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Prof. Jonathan W. Steed

Personal web page

(email at jon.steed@durham.ac.uk)

Media Contacts

Available for media contact about:

• Chemistry: Crystallography, crystal growth and crystal structure including polymorphism e.g. of pharmaceuticals
• Structure, Property and Function: Crystallography, crystal growth and crystal structure including polymorphism e.g. of pharmaceuticals
• Science & Technology: Crystallography, crystal growth and crystal structure including polymorphism e.g. of pharmaceuticals
• Chemistry: Crystallography, crystal growth and crystal structure including polymorphism e.g. of pharmaceuticals
• Chemistry: Inorganic chemistry
• Structure, Property and Function: Inorganic chemistry
• Chemistry: Inorganic chemistry
• Chemistry: Nanoscale materials, particularly gels
• Structure, Property and Function: Nanoscale materials, particularly gels
• Chemistry: Nanoscale materials, particularly gels

Biography

Jonathan W. Steed was born in London, UK in 1969.  He obtained his B.Sc. and Ph.D. degrees at University College London, working with Derek Tocher on organometallic chemistry.  He graduated in 1993 winning the Ramsay Medal for his Ph.D. work. Between 1993 and 1995 he was a NATO postdoctoral fellow at the University of Alabama and University of Missouri, working with Jerry Atwood.  In 1995 he was appointed as a Lecturer at Kings College London.  In 2004 he joined Durham University where he is currently Professor of Inorganic Chemistry. Professor Steed is co-author of the textbooks Supramolecular Chemistry (2000 & 2009)  Core Concepts in Supramolecular Chemistry and Nanochemistry (2007) and around 300 research papers. He has edited the Encyclopaedia of Supramolecular Chemistry (2004) and Organic Nanostructures (2008). He is the recipient of the RSC Meldola Medal (1998), Durham's Vice Chancellor's Award for Excellence in Postgraduate Teaching (2006), the Bob Hay Lectureship (2008) and the RSC Corday-Morgan Prize (2010). His interests are in anion binding and sensing, supramolecular gels and crystalline solids including pharmaceuticals and hydrates . See personal web pages for full details.

Supramolecular Chemistry

Traditional molecular chemistry is largely concerned with the synthesis and study of molecules linked by covalent bonds between atoms. However, there is another entire area of chemistry, often impinging on nanometre scale assemblies, that transcends the chemistry of the covalent bond. This is termed Supramolecular Chemistry and it involves the study of systems bonded by a multitude of non-covalent interactions, particularly hydrogen bonding, π-π stacking, and metal-ligand dative bonds. Many of these kinds of interactions are difficult to control yet their importance and potential is mind blowing. For example, in biochemistry Nature relies heavily on just these interactions to fold proteins into their active conformations and, crucially, it is hydrogen bonding (base pairing) and π-π stacking that give DNA its characteristic double helical shape. Prof. Steed is the author of a definitive book on Supramolecular Chemistry.¹

Molecular Sensors

Our work encompasses many aspects of supramolecular chemistry from the nature of individual interactions (particularly in the solid state) to their incorporation and use in functioning molecular devices, particularly in applications such as the design and synthesis of molecular sensors for anions (e.g. environmental pollutants). To take just one example, a complex molecular device based on a calixarene (shown on the right) is capable of selectively recognising and binding a two halide anions entirely through non-covalent interactions (NH···X and CH···X hydrogen bonds) and photochemically signalling that binding via the appended pyrene units.²

Supramolecular Gels

Gels comprise a liquid trapped by a highly porous network of nanometre-scale fibres. As well as being fascinating because of their nanoscale structure, recent work has shown that the highly porous, partially ordered network in gels, coupled with their formation by spontaneous self-organization gives them tremendous technological possibilities, for example in the controlled formation of highly porous polymers and in the controlled growth of targeted pharmaceutical polymorphic forms, an area of particular interest for our group, we have discovered an extremely simple, readily prepared series of rigid bis(urea) building blocks in which gelation occurs to give gels via a hierarchical series of self-organization steps strongly influenced (both positively and negatively) by metal salts. The intrinsic ability of bis(ureas) to aggregate via NH∙∙∙O=C hydrogen bonded interactions is modulated and can be switched on and of by reversible coordination interactions to metal cations and hydrogen bonding to conjugate anions. The resulting gels and the consequent nanostructuring of a wide variety of metal salts offers interesting technological possibilities. An SEM image of a dried gel showing chiral helical fibres derived from a chiral gelator is shown right.^3-5

Crystallography

Facilities at Durham for both single crystal and powder work are internationally leading. The group is also particularly active in structure determination by neutron diffraction and students have the opportunity of taking part in visits to facilities at the ILL in Grenoble, France or the ISIS facility in the UK. Our single crystal neutron structure of the exotic H₇O₃⁺ ion trapped by two molecules called 'crown ethers' is shown right. We are particularly interested in low symmetry crystal structures with more than one molecule in the asymmetric unit⁸ and we maintain a dedicated web resource on this work (http://www.dur.ac.uk/zprime). The group are also expert in the study of polymorphism, particularly in pharmaceutical hydrates and in the use of novel methods such as mechanochemistry⁷ to bring about chemical reactions and solid state phase transitions.

