Seal element of the university of freiburg in the shape of a clover

Dr. Ian Riddlestone

Portrait of Ian Riddlestone

University of Bath
Synthetic Inorganic Chemistry

Junior Fellow (Alexander von Humboldt Fellow)
September 2016 – August 2018

E-Mail: i.riddlestone@surrey.ac.uk

Last Update: 31.08.2018

Curriculum Vitae

Ian obtained his MChem degree at Newcastle University in the UK graduating in 2009. As a Masters student Ian worked in the group of Dr. Keith Izod investigating the light-induced rearrangement of thioether-substituted phosphanide ligands. Ian then moved to the University of Oxford where he was a BP CASE Award student working in the group of Prof. Simon Aldridge. As a DPhil student Ian worked on the formation of mixed transition metal-aluminium complexes. This work included the isolation and full characterisation of sigma-alane complexes comparable with archetypal dihydrogen, borane and silane complexes allowing fundamental bonding descriptions to be further developed for group 13 sigma complexes.

After obtaining a DPhil in Inorganic Chemistry in 2013 Ian moved to the University of Bath to take up an EPSRC funded postdoctoral position in the group of Prof. Michael Whittlesey. During this time Ian worked on the synthesis and reactivity of ruthenium carbene complexes, with particular emphasis on the activation of C-F bonds. In collaboration with the group of Prof. Stuart Macgregor (Heriot Watt University) this work highlighted the subtleties of supporting N-heterocyclic carbene ligands in ruthenium hydride chemistry. These differences impact upon product distributions in catalytic hydrodefluorination reactions of perfluorinated substrates, as well as the competition between C-F and C-H bond activation processes.

Selected Publications

FRIAS Project