Stephen Liddle

Last updated

Stephen T. Liddle
Born
Sunderland, UK
NationalityBritish
Alma mater Newcastle University [1]
Scientific career
FieldsChemistry
Institutions University of Manchester
University of Nottingham
University of Edinburgh
Newcastle University [1]
Doctoral advisor W. Clegg [1]
Website personalpages.manchester.ac.uk/staff/steve.liddle/

Stephen T. Liddle FRSE FRSC is a British professor of inorganic chemistry at the University of Manchester. [2] He is Head of Inorganic Chemistry and Co-Director of the Centre for Radiochemistry Research at the University of Manchester since 2015.

Contents

Early life and education

Liddle was born near Sunderland, in the North East of England, in 1974. In 1997 he graduated with a BSc(Hons) in chemistry with applied chemistry from Newcastle University. His degree included a year working as a research scientist for ICI Performance Chemicals at Wilton, Teesside. Alongside a stint in the Territorial Army, Liddle continued his studies at the university and received his PhD in 2000. His PhD supervisor was Professor W. Clegg. [2]

Career and research

After postdoctoral fellowships with P. J. Bailey at the University of Edinburgh, Keith Izod at Newcastle University as the Wilfred Hall Research Fellow, and Polly Arnold at the University of Nottingham, Liddle began his independent academic career at the University of Nottingham with a Royal Society University Research Fellowship (2007–2015) held with a proleptic Lectureship. He was promoted to Associate Professor and Reader in 2010 and Professor of Inorganic Chemistry in 2013.

He moved to the University of Manchester in 2015 as Head of Inorganic Chemistry and Co-Director of the Centre for Radiochemistry Research. He held an Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council Established Career Fellowship (2015–2021).

He was Chairman of COST Action CM1006, a 22 country, research network of over 120 research groups in f-block chemistry (2011–2015), [3] is an advisor to the Commonwealth Scholarship Commission (2013–), and was an elected category 3 member of Senate, the University of Manchester (2016–2019).

Liddle's research is focused on synthetic inorganic chemistry, particularly making early transition metal, lanthanide, and actinide complexes to explore their structure, bonding, reactivity, and magnetism. [4] In 2011 he reported a single-molecule magnet based on depleted uranium. [4] In 2012 his research group was the first to synthesize a molecular terminal uranium(V) nitride. [5] [6] In 2013 he reported the isolation of a terminal uranium(VI) nitride akin to examples previously restricted to cryogenic matrix isolation experiments. [7] Also in 2013, his research group disclosed the first f-element cyclobutadienyl complexes. [8] [9] In 2015 he reported a uranium(IV)-arsenido complex containing uranium-arsenic triple bonds. [10] In 2019 his research group isolated a uranium(V)-dinitrogen complex. [11] In 2021, Liddle reported a tri-thorium cluster featuring σ-aromatic actinide metal-metal bonding. [12] Before the synthesis of this complex, examples of actinide-actinide bonding had been restricted to matrix isolation experiments and fullerene-encapsulated species. In 2022, he reported a terminal neptunium(V)-mono(oxo) complex. Before the synthesis of this complex all transuranium-ligand multiple bond complexes required two or more metal-ligand multiple bonds to be stable. [13]

Honours and awards

Liddle was elected Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry (FRSC) in 2011 and is Vice President to the Executive Committee of the European Rare Earth and Actinide Society (2012–). [14]

He was elected to the Fellowship of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, Scotland’s National Academy of Science and Letters in 2022. [15]

He was awarded the RSC Sir Edward Frankland Fellowship (2011), [16] the RSC Radiochemistry Group Bill Newton Award (2011), [17] the RSC Corday-Morgan Prize (2015), [18] and the RSC Tilden Prize (2020). [19]

He was a recipient of a Rising Star Award at the 41st International Conference on Coordination Chemistry (2014). [20]

He was awarded an Alexander von Humboldt Foundation Friedrich Wilhelm Bessel Research award (2019). [21]

He was awarded a European Research Council (ERC) Starter Grant (2009) and Consolidator Grant (2014).

He was one of the Periodic Videos team awarded the IChemE Petronas award for excellence in education and training (2008).

