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

Photocontrol over cucurbit[8]uril complexes: stoichiometry and supramolecular polymers.
J del Barrio, PN Horton, D Lairez, GO Lloyd, C Toprakcioglu, OA Scherman
J Am Chem Soc
(2013)
135
Supramolecular alignment of gold nanorods via cucurbit[8]uril ternary complex formation
ST Jones, JM Zayed, OA Scherman
Nanoscale
(2013)
5
Inhibition of Human Insulin Aggregation through Supramolecular Host-Guest Interactions
FC Christie, AM Donald, OA Scherman
BIOPOLYMERS
(2013)
100
Synthesis of Photoswitchable Homodimeric Polypeptides: Towards Biological Applications
S Sonzini, F Biedermann, OA Scherman
BIOPOLYMERS
(2013)
100
Dynamically crosslinked materials via recognition of amino acids by cucurbit[8]uril.
MJ Rowland, EA Appel, RJ Coulston, OA Scherman
J Mater Chem 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
Nat Commun
(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

Head of group

Telephone number

01223 331797, 01223 334372 (shared)

Email address

College