The Cronin Group

Research in the Cronin Group is motivated by the fascination for complex chemical systems, and the desire to construct complex functional molecular architectures that are not based on biologically derived building blocks.


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New Synthetic Approach Compresses Molybdenum Blue Rings While Retaining Structure

Researchers from the Cronin Group have developed new synthetic strategies to compress molybdenum blue (MB) cluster rings while maintaining their characteristic ring shape and electronic structure. In a recent JACS publication (DOI: 10.1021/jacs.5c00187), the team reports a family of new MB clusters—{Mo54}, {Mo58}, {Mo85}, and {Mo108}—showing that the archetypal MB ring can be reduced by up to 100 molybdenum atoms, from {Mo154} to {Mo54}, without disrupting the overall architecture.

This was achieved by introducing new building blocks, including distorted pentagonal units and a previously unobserved {Mo5} bridging motif, which help stabilize the compressed structures. These findings offer a new route for controlling the size and shape of MB clusters, whilst retaining their electronic structure and redox behaviour, and may support future efforts to design nanoscale inorganic frameworks with tailored properties.

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Prof. Leroy (Lee) Cronin

Prof Leroy (Lee) Cronin
Regius Chair of Chemistry
Advanced Research Centre (ARC)
Level 5, Digital Chemistry
University of Glasgow
11 Chapel Lane
Glasgow G11 6EW
Tel: +44 141 330 6650
Email: lee.cronin@glasgow.ac.uk

Latest Publications

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509. High-Nuclearity Polyoxometalate-Based Metal–Organic Frameworks for Photocatalytic Oxidative Cleavage of C−C Bond

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508. Operational considerations for approximating molecular assembly by Fourier transform mass spectrometry

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507. Reaction blueprints and logical control flow for parallelized chiral synthesis in the Chemputer

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506. Experimentally measured assemblyindices are required to determine the threshold for life

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505. Algorithm-driven robotic discovery of polyoxometalate-scaffolding metal–organic frameworks

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504. Reaction: Programmable chemputable click chemistry

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503. Rethinking pharma and biotech outsourcing: A call for data security and supply chain resilience

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502. Delocalized, asynchronous, closed-loop discovery of organic laser emitters

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501. Investigating and Quantifying Molecular Complexity Using Assembly Theory and Spectroscopy

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500. Electron density-based GPT for optimization and suggestion of host–guest binders


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