Dr Jennifer A Garden

UKRI Future Leaders Fellow

Research summary

Catalysis and synthesis, sustainable chemistry, polymers and functional materials, mixed-metal co-operativity

Research overview

I am honoured to hold a UKRI Future Leaders Fellowship at the University of Edinburgh. My research activity focuses on the design and synthesis of new homo- and heterometallic complexes, and their application towards real world challenges with a particular focus on sustainable polymers.

This work combines different fields of chemistry including organometallic synthesis, catalyst development and sustainable polymer materials. The emerging concept of mixed-metal cooperativity can be exploited to give enhanced activities and selectivities. My research has helped to advance this concept within deprotonative metallation, alkylation chemistry and polymer chemistry.

I received my MSci (1st Class Hons, 2010) and PhD (2014) from the University of Strathclyde, the latter under the direction of Prof. Robert Mulvey. My PhD research dealt with the design, synthesis, characterisation and reaction chemistry of new zinc and zincate complexes, for which I was awarded the Ritchie Prize. Following this, I spent two years as a postdoctoral researcher in the group of Prof. Charlotte Williams at Imperial College London, where I researched the design, synthesis and development of catalysts for carbon dioxide-epoxide copolymerisation, in collaboration with Econic Technologies.

In 2016, I moved to the University of Edinburgh as the first recipient of the Christina Miller Research Fellowship, which was followed by a Ramsay Memorial Trust Fellowship. For additional information on our current research and team, please see: www.gardengroupchemistry.com

For a full list of publications, please see: www.gardengroupchemistry.com/publications

Recent publications include:

1. A. Woodhouse, A. Kocaarslan, J. A. Garden*, H. Mutlu*, Unlocking the Potential of Polythioesters, Macromol. Rapid Commun., 2024, doi.org/10.1002/marc.202400260

2. M. Abdul Rahman, T. J. Neal, J. A. Garden*, Cooperative heterometallic catalysts: balancing activity and control in PCL-block-PLA copolymer synthesis, Chem. Commun., 2024, 60, 5530.

3. T. J. Neal, E. D. Neal, J. Cumby, J. A. Garden*, Exploiting Controlled Transesterification as a “Top Down” Approach to Tailor Poly(ε-caprolactone)-Poly(lactic acid) Copolymer Structures with bis-Zn Catalysts  Polym. Chem., 2024, 15, 1704. Featured in the Special Collection "Pioneering Investigators 2023" and “Highlighting Europe: A selection of outstanding articles by researchers in Europe"

4. U. Yosal, T. J. Neal, J. A. Richards, J. R. Royer, J. A. Garden*, A Versatile Modification Strategy to Enhance Polyethylene Properties through Solution-State Peroxide Modifications, Polym. Chem., 2024, 15, 1399.

5. P. A. Lowy, M. Abdul Rahman, G. S. Nichol, C. A. Morrison, J. A. Garden*, To Be or Not To Be... Cooperative? Trimetallic Catalysts for the Ring-Opening Polymerisation of Cyclic Esters, ChemCatChem, 2024, 16, e202301338. Featured in the Special Collection “Catalysis Talents” and selected as a Hot Paper

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