Elizabeth Shotton
Industrial Liaison Manager
Elizabeth Shotton (née MacLean) is the Industrial Liaison Manager, responsible for all proprietary use of Diamond’s facilities. After a PhD at University College London studying solid state properties of pigments, she worked at Daresbury Laboratory for 10 years in the industrial group. Her main research areas are in the application of X-ray powder diffraction and small molecule crystallography to industrially relevant samples.
Email: Elizabeth.Shotton
Tel: +44 (0) 1235 778797
Industrial Liaison Office
Key research areas:
X-ray powder diffraction, small molecule crystallography, pharmaceuticals, catalysts
Research Interests:
I am involved in a number of collaborations, some of which are outlined here. With Maryjane Tremayne at the University of Birmingham, we are developing a novel technique for crystal structure determination of pharmaceutical materials from multi-phase powder diffraction data. Pharmaceutical cocrystals (crystalline materials consisting of different solid neutral molecular species held together by non-covalent interactions) represent an untapped and undeveloped resource for solid state pharmaceutical development. The supramolecular synthesis of these multi-component organic materials enables us to tailor bulk properties through variation of crystal structure, while retaining the chemical properties of the individual components. Although the synthesis of new cocrystal forms by mechanochemistry is clearly an emergent technology of topical interest, full structural characterisation remains limited due to the polycrystalline nature of the products. Our project relies on high quality synchrotron X-ray powder diffraction (XRPD) data and the powerful direct space global optimisation approach provided by the differential evolution (DE) algorithm. The DE algorithm is a highly efficient evolutionary algorithm that has been developed and used by the Tremayne research group to study polymorphs, cocrystals and hydrogen-bonded systems from XRPD data.
Catalytic chemistry is another hugely important industrial science area and I am participating in two projects in this field. Firstly, with Prof. Gopinathan Sankar at University College London, where we are doing ex situ and in situ studies of iron containing zeolitic solids used for selective oxidation of benzene using X-ray powder diffraction and X-ray spectroscopy. Secondly, as part of a European consortium consisting of 18 organisations from 8 countries (CARENA), I am involved in the study of novel membrane catalysts which are expected to provide direct benefit to the European chemical industry. Using a combination of X-ray powder diffraction and X-ray spectroscopy, the new membrane catalysts will be analysed in situ to gain a full understanding of their structural properties.
Selected Publications:
- A. Moretto, I. Menegazzo, M. Crisma, E.J. Shotton, H. Nowell, S. Mammi, C. Toniolo, A Rigid Helical Peptide Axle for a [2]Rotaxane Molecular Machine, Angew. Chemie Int. Ed., 48, 8986-8989, (2009)
- E.J. MacLean, M. Tremayne, B.M. Kariuki, J.R.A. Cameron, M.A. Roberts, K.D.M. Harris, Lessons on the Assignment of Polymorphs, Highlighted by the Case of the Latent Pigment DPP-Boc, Crystal Growth & Design, 9, 853-857, (2009)
- A. Cooper, M. Nutley, E.J. MacLean, K. Cameron, L. Fielding, J. Mestres, R. Palin, Conformational Switches in Cyclodextrin-Rocuronium Complexes, Organic and Biomolecular Chemistry, 3, 1863-1871, (2005)
- A. Bom, M. Bradley, K. Cameron, J.K. Clark, J. van Egmond, H. Feilden, E.J. MacLean, A.W. Muir, R. Palin, D.C. Rees, M.-Q. Zhang, A Novel Concept of Reversing Neuromuscular Block: Chemical Encapsulation of Rocuronium Bromide by a Cyclodextrin-Based Synthetic Host, Angew. Chemie, Intl. Ed. Engl., 41, 265-270, (2002)
- E.J. MacLean, M. Tremayne, B.M. Kariuki, K.D.M. Harris, A.F.M. Iqbal, Z. Hao, Structural Understanding of a Polymorphic System by Structure Solution and Refinement from Powder Diffraction Data: The α and β Phases of the Latent Pigment DPP-Boc, J. Chem. Soc., Perkin Trans. 2, 1513-1520, (2000)