Professor of Supramolecular & Polymer Chemistry / Director of the Melville Laboratory for Polymer Synthesis


What we do

Our research interests include the synthesis of functional nanosystems, controlled polymer architectures and dynamic supramolecular assemblies through molecular recognition processes.

The underlying theme of our research lies at the interface between synthetic organic efforts on small molecules and macroscopic properties at the materials level, developing a macro-organic approach to chemistry. Dynamic supramolecular self-assembly of materials will be an area of great importance in the coming years, allowing for innovations in nanotechnology and at the biological and chemical interfaces.

We are particularly interested in exploring topics such as water-soluble and stimuli-responsive materials, template and imprinting technologies of functional polymers for use in chiral separations and enantioselective catalysis, and controlling material morphologies and architectures both in solution and in the solid state through rational design and a multi-step, hierarchical self-assembly process.

Watch Professor Scherman discuss his research

Take a tour of the Scherman Lab

Publications

Dynamically crosslinked materials via recognition of amino acids by cucurbit[8]uril
MJ Rowland, EA Appel, RJ Coulston, OA Scherman
Journal of Materials Chemistry B
(2013)
1
Chemistry inside molecular containers in the gas phase
T-C Lee, E Kalenius, AI Lazar, KI Assaf, N Kuhnert, CH Grün, J Jänis, OA Scherman, WM Nau
Nature chemistry
(2013)
5
Simple composite dipole model for the optical modes of strongly-coupled plasmonic nanoparticle aggregates
RW Taylor, R Esteban, S Mahajan, R Coulston, OA Scherman, J Aizpurua, JJ Baumberg
The Journal of Physical Chemistry C
(2012)
116
Orthogonal switching of a single supramolecular complex
F Tian, D Jiao, F Biedermann, OA Scherman
Nature communications
(2012)
3
Triggered insulin release studies of triply responsive supramolecular micelles
XJ Loh, M-H Tsai, J del Barrio, EA Appel, T-C Lee, OA Scherman
Polymer Chemistry
(2012)
3
Quantitative SERS using the sequestration of small molecules inside precise plasmonic nanoconstructs.
S Kasera, F Biedermann, JJ Baumberg, OA Scherman, S Mahajan
Nano letters
(2012)
12
Release of high-energy water as an essential driving force for the high-affinity binding of cucurbit[n]urils
F Biedermann, VD Uzunova, OA Scherman, WM Nau, A De Simone
Journal of the American Chemical Society
(2012)
134
Enhanced stability and activity of temozolomide in primary glioblastoma multiforme cells with cucurbit[n]uril.
EA Appel, MJ Rowland, XJ Loh, RM Heywood, C Watts, OA Scherman
Chemical communications (Cambridge, England)
(2012)
48
Supramolecular peptide amphiphile vesicles through host-guest complexation
D Jiao, J Geng, XJ Loh, D Das, T-C Lee, OA Scherman
Angew Chem Int Ed Engl
(2012)
51
Gold nanoparticle self-assembly with cucurbit[n]urils in microfluidic droplets
RJ Coulston, J Zhang, R Taylor, J Baumberg, C Abell, OA Scherman
ABSTRACTS OF PAPERS OF THE AMERICAN CHEMICAL SOCIETY
(2012)
244

Head of group

Telephone number

01223 334372 (shared), 01223 331797

Email address

College