Liddle is known for his work on The Periodic Table of Videos , a series of videos from the University of Nottingham presented on YouTube, which feature educational vignettes on the periodic table.

He is executive producer for Chemistry at Manchester Explains Research Advances (CAMERA), [22] [23] a series of videos from the University of Manchester presented on YouTube, which feature videos explaining chemistry research papers published from the University of Manchester.

He is a National Co-ordinating Centre for Public Engagement Ambassador (2013–). [24]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nuclear chemistry</span> Branch of chemistry dealing with radioactivity, transmutation and other nuclear processes

Nuclear chemistry is the sub-field of chemistry dealing with radioactivity, nuclear processes, and transformations in the nuclei of atoms, such as nuclear transmutation and nuclear properties.

In chemistry, a nitride is an inorganic compound of nitrogen. The "nitride" anion, N3- ion, is very elusive but compounds of nitride are numerous, although rarely naturally occurring. Some nitrides have a found applications, such as wear-resistant coatings (e.g., titanium nitride, TiN), hard ceramic materials (e.g., silicon nitride, Si3N4), and semiconductors (e.g., gallium nitride, GaN). The development of GaN-based light emitting diodes was recognized by the 2014 Nobel Prize in Physics. Metal nitrido complexes are also common.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Organoactinide chemistry</span> Study of chemical compounds containing actinide-carbon bonds

Organoactinide chemistry is the science exploring the properties, structure, and reactivity of organoactinide compounds, which are organometallic compounds containing a carbon to actinide chemical bond.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Uranium nitrides</span> Chemical compound

Uranium nitrides is any of a family of several ceramic materials: uranium mononitride (UN), uranium sesquinitride (U2N3) and uranium dinitride (UN2). The word nitride refers to the −3 oxidation state of the nitrogen bound to the uranium.

Metal nitrido complexes are coordination compounds and metal clusters that contain an atom of nitrogen bound only to transition metals. These compounds are molecular, i.e. discrete in contrast to the polymeric, dense nitride materials that are useful in materials science. The distinction between the molecular and solid-state polymers is not always very clear as illustrated by the materials Li6MoN4 and more condensed derivatives such as Na3MoN3. Transition metal nitrido complexes have attracted interest in part because it is assumed that nitrogen fixation proceeds via nitrido intermediates. Nitrido complexes have long been known, the first example being salts of [OsO3N], described in the 19th century.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Polly Arnold</span> British chemist

Polly Louise Arnold is director of the chemical sciences division at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and professor of chemistry at the University of California, Berkeley. She previously held the Crum Brown chair in the School of Chemistry, University of Edinburgh from 2007 to 2019 and an Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) career fellowship.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Actinocene</span> Class of chemical compounds

Actinocenes are a family of organoactinide compounds consisting of metallocenes containing elements from the actinide series. They typically have a sandwich structure with two dianionic cyclooctatetraenyl ligands (COT2-, which is C
8
H2−
8
) bound to an actinide-metal center (An) in the oxidation state IV, resulting in the general formula An(C8H8)2.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Thorium compounds</span> Any chemical compound having at least one atom of thorium

Many compounds of thorium are known: this is because thorium and uranium are the most stable and accessible actinides and are the only actinides that can be studied safely and legally in bulk in a normal laboratory. As such, they have the best-known chemistry of the actinides, along with that of plutonium, as the self-heating and radiation from them is not enough to cause radiolysis of chemical bonds as it is for the other actinides. While the later actinides from americium onwards are predominantly trivalent and behave more similarly to the corresponding lanthanides, as one would expect from periodic trends, the early actinides up to plutonium have relativistically destabilised and hence delocalised 5f and 6d electrons that participate in chemistry in a similar way to the early transition metals of group 3 through 8: thus, all their valence electrons can participate in chemical reactions, although this is not common for neptunium and plutonium.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jaqueline Kiplinger</span> American inorganic chemist

Jaqueline Kiplinger is an American inorganic chemist who specializes in organometallic actinide chemistry. Over the course of her career, she has done extensive work with fluorocarbons and actinides. She is currently a Fellow of the Materials Synthesis and Integrated Devices group in the Materials Physics and Applications Division of Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL). Her current research interests are focused on the development of chemistry for the United States’ national defense and energy needs.

