Professor Tomislav Friščić PhD

Tomislav Friščić

School of Chemistry
Leverhulme International Professor in Green and Sustainable Chemistry

Contact details

Email
t.friscic@bham.ac.uk
Twitter
@TomislavFriscic
View my research portal
Address
School of Chemistry
Haworth Building
University of Birmingham
Edgbaston
Birmingham
B15 2TT
UK

Tomislav Friščić is a Professor and Leverhulme International Chair in Green and Sustainable Chemistry. He is an expert in solid-state chemistry, and pursues the applications and  fundamental understanding of solid-state reactivity, such as mechanochemistry, photochemistry, thermochemistry, and more with the ultimate aim to establish a new, more efficient and environmentally-friendly system of chemical and materials synthesis. His work often involves industry partners in the pharmaceuticals, mining, metals and advanced materials space, and he is a co-founder of two start-up companies.

He has co-authored >300 research publications, book chapters and patent applications, and his group’s research has led to numerous awards, including the John C. Polanyi Award by the Natural Sciences & Engineering Research Council of Canada (2021), the “Spiridion Brusina” Medal of the Croatian Society for Natural Sciences (2021), the Award for Research Excellence in Materials Chemistry by the Canadian Society for Chemistry (2019), National Research Council Steacie Prize for Natural Sciences (2018), the RSC Harrison-Meldola Memorial Prize and Lectureship (2011) etc.

For more information, visit the Friscic Research Group webpage and Tomislav's Wikipedia page.

Qualifications

  • Professor & Leverhulme International Chair in Green & Sustainable Chemistry, University of Birmingham
  • Adjunct Professor, McGill University (Canada)
  • Affiliate Professor, Concordia University (Canada)
  • Croatian Academy of Arts and Sciences (corresponding member)

Previous posts

  • Assistant (2011-2016), Associate (2016-2019) & Full Professor (2019-2022), McGill University (Canada)
  • Tier-1 Canada Research Chair in Mechanochemistry and Solid-state reactivity
  • Herchel Smith Research Fellow, University of Cambridge (2008-2011)
  • Post-doctoral Research Associate, Pfizer Institute for Pharmaceutical Materials Science, University of Cambridge (2006-2008)
  • Ph.D. in Chemistry, University of Iowa (2002-2006)
  • B.Sc. in Chemistry, University of Zagreb (1997-2001)

Biography

Teaching

Taught a wide range of courses at McGill University, ranging from General Chemistry to Advanced Materials, Supramolecular Chemistry, Physical Chemistry Laboratory and Integrated Chemistry Laboratory

Postgraduate supervision

  • Joseph M. Marrett (Ph.D. 2022-)
  • Yong Teoh (Ph.D. 2021-)
  • Linda Bechnak (Ph.D. 2020-)
  • Jogirdas Vainauskas (Ph.D. 2020-)
  • Galen Suh (Ph.D. 2019-)
  • Cameron B. Lennox (Ph.D. 2019-)
  • J. P. Dan Therien (Ph.D. 2018- , co-supervised with K. Auclair)
  • Jean-Louis Do (Ph.D. 2018- , co-supervised with L. A. Cuccia)
  • Farshid Effaty (Ph.D. 2020- , co-supervised with X. Ottenwaelder)
  • Tristan H. Borchers (Ph.D. 2017-, co-supervised with C. J. Barrett)

