Tim Easun

Biography

Tim Easun has completed his Msci Chemistry (with ERASMUS semester at the Università degli Studi di Sassari, Italy), University of Nottingham (1998-2002); PhD, University of Sheffield (2003-2007, Prof. Mike Ward); Postdoctoral Research Fellow, University of Nottingham (2007-2010, Prof. Mike George); Inorganic Teaching Fellow, University of Nottingham (2010-2011); Senior Research Officer, University of Nottingham (2011-2015, Prof. Martin Schröder, Dean of the Faculty of Science). Appointed Cardiff University Research Fellow 2015. Member of the Royal Society of Chemistry, the American Chemical Society, the Infrared & Raman Discussion Group and the EPSRC Directed Assembly Grand Challenge Network.

Research Interest

Dr Easun's research targets the use of photochemistry to control molecular flow in microporous materials in order to make functional nanofluidic devices. This involves the functionalisation of crystalline porous materials, specifically using thermally and photochemically active components to control framework properties and direct guest uptake and release. The key concepts that underpin this research are those of supramolecular photochemistry, nanofluidics, time-resolved spectroscopies, photocrystallography and microporous materials with nanoscale pores and channels. The work is focussed on two main areas: the surface modification of metal-organic framework (MOF) crystals to photogate access to and from their pores and the design of new MOF linkers that change shape on photoirradiation. These projects require the design, synthesis and characterisation of photoactive molecules, studied by ultrafast time-resolved and spatially-resolved spectroscopies, coupled with new and emerging photocrystallographic techniques that allow us to understand in detail the behaviour of these molecules in single crystals.