Robert Guillaumont is a French chemist and honorary professor at the University of Paris-Saclay in Orsay (1967-1998), Member of the French Academy of Sciences and the French Academy of Technologies

<span class="mw-page-title-main">David P. Mills</span> British chemist

David Paul Mills is a British chemist and a Professor in the Department of Chemistry at The University of Manchester. His research typically investigates the chemistry of the lanthanide and actinide f-block elements. This is generally based on the synthesis of new f-block complexes, structural and bonding properties and their uses in different fields including in nuclear fuel cycles, energy and single molecule magnets.

David Collison is a British chemist and a Professor in the Department of Chemistry at The University of Manchester. His research in general is based on inorganic chemistry and magnetochemistry, specifically on coordination chemistry, electron paramagnetic resonance spectroscopy and f-block chemistry.

Eric John Logan McInnes is a British chemist and a Professor in the Department of Chemistry at The University of Manchester. His research in general is based on inorganic chemistry and magnetochemistry, specifically on molecular magnetism, EPR spectroscopy and coordination chemistry.

Floriana Tuna is a Romanian chemist and a Senior Research Fellow in the Department of Chemistry at The University of Manchester. Her research in general is based on inorganic chemistry and magnetochemistry, specifically on molecular magnetism, EPR spectroscopy and quantum computing.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Thomas Albrecht-Schönzart</span> American chemical researcher (born 1971)

Thomas Albrecht-Schönzart is an American radiochemist specializing in the chemistry and physics of transuranium elements. He is jointly appointed as a University Distinguished Professor at the Colorado School of Mines in Golden, Colorado, and Director of the Nuclear Science & Engineering Center and Idaho National Laboratory.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sihai Yang</span> Chinese chemist

Sihai Yang is a professor in the Department of Chemistry at The University of Manchester. His research in general is based on Inorganic and Materials Chemistry where he and his group investigate on the design and synthesis of novel Metal Organic Frameworks (MOFs) and zeolites for potential applications in gas adsorption, catalysis and industrial separations.

Karsten Meyer is a German inorganic chemist and Chair of Inorganic and General Chemistry at the Friedrich-Alexander University of Erlangen-Nürnberg (FAU). His research involves the coordination chemistry of transition metals as well as uranium coordination chemistry, small molecule activation with these coordination complexes, and the synthesis of new chelating ligands. He is the 2017 recipient of the Elhuyar-Goldschmidt Award of the Spanish Royal Society of Chemistry, the Ludwig-Mond Award of the Royal Society of Chemistry, and the L.A. Chugaev Commemorative Medal of the Russian Academy of Sciences, among other awards. He also serves as an Associate Editor of the journal Organometallics since 2014.

Phosphanides are chemicals containing the [PH2] anion. This is also known as the phosphino anion or phosphido ligand. The IUPAC name can also be dihydridophosphate(1−).

Suzanne Cathleen Bart an American chemist who is a professor of inorganic chemistry at Purdue University. Her group's research focuses on actinide organometallic chemistry, and especially the characterization of low-valent organouranium complexes, actinide complexes with redox-active ligands, and discovery of new reactions that utilize these compounds. Bart's research has applications in the development of carbon-neutral fuel sources and the remediation of polluted sites.

Neptunium compounds are compounds containg the element neptunium (Np). Neptunium has five ionic oxidation states ranging from +3 to +7 when forming chemical compounds, which can be simultaneously observed in solutions. It is the heaviest actinide that can lose all its valence electrons in a stable compound. The most stable state in solution is +5, but the valence +4 is preferred in solid neptunium compounds. Neptunium metal is very reactive. Ions of neptunium are prone to hydrolysis and formation of coordination compounds.

