Home > Research > Researchers > Geoffrey Akien

Geoffrey Akien

  • Chemistry
Type of address: Postal address.
Department of Chemistry
LA1 4YB
Lancaster

Email: g.akien@lancaster.ac.uk

Phone: +44 1524 593790

Professional Role

I run the solution state NMR facility in the Department of Chemistry at Lancaster: currently a Bruker Fourier 300 and an Avance III 400.  I also play a supporting role for the solid state NMR facility: a Bruker Avance III HD 400WB and 700WB.

I maintain the instruments and the supporting infrastructure, and provide training and advice on everything from sample preparation through to data analysis.  If you have any questions, just ask!

SUMMARY of research interests (100 words)

I have a broad interest in the use of NMR for the characterisation of complex mixtures and unstable intermediates.

Research output

An alkaline ferrocyanide non-enzymatic electrochemical sensor for creatinine detection

Bajpai, S., Akien, G. R. & Toghill, K. E., 31/01/2024, In: Electrochemistry Communications. 158, 107624.

Selective Transesterification to Control Copolymer Microstructure in the Ring-Opening Copolymerization of Lactide and ε-Caprolactone by Lanthanum Complexes

Beament, B., Britton, D., Malcomson, T., Akien, G. R., Halcovitch, N. R., Coogan, M. P. & Platel, R. H., 8/01/2024, In: Inorganic Chemistry. 63, 1, p. 280–293

Synthesis of Diverse Allylsilanes Employing Brønsted Acid Catalyzed Reductive Functionalization

Leonard, E., Akien, G., Britten, T., Kazi, N., Roberts, D. & McLaughlin, M., 21/11/2023, In: Advanced Synthesis & Catalysis. 365, 22, p. 3872-3875 5 p.

Fluorine-based Zn salan complexes

Essien, N. B., Galvácsi, A., Kállay, C., Al-Hilaly, Y., González-Méndez, R., Akien, G. R., Tizzard, G. J., Coles, S. J., Besora, M. & Kostakis, G. E., 7/04/2023, In: Dalton Transactions. 52, 13, p. 4044-4057 14 p.

Chiral Co<sub>3</sub>Y Propeller-Shaped Chemosensory Platforms Based on <sup>19</sup>F-NMR

Audsley, G., Carpenter, H., Essien, N. B., Lai-Morrice, J., Al-Hilaly, Y., Serpell, L. C., Akien, G. R., Tizzard, G. J., Coles, S. J., Ulldemolins, C. P. & Kostakis, G. E., 13/02/2023, In: Inorganic Chemistry. 62, 6, p. 2680-2693 14 p.

Hydrogen bond templated synthesis of catenanes and rotaxanes from a single isophthalic acid derivative

Barlow, S. R., Akien, G. R. & Evans, N. H., 14/01/2023, In: Organic and Biomolecular Chemistry . 21, 2, p. 402-414 13 p.

Electrochemically Enhanced Delivery of Pemetrexed from Electroactive Hydrogels

Au-Yong, S., Firlak, M., Draper, E., Municoy, S., Ashton, M., Akien, G., Halcovitch, N., Baldock, S., Martin-Hirsch, P., Desimone, M. & Hardy, J., 16/11/2022, In: Polymers. 14, 22, 19 p., 4953.

Photochemical Oxidation of Pt(IV)Me3(1,2-diimine) Thiolates to Luminescent Pt(IV) Sulfinates

Mala, B., Murtagh, L., Farrow, C., Akien, G., Halcovitch, N., Allinson, S., Platts, J. A. & Coogan, M., 17/05/2021, In: Inorganic Chemistry. 60, 10, p. 7031-7043 13 p.

An amide hydrogen bond templated [1]rotaxane displaying a peptide motif - demonstrating an expedient route to synthetic mimics of lasso peptides

Young, M. J., Akien, G. R. & Evans, N. H., 21/07/2020, In: Organic and Biomolecular Chemistry . 18, 27, p. 5203-5209 7 p.

Electroactive Silk Fibroin Films for Electrochemically Enhanced Delivery of Drugs

Mousavi, S., Harper, G., Municoy, S., Ashton, M., Townsend, D., Alsharif, G., Oikonomou, V., Au-Yong, S., Murdock, B., Akien, G., Halcovitch, N., Baldock, S., Fazilati, M., Kolosov, O., Robinson, B., Desimone, M. & Hardy, J., 1/06/2020, In: Macromolecular Materials and Engineering. 305, 6, 7 p., 2000130.

Factors affecting the nucleus-independent chemical shift in NMR studies of microporous carbon electrode materials

Cervini, L., Lynes, O. D., Akien, G. R., Kerridge, A., Barrow, N. S. & Griffin, J. M., 1/09/2019, In: Energy Storage Materials. 21, p. 335-346 12 p.

Accelerated acquisition in pure-shift spectra based on prior knowledge from 1H NMR

Shchukina, A., Kaźmierczak, M., Kasprzak, P., Davy, M., Akien, G., Butts, C. & Kazimierczuk, K., 18/07/2019, In: Chemical Communications. 55, 64, p. 9563-9566 4 p.