References

1. J. W. Steed and J. L. Atwood, "Supramolecular Chemistry", 2^nd Ed, J. Wiley & Sons: Chichester, 2009.
2. "Induced Fit Inter-Anion Discrimination by Binding-Induced Excimer Formation", M. H. Filby, S. J. Dickson, N. Zaccheroni, L. Prodi, S. Bonacchi, M. Montalti, M. J. Paterson, T. D. Humphries, C. Chiorboli, and J. W. Steed, J. Am. Chem. Soc., 2008, 130, 4105.
3. "Anion Tuning of Chiral Bis(urea) Low Molecular Weight Gels”, G. O. Lloyd, M.-O. M. Piepenbrock, J. A. Foster, N. Clarke, and J. W. Steed, Soft Matter, 2012, 8, 204–216.
4. "Anion-Tuning of Supramolecular Gel Properties", G. O. Lloyd and J. W. Steed, Nature Chem., 2009, 1, 437.
5. "Metal- and Anion Binding Supramolecular Gels", M. M. Piepenbrock, G. O. Lloyd, N. Clarke and J. W. Steed, Chem. Rev., 2010, 110, 1960.
6. J. W. Steed, "Should solid-state molecular packing have to obey the rules of crystallographic symmetry?" CrystEngComm, 2003, 5, 169.
7. "The Mechanochemical Synthesis of Podand Anion Receptors", A. N. Swinburne and J. W. Steed, CrystEngComm, 2009, 11, 433.
8. "Anion-switchable supramolecular gels for controlling pharmaceutical crystal growth”, J. A. Foster, M.-O. M. Piepenbrock, G. O. Lloyd, N. Clarke, J. A. K. Howard and J. W. Steed, Nature Chem., 2010, 2, 1037–1043.

Research Interests

• Supramolecular Chemistry
• Crystallography
• Molecular Materials

Publications

• D.R. Turner, M.J. Paterson & J.W. Steed (2006). A conformationally flexible, urea-based tripodal anion receptor: Solid-state, solution, and theoretical studies. 71(4): 1598-1608.
• J.W. Steed (2006). A modular approach to anion binding podands: adaptability in design and synthesis leads to adaptability in properties. (25): 2637-2649.
• M.H. Filby & J.W. Steed (2006). A modular approach to organic, coordination complex and polymer based podand hosts for anions. 250(23-24): 3200-3218.
• C.E. Stanley, N. Clarke, K.M. Anderson, J.A. Elder, J.T. Lenthall & J.W. Steed (2006). Anion binding inhibition of the formation of a helical organogel. (30): 3199-3201.
• J.M. Russell, A.D.M. Parker, I. Radosavljevic-Evans, J.A.K. Howard & J.W. Steed (2006). Anion-binding mode in a sulfanylphenyl urea complex: solid state symmetry breaking and solution chelation. 8(2): 119-122.
• G. Guilera, G.S. McGrady, J.W. Steed & A.L. Jones (2006). Complex formation and rearrangement reactions of the phosphine hydride anions OsH3(PPh3)(3) (-) and IrH2(PPh3)(3) (-). 25(1): 122-127.
• A.S. Batsanov, J.C. Collings, R.M. Ward, A.E. Goeta, L. Porres, A. Beeby, J.A.K. Howard, J.W. Steed & T.B. Marder (2006). Crystal engineering with ethynylbenzenes Part 2. Structures of 4-trimethylsilylethynyl-N,N-dimethylaniline, and 4-ethynyl-N,N-dimethylaniline with Z '=12 and a single-crystal to single-crystal phase transition at 122.5 +/- 2 K. 8(8): 622-628.
• A.M. Todd, K.M. Anderson, P. Byrne, A.E. Goeta & J.W. Steed (2006). Helical or polar guest-dependent Z '=1.5 or Z '=2 forms of a sterically hindered bis(urea) clathrate. 6(8): 1750-1752.
• M.H. Filby, T.D. Humphries, D.R. Turner, R. Kataky, J. Kruusma & J.W. Steed (2006). Modular assembly of a preorganised, ditopic receptor for dicarboxylates. (2): 156-158.
• M. Alajarin, C. Lopez-Leonardo, J. Berna & J.W. Steed (2006). On the protonation of a macrobicyclic cage: an inert tribenzylamine fragment and three robust aminophosphonium units. 47(30): 5405-5408.
• W.J. Belcher, M. Fabre, T. Farhan & J.W. Steed (2006). Pyridinium CH center dot center dot center dot anion and pi-stacking interactions in modular tripodal anion binding hosts: ATP binding and solid-state chiral induction. 4(5): 781-786.
• J.M. Russell, A.D.M. Parker, I. Radosavljevie-Evans, J.A.K. Howard & J.W. Steed (2006). Simultaneous anion and cation binding by a simple polymer-bound ureidopyridyl ligand. (3): 269-271.
• M.J. Stchedroff, V. Moberg, E. Rodriguez, A.E. Aliev, J. Bottcher, J.W. Steed, E. Nordlander, M. Monari & A.J. Deeming (2006). Synthesis, characterisation and natural abundance Os-187 NMR spectroscopy of hydride bridged triosmium clusters with chiral diphosphine ligands. 359(3): 926-937.
• K.M. Anderson, A.E. Goeta, K.S.B. Hancock & J.W. Steed (2006). Unusual variations in the incidence of Z ' > 1 in oxo-anion structures. (20): 2138-2140.
• K.M. Anderson, K. Afarinkia, H.W. Yu, A.E. Goeta & J.W. Steed (2006). When Z '=2 is better than Z '=1-supramolecular centrosymmetric hydrogen-bonded dimers in chiral systems. 6(9): 2109-2113.

