Associate Professor Graham Saunders
Associate Professor
Qualifications: B.A.(Hons) Oxon, D.Phil Oxon
Personal Website: http://sci.waikato.ac.nz/about-us/people/gsaunder
Papers Taught
Research Supervised
PhD
- Thomas, Hayden (in progress). Synthesis and reactions of metal complexes of fluoroaryl-substituted N-heterocycle carbenes.
MSc
- Pachal, Sam (2012). Superhydrophotitanium bic and titanium dioxide.
BSc (Hons)
- Thomas, Hayden (2015). Synthesis and characterisation of mecury and rhodium NHC complexes containing polyfluoroaryl substituents.
- Schroder, Ivan (2012). Synthesis of dicyandiamide derivatives for agricultural applications.
Research Interests
Research is directed towards using the properties of the carbon―fluorine bond in organometallic chemistry and for highly repellant surfaces.
- Organometallic Chemistry
- The extreme strength and the electronic and steric properties of the C―F bond are used to confer useful properties on organometallic complexes, in particular catalytic activity.
- C―F bond fission is used to synthesize organometallic complexes, not accessible by other routes.
- Superhydrophobic Surfaces
- The extreme water repellancy of perfluoroalkyl groups is used to confer superhydrophobicity on metal surfaces. The work has been highlighted by Nature and Scientific American. The simple fabrication technique allows a range of unusual phenomena to be investigated, such as the Cheerios Effect and 'super-buoyancy', which allows boats to be constructed of metal mesh, and has potential industrial importance.
Recent Publications
Tang, H., Saunders, G. C., Ma, X., & Henderson, W. (2019). Pyrrole thioamide complexes of the d<sup>8</sup> metals platinum(II), palladium(II) and gold(III). Inorganica Chimica Acta. doi:10.1016/j.ica.2019.119282
McQuiston, D. K., Mucalo, M. R., & Saunders, G. C. (2019). The structure of posaconazole and its solvates with methanol, and dioxane and water: Difluorophenyl as a hydrogen bond donor. Journal of Molecular Structure, 1179, 477-486. doi:10.1016/j.molstruc.2018.11.031
Tang, H., Saunders, G. C., & Henderson, W. (2019). Platinum(II), palladium(II), and gold(III) complexes of dianionic, secondary dithiooxamide ligands. Journal of Coordination Chemistry, 72(15), 2550-2561. doi:10.1080/00958972.2019.1672871
Marr, A. C., Morgan, P. J., Saunders, G. C., & Thomas, H. P. (2019). Conversion of haloform to carbonate by iridium N-heterocyclic carbene complexes and silver(i) oxide. Dalton Transactions, 48(6), 1947-1949. doi:10.1039/c8dt04456b
Find more research publications by Graham Saunders
Contact Details
Email: graham.saunders@waikato.ac.nzRoom: CD.3.01
Phone: +64 7 838 4092