Dr Calum Ferguson Eur Ing, BSc, PhD, CEng, MICE, MIHT

Dr Calum Ferguson

School of Chemistry
Group Leader

Contact details

Email
c.ferguson.1@bham.ac.uk
Twitter
@CTJFerguson
View my research portal
Address
School of Chemistry
University of Birmingham
Edgbaston
Birmingham
B15 2TT
UK

Calum Ferguson is a Research Group Leader in the O’Reilly group in the School of Chemistry.

Calum has extensive experience in polymer chemistry and photocatalysis. His research interests include controlled radical polymer synthesis, photocatalytic classical polymers, organic small molecule photocatalysts, and selective photocatalysis.

Qualifications

  • PhD in Biology/Chemistry, University of Leeds  2018
  • MChem in Chemistry, University of Edinburgh, 2013

Biography

Calum obtained an integrated Master’s degree in Chemistry from the University of Edinburgh in 2013, followed by a PhD from the University of Leeds in 2018. After completing his doctoral studies, he joined the Max Planck Institute for Polymer Research initially as a PostDoc in 2018 and then was promoted to group leader in 2020.

He returned to the UK in April 2022, joining the O’Reilly group at the University of Birmingham as a group leader. In 2022 he was named a Nanoscale Emerging Investigator and in 2023 he was awarded the Polymer Material Science Engineering Future Faculty Award.

Research

I am interested in using light to drive the production of important compounds that are typically difficult to synthesise. My research focuses on the formation of novel hybrid materials by combining small molecule organic photocatalysts with classical polymers so that the photocatalytic properties of the small molecules are imparted to specifically designed polymer architectures. This synergistic combination allows the creation of photocatalysts with enhanced properties compared to the native small molecule.

The versatility of classical polymers enables a broad range of different functional photocatalytic materials to be created. Initially, we produced stimuli-responsive photocatalysts, where increasing the temperature denatured the macromolecular structure and deactivated the photocatalyst. The method was subsequently extended to a range of different gel-based photocatalysts, which were used for water remediation and for the production of high-value compounds.

Recently, our research has focused on two main areas: designing responsive photocatalysts for enhanced control and recoverability; and forming selective catalysts, which can change reaction pathways based on their physical properties.

Publications

  • Li, R. Kuckhoff, T. Heuer, J. Landfester, K. and Ferguson, C. T. J., (2023), pH‐Triggered Recovery of Organic Polymer Photocatalytic Particles for the Production of High Value Compounds and Enhanced Recyclability, Angewandte Chemie 62, e202217652. doi.org/10.1002/anie.20221765

  • Heuer, J. Kuckhoff, T. Li, R. Landfester, K. and Ferguson, C. T. J. (2023), Tunable Photocatalytic Selectivity by Altering the Active Center Microenvironment of an Organic Polymer Photocatalyst, ACS Applied Materials and Interface Science, 15, 2, 2891–2900

  • Kim, S. Landfester, K. and Ferguson, C. T. J. (2022), Hairy Conjugated Microporous Polymer Nanoparticles Facilitate Heterogeneous Photoredox Catalysis with Solvent-Specific Dispersibility, ACS Nano, 16, 10, 17041–17048

  • Li, R. Landfester, K., and Ferguson, C. T. J. (2022), Temperature‐and pH‐Responsive Polymeric Photocatalysts for Enhanced Control and Recovery, Angewandte Chemie 61, 51, e202211132

  • Melchiors, M. S. Ivanov, T. Sayes, C. Araujo, P. Silva, L. Ferguson, C. T. J. and Landfester, K. (2022), Membrane Manipulation of Giant Unilamellar Polymer Vesicles with a Temperature‐Responsive Polymer, Angewandte Chemie,61, 39, e202207998

  • Huber, N. Sirim, M. Qian, Z. Ferguson, C. T. J. Wei, W. and Zhang, K. A. I. (2022), Water-Compatible Poly (methyl methacrylate) Networks for Visible Light-Driven Photocatalytic Pollutant Remediation in Aqueous Medium, ACS Applied Polymer Materials, 4, 8, 5728–5736

  • Heuer, J. and Ferguson, C. T. J. (2022), Photocatalytic polymer nanomaterials for the production of high value compounds, Nanoscale,14, 1646-1652, invited emerging investigator issue

  • Wei, W. Mazzotta, F. Landfester, K. Ferguson, C. T. J. and Zhang, K. A. I. (2022), Aerobic photobiocatalysis enabled by combining core–shell nanophotoreactors and native enzymes, Journal of the American Chemical Society, 144, 16, 7320–7326

  • Kuckhoff, T. Landfester, K. Zhang, K. A. I. and Ferguson, C. T. J. (2021), Photocatalytic hydrogels with a high transmission polymer network for pollutant remediation, Chemistry of Materials, 33, 23, 9131–9138

  • Ferguson, C. T. J. and Zhang, K. A. I. (2021), Classical polymers as highly tunable and designable heterogeneous photocatalysts, ACS Catalysis, 11, 9547-9560

  • Wei, W. Li, R. Huber, N. Kizilsavas, G. Ferguson, C. T. J. Landfester, K. and Zhang, K. A. I. (2021), Visible Light‐Promoted Aryl Azoline Formation over Mesoporous Organosilica as Heterogeneous Photocatalyst, ChemCatChem,13, 3410–34

  • Ferguson, C. T. J. Huber, N. Kuckhoff, T. Zhang, K. A. I. and Landfester, K. (2020), Dispersible porous classical polymer photocatalysts for visible light-mediated production of pharmaceutically relevant compounds in multiple solvents, Journal of Materials Chemistry A, 8, 1072-1076

  • Huber, N. Li, R. Ferguson, C. T. J. Gehrig, D. Ramanan, C. Blom, P. Landfester, K. and Zhang, K. A. I. (2020), A PMMA-based heterogeneous photocatalyst for visible light-promoted [4+ 2] cycloaddition, Catalysis Science & Technology, 10(7), 2092-2099

  • Ferguson, C. T. J. Huber, N. Landfester, K. and Zhang, K. A. I. (2019), Dual‐Responsive Photocatalytic Polymer Nanogels, Angewandte Chemie, 131, 10677-10681.

View all publications in research portal