An efficient preparation of 1,2-dihydropyridazines through a Diels-Alder/palladium-catalysed elimination sequence

Britten, T. K., Akien, G. R., Kemmitt, P. D., Halcovitch, N. R. & Coote, S. C., 30/05/2019, In: Tetrahedron Letters. 60, 22, p. 1498-1500 3 p.

Epigallocatechin-3-gallate remodels apolipoprotein A-I amyloid fibrils into soluble oligomers in the presence of heparin

Townsend, D., Hughes, E., Akien, G., Stewart, K. L., Radford, S. E., Rochester, D. & Middleton, D. A., 17/08/2018, In: Journal of Biological Chemistry. 293, 33, p. 12877-12893 17 p.

Enhanced process development using automated continuous reactors by self-optimisation algorithms and statistical empirical modelling

Jeraal, M. I., Holmes, N., Akien, G. R. & Bourne, R. A., 21/06/2018, In: Tetrahedron. 74, 25, p. 3158-3164 7 p.

Dinucleating Schiff base ligand in Zn/4f coordination chemistry: synthetic challenges and catalytic activity evaluation

Sampani, S. I., Aubert, S., Cattoen, M., Griffiths, K., Abdul-Sada, A., Akien, G. R., Tizzard, G. J., Coles, S. J., Arseniyadis, S. & Kostakis, G. E., 7/04/2018, In: Dalton Transactions. 47, 13, p. 44786-4493 8 p.

Self-assembly of singlet-emitting double-helical silver dimers: the curious coordination chemistry and fluorescence of bisquinolylpyridone

Farrow, C., Halcovitch, N. R., Akien, G. R., Platts, J. A. & Coogan, M. P., 21/03/2018, In: Dalton Transactions. 47, 11, p. 3906-3912 7 p.

Rapid and simultaneous synthesis of a hydrogen bond template [3]rotaxane and its related [2]rotaxane molecular shuttle

Evans, N. H. & Akien, G. R., 02/2018, In: Supramolecular Chemistry. 30, 2, p. 158-164 7 p.

3d/4f Coordination Clusters as Cooperative Catalysts for Highly Diastereoselective Michael Addition Reactions

Griffiths, K., Tsipis, A. C., Kumar, P., Townrow, O. P. E., Abdul-Sada, A., Akien, G. R., Baldansuren, A., Spivey, A. C. & Kostakis, G. E., 21/08/2017, In: Inorganic Chemistry. 56, 16, p. 9563-9573 11 p.

Intensified and safe ozonolysis of fatty acid methyl esters in liquid CO2 in a continuous reactor

Lundin, M. D., Danby, A. M., Akien, G. R., Venkitasubramanian, P., Martin, K. J., Busch, D. H. & Subramaniam, B., 07/2017, In: AIChE Journal. 63, 7, p. 2819-2826 8 p.

Rapid multistep kinetic model generation from transient flow data

Hone, C. A., Holmes, N., Akien, G. R., Bourne, R. A. & Muller, F. L., 1/04/2017, In: Reaction Chemistry and Engineering. 2, 2, p. 103-108 6 p.

[N,N-Bis(2-hy­droxy­eth­yl)di­thio­carbamato-[kappa]2S,S']bis­(tri­phenyl­phosphane-[kappa]P)copper(I) chloro­form monosolvate: crystal structure, Hirshfeld surface analysis and solution NMR measurements

Tan, S. L., Yeo, C. I., Heard, P. J., Akien, G. R., Halcovitch, N. R. & Tiekink, E. R. T., 12/2016, In: Acta Crystallographica Section E: Crystallographic Communications. 72, 12, p. 1799-1805 7 p.

Self-optimisation of the final stage in the synthesis of EGFR kinase inhibitor AZD9291 using an automated flow reactor

Holmes, N., Akien, G. R., Blacker, A. J., Woodward, R. L., Meadows, R. E. & Bourne, R. A., 1/08/2016, In: Reaction Chemistry and Engineering. 1, 4, p. 366-371 6 p.

Atomic details of the interactions of Glycosaminoglycans with amyloid-β fibrils

Stewart, K., Hughes, E., Yates, E., Akien, G. R., Huang, T-Y., Lima, M., Rudd, T., Guerrini, M., Hung, S-C., Radford, S. & Middleton, D. A., 13/07/2016, In: Journal of the American Chemical Society. 138, 27, p. 8328-8331 4 p.

Tetranuclear Zn/4f coordination clusters as highly efficient catalysts for Friedel–Crafts alkylation

Griffiths, K., Kumar, P., Akien, G. R., Chilton, N. F., Abdul-Sada, A., Tizzard, G. J., Coles, S. J. & Kostakis, G. E., 25/06/2016, In: Chemical Communications. 52, 50, p. 7866-7869 4 p.

