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Professor Alwyn Davies FRS

Research Overview

Two important themes in our work are, first, the use of ESR spectroscopy to map out the electron distribution in molecules, 1 and, second, the behaviour of metals as hydrogen equivalents. 2

Electron Spin Resonance Spectroscopy

We have used this technique to provide direct evidence for the Mills-Nixon (ring strain) effect, 3 to establish a new homolytic mechanism for aromatic mercuration, and to determine the energy barriers for conformational change in spin-paired molecules and their corresponding radical cations and anions.

Organometallic Chemistry

We have established a series of new metalloene reactions which are equivalent to the familar hydrogen-ene reactions, and have developed the use of new organotin hydrides as radical reducing agents. 4

Selected publications

  1. A.G. Davies The Electron Paramagnetic Resonance Spectra of Organic Radical Ions. Chem. Soc. Rev., 1993 , 299-304.
  2. A.G. Davies Hydrogen-ene and metallo-ene reactions. Organic Reactivity. Physical and Biological Aspects. Ed. B.T. Golding, R.J. Griffin, and H. Maskell. Royal Society of Chemistry, Cambridge, 1995 , pp. 264-277.
  3. A.G. Davies Radical chemistry of tin Chemistry of Tin, 2nd. edn., ed. P.J. Smith, Blackie, London, 1998 , pp. 265-289.
  4. A.G. Davies The Whiffen effect of symmetry-enhanced and symmetry-forbidden hyperconjugation in spin-paired molecules. J. Chem. Soc., Perkin Trans. 2, 1999 , 2461-2468.
  5. A.G. Davies Metals as surrogates for hydrogen in organic chemistry: anything hydrogen can do, a metal can do better. J. Chem. Soc., Perkin Trans. 1, 2000 , 1997-2010.