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sally_brooker3PhD, BSc(Hons) (Cant)

Tel: +64 3 479 7919
Location: Science II, 2c4
Email: sbrooker@chemistry.otago.ac.nz

Full information about my research group and research opportunities: http://otago.ac.nz/brooker

My research interests are in the area of designer functional transition metal and macrocyclic complexes, with a particular current focus on employing them as catalysts for electrocatalytic carbon dioxide reduction, both homogeneous and heterogeneous (covalent and non-covalent deposition).

I’m open to joining EU Horizons research teams - please note that NZ has joined so we can be full members of bids now - in green hydrogen (especially relating to H2 storage materials and energy storage for resilience and off-grid power, as well as providing options for decarbonising farm heavy vehicles); and in catalyst development for sustainable chemical production.

My research interests span the following areas:

  • Green catalysts for (a) generation of green hydrogen (C-zero fuel) from water and for (b) reduction of carbon dioxide to C-neutral fuels and commodity chemicals. Both are being studied under electrocatalytic (in collaboration with Professor Aaron Marshall, Canterbury) and photocatalytic (solar fuels, in collaboration with Professor Garry Hanan, Montreal) conditions.
  • Immobilisation by attachment of magnetically or catalytically interesting complexes to nanoparticles or to other surfaces (in collaboration with Professor Aaron Marshall, Canterbury).
  • Designer heterocycle-containing and diphenylamine-containing ligands (including macrocycles) and coordination complexes: design, synthesis, crystal structure determinations, redox and magnetic properties.
  • Spin crossover complexes – towards nanoswitches and memory devices. We measure magnetic data in house (and Mössbauer spectroscopy 4.6-300 K via collaboration with Associate Professor Guy Jameson).
  • Single Molecule Magnets (SMMs): one-pot self-assembly of soluble stable 3d-4f tetrametallic SMMs, by formation of a large organic Schiff-base macrocyclic ligands with differing coordination pockets, N2O2 for 3d and central O6 for 4f, and differing ring sizes (in collaboration with Prof Annie Powell, KIT; detailed magnetic studies with Dr Rodolphe Clerac, Bordeaux).
  • Green polymerisation catalysts for (i) controlled polymerisation of rac-lactide (from biomass, not oil building blocks), and (ii) co-polymersiation of CO2 with epoxide (in collaboration with Professor Charlotte Williams, Imperial College London).
  • Self-assembly of communicating arrays of transition metal ions – grids vs side-by-side complexes.
  • Functional models of the Mn4Ca cluster, the oxygen evolving complex (OEC), otherwise known as the water oxidation catalyst (WOC) of green plants (2H2O = O2 + 4H+ + 4e−).
  • Lanthanide cages as a new generation of luminescent 'probes'.

Publications

Singh, V., DeMonte, K., Schott, O., Akogun, F. S., Hanan, G. S., & Brooker, S. (2026). Light driven catalytic CO2 reduction: Lessons learnt when low is actually no activity. Catalysis Science & Technology, 16(9), 3321-3335. doi: 10.1039/d5cy01378j Journal - Research Article

Singh, V., Cahyanto, H., Jitrada, J., Liu, L., Huang, J., Yip, A. C. K., & Brooker, S. (2026). Achieving low loadings yet highly active catalysis by ethylenediamine promoted dispersion of palladium on silica. ChemCatChem, 18(11), e70845. doi: 10.1002/cctc.70845 Journal - Research Article

Singh, V., Robb, M. G., & Brooker, S. (2025). Testing mixed metal bimetallic, and monometallic, cryptates for electrocatalytic hydrogen evolution. Dalton Transactions, 52(8), 3165-3173. doi: 10.1039/d4dt03161j Journal - Research Article

Akogun, F. S., Judd, M., Mort, A. G. C., Malthus, S. J., Robb, M. G., Cox, N., & Brooker, S. (2024). Complexes of a noncyclic carbazole-based N5-donor Schiff base: Structures, redox, EPR and poor activity as hydrogen evolution electrocatalysts. Inorganic Chemistry, 63(37), 17014-17025. doi: 10.1021/acs.inorgchem.4c02657 Journal - Research Article

Robb, M. G., Chong, S. V., & Brooker, S. (2024). Iron(II) spin crossover complexes of tetradentate Schiff-bases: Tuning T1/2 by choice of formyl-heterocycle component. Dalton Transactions, 53(26), 10974-10981. doi: 10.1039/d4dt00884g Journal - Research Article

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