Journal papers: academic

• Todd, A. M., Swinburne, A. N., Goeta, A. E. & Steed, J. W. (2013). Anion receptor coordination tripods capped by [9]ane-S3. New Journal of Chemistry 37(1): 89-96.
• Steed, J. W. (2013). First glimpse at a calixarene clathrate. Chemical Communications 49(2): 114-117.
• Meazza, L., Foster, J. A., Fucke, K., Metrangolo, P., Resnati, G. & Steed, J. W. (2013). Halogen-Bonding-Triggered Supramolecular Gel Formation. Nature Chemistry 5(1): 42-47.
• Perrin, A., Musa, O. M. & Steed, J. W. (2013). The Chemistry of Low Dosage Clathrate Hydrate Inhibitors. Chemical Society Reviews 42(5): 1996-2015.
• Steed, J. W. (2013). The role of co-crystals in pharmaceutical design. Trends in Pharmacological Sciences 34(3): 185-193.
• Fucke, K., Peach, M. J. G., Howard, J. A. K. & Steed, J. W. (2012). A new water•••Na+ coordination motif in an unexpected diatrizoic acid disodium salt crystal form. Chemical Communications 48(79): 9822-9824.
• James, S. L., Adams, C. J., Bolm, C., Braga, D., Collier, P., Friščić, T., Grepioni, F., Harris, K. D. M., Hyett, G., Jones, W., Krebs, A., Mack, J., Maini, L., Orpen, A. G., Parkin, I. P., Shearouse, W. C., Steed, J. W. & Waddell, D. C. (2012). Mechanochemistry: opportunities for new and cleaner synthesis. Chemical Society Reviews 41(1): 413-447.
• Fucke, K., McIntyre, G. J., Wilkinson, C., Henry, M., Howard, J. A. K. & Steed, J. W. (2012). New insights into an Old Molecule: Interaction Energies of Theophylline Crystal Forms. Crystal Growth and Design 12(3): 1395-1401.
• Fucke, K., Howard, J. A. K. & Steed, J. W. (2012). Overcoming the solvation shell during the crystallisation of diatrizoic acid from dimethylsulfoxide. Chemical Communications 48(99): 12065-12067.
• Fucke, K., Edwards, A. J., Probert, M. R., Tallentire, S. E., Howard, J. A. K. & Steed, J. W. (2012). Unexpected Low Temperature Behaviour of Piroxicam Monohydrate. ChemPhysChem 14(4): 675-679.
• Foster, JA Piepenbrock, MOM, Lloyd, GO Clarke, N, Howard, JAK & Steed, JW (2010). Anion-switchable supramolecular gels for controlling pharmaceutical crystal growth. Nature Chemistry 2(12): 1037-1043.
• Piepenbrock, MOM Clarke, N & Steed, JW (2010). Shear induced gelation in a copper(II) metallogel: new aspects of ion-tunable rheology and gel-reformation by external chemical stimuli. Soft Matter 6(15): 3541-3547.
• Anderson, KM Probert, MR , Whiteley, CN Rowland, AM Goeta, AE & Steed, JW (2009). Designing Co-Crystals of Pharmaceutically Relevant Compounds That Crystallize with Z’ > 1. Crystal Growth & Design 9(2): 1082.
• Piepenbrock, MOM, Lloyd, GO Clarke, N & Steed, JW (2008). Gelation is crucially dependent on functional group orientation and may be tuned by anion binding. Chemical Communications (23): 2644-2646.
• Filby, Maria H. Dickson, Sara Jane Zaccheroni, N, Prodi, L, Bonacchi, S, Montalti, M, Paterson, MJ Humphries, TD Chiorboli, C & Steed, JW (2008). Induced Fit Interanion Discrimination by Binding-Induced Excimer Formation. Journal of the American Chemical Society 130(12): 4105-4113.
• Anderson, KM Day, GM Paterson, MJ Byrne, P, Clarke, N & Steed, JW (2008). Structure Calculation of an Elastic Hydrogel from Sonication of Rigid Small Molecule Components. Angewandte Chemie International Edition 47(6): 1058-1062.