The first hydrophilic, 1,10-phenanthroline derived ligands consisting of only C, H, O and N atoms for the selective extraction of Am(III) from spent nuclear fuel are reported herein. One of these 2,9-bis-triazolyl-1,10-phenanthroline (BTrzPhen) ligands combined with a non-selective extracting agent, was found to exhibit process-suitable selectivity for Am(III) over Eu(III) and Cm(III), providing a clear step forward.

High yielding and diastereoselective conjugate addition reactions of a (−)-quinic acid derived enone have provided access to a small library of hybrid analogues of the anti-tumour natural products antheminone A and COTC. The novel compounds were assessed for their antiproliferative activities towards the A549 non-small-cell lung cancer cell line revealing some useful structure-activity relationships.

A synthetic approach to analogues of the terpenoid natural product antheminone A is described which employs (−)-quinic acid as starting material. A key conjugate addition step proved to be unpredictable regarding its stereochemical outcome however the route allowed access to two diastereoisomeric series of compounds. The results of biological assay of the toxicity of the target compounds towards non-small-cell lung cancer cell line A549 are reported.

The syntheses of three novel analogues of the naturally occurring cytotoxic agent COTC are described and the results of bioassays of the target compounds against two lung cancer cell lines are presented.

The synthesis of 6-epi-COTC, a diastereoisomer of Streptomyces metabolite 2-crotonyloxymethyl-(4R,5R,6R)-4,5,6-trihydroxycyclohex-2-enone (COTC), is described. The anti-cancer activities of the novel analogue, in racemic and enantiomerically pure forms, are presented.

An array of novel analogues of the marine oxylipins, the manzamenones and plakoridines, have been prepared in divergent fashion using an approach modelled on a biogenetic theory. Many of the target compounds show potent inhibition of DNA polymerases α and β and human terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferase (TdT).

The first hydrophilic, 1,10-phenanthroline derived ligands consisting of only C, H, O and N atoms for the selective extraction of Am(III) from spent nuclear fuel are reported herein. One of these 2,9-bis-triazolyl-1,10-phenanthroline (BTrzPhen) ligands combined with a non-selective extracting agent, was found to exhibit process-suitable selectivity for Am(III) over Eu(III) and Cm(III), providing a clear step forward.

The first examples of 4,7-disubstituted 2,9-bis(5,5,8,8-tetramethyl-5,6,7,8-tetrahydro-1,2,4-benzo-triazin-3-yl)-1,10-phenanthroline (CyMe4-BTPhen) ligands are reported herein. Evaluating the kinetics, selectivity and stoichiometry of actinide(III) and lanthanide(III) radiotracer extractions has provided a mechanistic insight into the extraction process. For the first time, it has been demonstrated that metal ion extraction kinetics can be modulated by backbone functionalisation and a promising new CHON compliant candidate ligand with enhanced metal ion extraction kinetics has been identified. The effects of 4,7-functionalisation on the equilibrium metal ion distribution ratios are far more pronounced than those of 5,6-functionalisation. The complexation of Cm(III) with two of the functionalised ligands was investigated by TRLFS and, at equilibrium, species of 1:2 [M:L] stoichiometry were observed exclusively. A direct correlation between the ELUMO–EHOMO energy gap and metal ion extraction potential is reported, with DFT studies reaffirming experimental findings.