My web sites
- WebElements
- The periodic table on the WWW. My first site. Running since 1993, although its origins lie in a HyperCard program (MacElements) I started work upon around 1989. Currently shows up as 2nd entry on Google key word search for "chemistry" and 1st for "periodic table"
- Sheffield Chemdex
- In essence an expanded version of my Bookmarks, and now database driven. It's a list of several thousand chemistry web sites. Running since 1993, I think.
- Sheffield Chemputer
- Some online chemistry calculators. Based upon some algorithms dreamed up for use in MacElements. Calculates isotope patterns, VSEPR shapes, MXLZ classification, oxidation numbers, and so on. About to get shifted to an apache/PHP/MySQL system from the original cgi version.
- The Orbitron
- Ray-traced images and animations representing atomic orbitals and a few molecular orbitals. Some pf the pictures are quite pretty. If nothing else the images show that orbitals are not thin, as they tend to be represented in text books, (yes, I know, including my own books). Done in Pov-Ray using an isosurface patch.
- MolBase
- This one is new. It's a database of molecules (or perhaps environments within molecules) contributed by students. The beauty is that it calculates quite a few of the key properties of a contributed structure. This allows various aggregated statistical charts to be displayed of coordination numbers, oxidation states, MXLZ classifications, and so on.
- The Symmetron
- Nearly ready! In fact it's been nearly ready for the best part of a year now. Ray-traced images and animations representing symmtetry operations as applied to simple molecules. Done in Pov-Ray.
- Sheffield Collegiate Cricket Club
- Some regard cricket as a life and death thing. Not so, it's far more important. This is where I play cricket and was the first cricket club in the world to have a web site (1993). Initially a flat HTML system, it's been through various incarnations since then, including phpWebSite and now PostNuke. I may shift it back to phpWebSite at some point, or experiment with Xaraya perhaps.
My books
I've written three shorts text books, all in the Oxford University Press chemistry primer series.
- Chemical Bonding
- My first book. An expanded version of an introductory course on bonding I give here in Sheffield.
- d-Block Chemistry
- An expanded version of an introductory course on d-block metal complexes I give here in Sheffield.
- Foundations of Inorganic Chemistry
- Coauthor: John Andrew. An overview of inorganic chemistry.
Keywords
organometallic, reaction mechanisms, migration reactions, carbenes, carbynes, vinylidenes, World Wide Web (WWW), cricket.
Organometallic Chemistry Interests
Migration reactions are an important fundamental class of reactions in organometallic chemistry. Our current main research thrust concerns migrations of hydride and alkyl groups to metal coordinated carbene (see Scheme 1) in processes which result in new alkyl ligands. To date, most of our work has involved molybdenum (see Scheme 2 for an example), tungsten, iron, and ruthenium.
Scheme 1
Scheme 2
Such reactions are models for some important C--H and C--C bond formation processes but surprisingly little is known about these rearrangements. We are particularly concerned to discover the the mechanisms by which they proceed. These migrations are the reverse of α-elimination reactions and we now find that some of the above products α-eliminate under photochemical excitation to regenerate the initial carbene starting materials.
Many of the compounds are somewhat air-sensitive. The work has a large synthetic component but research workers use mass spectrometry, IR spectroscopy, and NMR spectroscopy extensively for characterization and monitoring. We also make great use of the Department X-ray crystallographic service.
A recent interest concerns applications of the 'World Wide Web' (WWW) for chemistry. This is an international hypertext networked information system that show great promise for information movement in chemistry.
Selected Publications
Cyclopropanation in the reaction of [M(CO)3Tp]- [M = Mo, W; Tp = hydridotris(pyrazolyl)borato] with I(CH2)3I and the insertion of isocyanide into metal-acyl bonds", H. Adams, R.J. Cubbon, M.J. Sarsfield and M.J. Winter, J. Chem., Soc., Chem. Commun., 1999, 491-492.
"Syntheses of neutral iron, ruthenium, and manganese half-sandwich vinylidene complexes. Crystal structure of Fe(SnPh3)(CO)(=C=CHPh)(η-C5H5)", H. Adams, S.G. Broughton, C. Sumner, S.J. Walters, and M.J. Winter, J. Chem., Soc., Chem. Commun., 1999, 1231-1232.
"Methyl to alkylidene migration within trans-WMe(=CHPh)(CO)2(η-C5H5)", J. E Muir, A. Haynes, and M.J. Winter, J. Chem., Soc., Chem. Commun., 1996, 1765-1766.
"Syntheses of acyloxy carbene complexes M(SnPh3)(CO)n{=C(OCOR)Ph}(η-C5H5) (M = Mo,W, n = 2, R = Me; M = Fe, Ru, n = 1, R = Me, Ph, But ) and X-ray crystal structures of Fe(SnPh3)(CO){=C(OCOR)Ph}η-C5H5) (R = Me, Ph)", H. Adams, C.A. Maloney, J.E. Muir, S.J. Walters and M.J. Winter, J. Chem., Soc., Chem. Commun., 1995, 1511-1512.
Page author: Mark Winter [last update- December 2005]