Day Group - Organometallic chemistry for sustainability

The Day Group develops sustainable methods for transforming biomass and greenhouse gases into valuable products using homogeneous catalysts based on earth-abundant metals.

Research focus

The group’s research aims to pioneer sustainable methods for transforming biomass and greenhouse gases, such as CO₂, into valuable products ranging from high-value pharmaceuticals to next-generation plastics.

The group designs new homogeneous catalysts using earth-abundant metals such as Ni, Fe and Mo, combining:

  • Organic and polymer synthesis
    Building molecules, ligands and materials.
  • Organometallic chemistry
    Synthesising and designing powerful catalysts.
  • Mechanistic analysis
    Understanding how reactions work.
  • Sustainable activation
    Using light or electricity.

Group leader

Projects

Projects in the group focus on core areas within organic synthesis, organometallic chemistry and polymer chemistry.

Projects may involve:

  • developing transition-metal-catalysed reactions to convert CO₂ into pharmaceuticals
  • synthesising novel ligands and discovering new catalytic cycles
  • air-free synthesis, reaction optimisation and NMR/HPLC analysis

Projects may involve:

  • synthesising and characterising new metal complexes
  • probing fundamental reactivity to unveil new reaction pathways
  • glovebox/Schlenk line techniques, X-ray diffraction, EPR and electrochemistry (CV)

Projects may involve:

  • developing catalytic methods to create sustainable plastics from CO₂ or biomass
  • engineering novel polymers for CO₂ capture and release
  • polymer synthesis and characterisation, including GPC and DSC

Collaborations

The group primarily collaborates with computational groups that provide theoretical support for the experimental work. The group also collaborates with experimental groups to provide mechanistic understanding of the reactions they develop.

Collaborators include:

  • Heather Kulik, MIT, USA – computational chemistry
  • Jan H. Jensen, University of Copenhagen, Denmark – computational chemistry
  • Osvaldo Gutierrez, UCLA, USA – computational chemistry
  • Shang-Zheng Sun, USTC, China – methodology development

Group members

Name
Title
Work area
Contact info

Our Team

The Day Group welcomes and is committed to fostering the development and long-term success of students from diverse backgrounds including scientific, educational, regional, gender, sexual orientation, social, religious, or ethnic in all combinations. We work together to ensure everyone's success and are proud of the accomplishments of those from all backgrounds during and after their time in the laboratory.

Contact

Craig S. Day
Assistant Professor
  • Job responsibility
    Group leader