References

  1. 1 2 3 Stephen Liddle – The University of Nottingham Archived 2013-07-27 at the Wayback Machine
  2. 1 2 "Prof Stephen Liddle | The University of Manchester". www.research.manchester.ac.uk. Retrieved 4 May 2019.
  3. "Action CM1006". COST. Retrieved 4 May 2019.
  4. 1 2 Liddle, Stephen T.; Blake, Alexander J.; Lewis, William; van Slageren, Joris; McMaster, Jonathan; Moro, Fabrizio; Mills, David P. (June 2011). "A delocalized arene-bridged diuranium single-molecule magnet". Nature Chemistry. 3 (6): 454–460. Bibcode:2011NatCh...3..454M. doi:10.1038/nchem.1028. ISSN   1755-4349. PMID   21602860.
  5. Liddle, Stephen T.; Blake, Alexander J.; Lewis, William; McMaster, Jonathan; McInnes, Eric J. L.; Tuna, Floriana; King, David M. (10 August 2012). "Synthesis and Structure of a Terminal Uranium Nitride Complex". Science. 337 (6095): 717–720. Bibcode:2012Sci...337..717K. doi:10.1126/science.1223488. ISSN   0036-8075. PMID   22745250. S2CID   12121946.
  6. Johnson, Marc J. A.; Sattelberger, Alfred P. (10 August 2012). "Uncovering the Uranium-Nitrogen Triple Bond". Science. 337 (6095): 652–653. Bibcode:2012Sci...337..652S. doi:10.1126/science.1225351. ISSN   0036-8075. PMID   22879490. S2CID   206542786.
  7. King, David M.; Tuna, Floriana; McInnes, Eric J. L.; McMaster, Jonathan; Lewis, William; Blake, Alexander J.; Liddle, Stephen T. (2013). “Isolation and characterisation of a uranium(VI)-nitride triple bond”. Nature Chemistry. 5: 482–488. doi : 10.1038/NCHEM.1642.
  8. Patel, Dipti; McMaster, Jonathan; Lewis, William; Blake, Alexander J.; Liddle, Stephen T. (2013). “Reductive assembly of cyclobutadienyl and diphosphacyclobutadienyl rings at uranium”. Nature Communications. 4: 2323. doi : 10.1038/ncomms3323.
  9. Boronski, Josef T.; Doyle, Laurence R.; Seed, John A.; Wooles, Ashley J.; Liddle, Stephen T. (2020). "f-Element Half-Sandwich Complexes: A Tetrasilylcyclobutadienyl–Uranium(IV)–Tris(tetrahydroborate) Anion Pianostool Complex". Angewandte Chemie. 59: 295. doi : 10.1002/anie.201913640.
  10. Gardner, Benedict M.; Balázs, Gabor; Scheer, Manfred; Tuna, Floriana; McInnes, Eric J. L.; McMaster, Jonathan; Lewis, William; Blake, Alexander J.; Liddle, Stephen T. (2015) “Triamidoamine Uranium(IV)-Arsenic Complexes Containing One-, Two-, and Three-fold U-As Bonding Interactions”. Nature Chemistry. 7: 582–590. doi : 10.1038/NCHEM.2279.
  11. Lu, Erli; Atkinson, Benjamin, E.; Wooles, Ashley J.; Boronski, Josef T.; Doyle, Laurence R.; Tuna, Floriana; Cryer, Jonathan D.; Cobb, Philip J.; Vitorica-Yrezabal, Inigo J.; Whitehead, George F. S.; Kaltsoyannis, Nikolas; Liddle, Stephen T. (2019) “Back-bonding between an electron-poor, high-oxidation-state metal and poor π-acceptor ligand in a uranium(V)–dinitrogen complex”. Nature Chemistry. 11, 806–811. doi : 10.1038/s41557-019-0306-x.
  12. Boronski, Josef T.; Seed, John A.; Hunger, David; Woodward, Adam W.; van Slageren, Joris; Wooles, Ashley J.; Natrajan, Louise S.; Kaltsoyannis, Nikolas; Liddle, Stephen T. (2021). "A Crystalline Tri-thorium Cluster with σ-Aromatic Metal-Metal Bonding". Nature. doi : 10.1038/s41586-021-03888-3.
  13. Dutkiewicz M.S.; Goodwin C. A. P.; Perfetti M.; Gaunt A. J.; Griveau J. -C.; Colineau E.; Kovács A.; Wooles A. J.; Caciuffo R.; Walter O.; Liddle S.T. (2022). "A Terminal Neptunium(V)-Mono(Oxo) Complex". Nature Chemistry. "A Terminal Neptunium(V)-Mono(Oxo) Complex"..
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  22. , https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCXf3CFkyGpa2eIeT5wz_Prw/videos.
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  24. , http://www.publicengagement.ac.uk.