Online quantitative mass spectrometry for the rapid adaptive optimisation of automated flow reactors

Holmes, N., Akien, G. R., Savage, R. J. D., Stanetty, C., Baxendale, I. R., Blacker, A. J., Taylor, B. A., Woodward, R. L., Meadows, R. E. & Bourne, R. A., 2016, In: Reaction Chemistry and Engineering. 2016, 1, p. 96-100 5 p.

Liquid CO2 as a safe and benign solvent for the ozonolysis of fatty acid methyl esters

Akien, G. R., Lundin, M. D., Danby, A. M., Binder, T. P., Busch, D. H. & Subramaniam, B., 7/12/2015, In: ACS Sustainable Chemistry and Engineering. 3, 12, p. 3307-3314 8 p.

Dinuclear Lanthanide (III) Coordination Polymers in a Domino Reaction

Loukopoulos, E., Griffiths, K., Akien, G., Kourkomelis, N., Abdul-Sada, A. & Kostakis, G. E., 6/11/2015, In: Inorganics. 3, 4, p. 448-466 9 p.

Continuous hydroformylation with phosphine-functionalized polydimethylsiloxane rhodium complexes as nanofilterable homogeneous catalysts

Xie, Z., Akien, G. R., Sarkar, B. R., Subramaniam, B. & Chaudhari, R. V., 14/10/2015, In: Industrial and Engineering Chemistry Research. 54, 43, p. 10656-10660 5 p.

Definition and application of ethanol equivalent: sustainability performance metrics for biomass conversion to carbon-based fuels and chemicals

Csefalvay, E., Akien, G. R., Qi, L. & Horvath, I. T., 1/01/2015, In: Catalysis Today. 239, p. 50-55 6 p.

Supercritical fluids and gas-expanded liquids as tunable media for multiphase catalytic reactions

Subramaniam, B., Chaudhari, R. V., Chaudhari, A. S., Akien, G. R. & Xie, Z., 1/08/2014, In: Chemical Engineering Science. 115, p. 3-18 16 p.

Catalytic conversion of fructose, glucose, and sucrose to 5-(hydroxymethyl)furfural and levulinic and formic acids in gamma-valerolactone as a green solvent

Qi, L., Mui, Y. F., Lo, S. W., Lui, M. Y., Akien, G. R. & Horvath, I. T., 05/2014, In: ACS Catalysis. 4, 5, p. 1470-1477 8 p.

Sustainable catalytic reaction engineering with gas-expanded liquids

Subramaniam, B. & Akien, G. R., 1/08/2012, In: Current Opinion in Chemical Engineering. 1, 3, p. 336-341 6 p.

Synthesis in Green Solvents

Orha, L., Akien, G. & Horvath, I. T., 15/04/2012, Handbook of Green Chemistry: Online. Wiley-VCH, Vol. 7.

Molecular mapping of the acid catalysed dehydration of fructose

Akien, G. R., Qi, L. & Horvath, I. T., 2012, In: Chemical Communications. 48, 47, p. 5850-5852 3 p.

Self-optimizing continuous reactions in supercritical carbon dioxide

Parrott, A. J., Bourne, R. A., Akien, G. R., Irvine, D. J. & Poliakoff, M., 11/04/2011, In: Angewandte Chemie International Edition. 50, 16, p. 3788-3792 5 p.

Detecting phase transitions in supercritical mixtures: an enabling tool for greener chemical reactions

Ke, J., Sanchez-Vicente, Y., Akien, G. R., Novitskiy, A. A., Comak, G., Bagratashvili, V. N., George, M. W. & Poliakoff, M., 8/10/2010, In: Proceedings of the Royal Society A: Mathematical, Physical and Engineering Sciences. 466, 2122, p. 2799-2818 20 p.

Pressure drop as a simple method for locating phase transitions in continuous flow high pressure reactors

Akien, G. R., Skilton, R. A. & Poliakoff, M., 19/05/2010, In: Industrial and Engineering Chemistry Research. 49, 10, p. 4974-4980 7 p.

Continuous heterogeneous catalytic oxidation of primary and secondary alcohols in scCO(2)

Chapman, A. O., Akien, G. R., Arrowsmith, N. J., Licence, P. & Poliakoff, M., 2010, In: Green Chemistry. 12, 2, p. 310-315 6 p.

Conversion of carbohydrates to liquid fuels

Akien, G., Qi, L. & Horváth, I. T., 2010, Thermochemical Conversion of Biomass to Liquid Fuels and Chemicals. Crocker, M. (ed.). Cambridge: RSC Publishing, p. 365-381 17 p.

The continuous catalytic debenzylation of 1,4-Dibenzyloxybenzene with H-2 in THF expanded with high pressure CO2

Akien, G. R., Legeay, J-C., Wells, A. & Poliakoff, M., 2010, In: Organic Process Research and Development. 14, 5, p. 1202-1208 7 p.

A critical look at reactions in class I and II gas-expanded liquids using CO2 and other gases

Akien, G. R. & Poliakoff, M., 2009, In: Green Chemistry. 11, 8, p. 1083-1100 18 p.