:
Inorganic Chemistry
Biography:
Robert joined Murray Edwards in October 2017 as a Chemistry Teaching Fellow. His research interests have spanned many areas within the broad field of Inorganic Chemistry. He has a special interest in main-group chemistry and metallo-organic frameworks.
He completed his PhD in 1999 in the Department of Chemistry in Cambridge under the supervision of Dr. Jeremy Rawson, where he investigated the magnetic properties of sulfur-nitrogen heterocycles before undertaking postdoctoral research in the groups of Prof. Paul Raithby in Bath and Dr. Paul Lickiss and Dr. Rob Davies at Imperial College London.
He has been working at the Department of Chemistry in Cambridge in the group of Prof. Dominic Wright since 2006.
Publications:
A [HN(BH:NH)2]2- Dianion, Isoelectronic with a β-Diketiminate
Less, Robert J.; Hanf, Schirin; Garcia-Rodriguez, Raul; Bond, Andrew D.; Wright, Dominic S.
Organometallics (2017), Ahead of Print,
DOI:10.1021/acs.organomet.7b00436
Structural Studies of Perfluoroaryldiselenadiazolyl Radicals: Insights into Dithiadiazolyl Chemistry
Melen, Rebecca L.; Less, Robert J.; Pask, Christopher M.; Rawson, Jeremy M.
Inorganic Chemistry (2016), 55(22), 11747-11759.
DOI:10.1021/acs.inorgchem.6b01771
Synthesis and structure of the extended phosphazane ligand [(1,4-C6H4){N(μ-PNtBu)2NtBu}2]4-
Sevilla, Raquel; Less, Robert J.; Garcia-Rodriguez, Raul; Bond, Andrew D.; Wright, Dominic S.
Dalton Transactions (2016), 45(5), 1868-1871.
DOI:10.1039/C5DT04393J
Use of crown ethers to isolate intermediates in ammonia-borane dehydrocoupling reactions
Less, Robert J.; Garcia-Rodriguez, Raul; Simmonds, Hayley R.; Allen, Lucy K.; Bond, Andrew D.; Wright, Dominic S.
Chemical Communications (2016), 52(18), 3650-3652.
DOI:10.1039/C6CC00088F
Group 14 metal-metal bonds
Less, Robert J.; Wright, Dominic S.
Edited By: Liddle, Stephen T
Molecular Metal-Metal Bonds (2015), 485-517.
DOI:10.1002/9783527673353.ch14
Multiple deprotonation of primary aromatic diamines by LiAlH4
Less, Robert J.; Allen, Lucy K.; Steiner, Alexander; Wright, Dominic S.
Dalton Transactions (2015), 44(9), 4141-4147.
DOI:10.1039/C4DT03802A
Direct access to [(Mes*P)2As]-, a 1,3-diphosphaarsa-2-allyl anion, isoelectronic with the allyl anion (Mes* = 2,4,6-tBu3C6H2)
Dixon, Lily S. H.; Allen, Lucy K.; Less, Robert J.; Wright, Dominic S.
Chemical Communications (2014), 50(23), 3007-3009.
DOI:10.1039/c3cc49627a
Reactivity and catalytic activity of tert-butoxy-aluminum hydride reagents
Less, Robert J.; Simmonds, Hayley R.; Wright, Dominic S.
Dalton Transactions (2014), 43(15), 5785-5792.
DOI:10.1039/C4DT00152D
Towards the Synthesis of Guanidinate- and Amidinate-Bridged Dimers of Mn and Ni
Stokes, Francesca A.; Kloo, Lars; Harford, Philip J.; Peel, Andrew J.; Less, Robert J.; Wheatley, Andrew E. H.; Wright, Dominic S.
Australian Journal of Chemistry (2014), 67(7), 1081-1087.
DOI:10.1071/CH14271