Other activities

Selected activities

Conference and symposium organisation

  • Co-Chair (with S. L. James), Faraday Discussion on Mechanochemistry: Fundamentals, applications and future (Cambridge, UK, September 12-14, 2022, Committee members: S. L. James, J. Mack, J. Batteas, H. Ito, L. Maini, D. Crawford)
  • Co-organizer, Mechanochemistry and Tribochemistry - New Chemistry for the Future, Symposium at the joint 51st International Union for Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC) General Assembly, 48th World Chemistry Congress and 104th Canadian Chemistry Conference & Exhibition (with J. Batteas, E. Colacino, 13-20 August 2021)
  • Co-organizer, Implementing Mechanochemistry Processes in Chemical Manufacturing & Research Symposium at the 23rd Annual Green Chemistry & Engineering Conference and 9th International Conference on Green and Sustainable Chemistry (with A. H. Moores, J. Mack, Reston, VA, USA, 9-11 June 2019)
  • Lecturer, “Train the Facilitators Workshop”, 5-day intense Green Chemistry course organized by Yale University and UNIDO (Belgrade, Serbia, 26-30 November 2018)
  • Discussion Leader, Gordon Conference on Preclinical Form & Formulation for Drug Discovery (Stoweflake, VT, 5-9 June 2017)
  • Co-organizer, Mechanochemistry and solvent-free chemistry, Pacifichem 2015 (with E. Juaristi, C. L. Raston (Honolulu, Dec 15-20, 2015) (Symposium #322)
  • Organizer, The First Crystal Engineering and Emerging Materials Workshop of Ontario and Quebec, CEMWOQ-1 (Montreal, 20 May 2014)
  • Co-Chair, 170th Faraday Discussion (Mechanochemistry), McGill University, Montreal, Canada (May 21-23, 2014, Committee members: S. L. James, J. W. Steed, E. Boldyreva, C. Bolm, J. Mack)

Committee membership

  • Chair of the Canadian National Committee for Crystallography (CNCC, 2020-current)
  • Lead Investigator, NSF Center for the Mechanical Control of Chemistry (CMCC, 2020-current, along with Batteas, Martini, Braunschweig, Carpick, Felts, Freedman, Rappe - https://www.chem.tamu.edu/cmcc/people_page.php)
  • International Advisory Board of the International Mechanochemical Association (IMA, 2011-current)
  • Canadian Representative in the American Crystallographic Association (ACA, 2017-2020)


Editorial roles

  • Editorial Board member, RSC journal CrystEngComm (2013-2019)
  • Guest Editor (with A. J. Cruz-Cabeza, A. Lemmerer, M. D. Ward), Special Issue of ACS journal Cryst. Growth Des. in memory of Prof. J. Bernstein (2019/2020)
  • Guest Editor (with D.-K. Bučar), Special Issue of ACS journal Cryst. Growth Des. honoring Prof. W. Jones and his contributions to organic solid-state chemistry (2018/2019)
  • Guest Editor (with R. Banerjee, G. M. Day and H. Zhang) for the 2016 New Talent Special Issue of the RSC journal CrystEngComm (2016)
  • Associate Editor, Molecular Crystals & Liquid Crystals (Taylor & Francis journal) (2015-2017)
  • Guest Editor (with C. B. Aakeröy) for the North America 2014 IYCr Celebration-themed issue of the RSC journal CrystEngComm (2014)
  • Guest Editor (with S. L. James), Special Issue of Chemical Communications on "Mechanochemistry: fundamentals and applications in synthesis" (2013)
  • Guest Editor (with S. L. James), Special Issue of Chemical Society Reviews on "Mechanochemistry" (2013)
  • Guest Editor (with G. M. Day) for the Special Issue of the RSC journal CrystEngComm on "Dynamic behaviour in the solid state" (2011)

Publications

Recent publications

Article

Li, Y, Bezzu, CG, Zupanc, A, Simbari, L, Banerjee, S, Kubicki, DJ, Friščić, T, Jereb, M, Jansen-van Vuuren, RD, Carta, M & Bräse, S 2026, '[2.2]Paracyclophane-Based Polyimides of Intrinsic Microporosity for Gas Separation', ACS Applied Polymer Materials, vol. 8, no. 7, pp. 5248-5257. https://doi.org/10.1021/acsapm.6c00411

Simbari, L, Wasim, M, Zupanc, A, Banerjee, S, Gallant, BM, Deakin, J, Alvarado Cesar, F, Armstrong, RJ, Friščić, T, Lu, E & Kubicki, DJ 2026, 'Calcium Metal Mechanochemically Defluorinates PFAS to Environmentally Benign CaF2', Journal of the American Chemical Society. https://doi.org/10.1021/jacs.6c11635

Vainauskas, J & Friščić, T 2026, 'Cocrystallisation with carbon', Chemical Communications. https://doi.org/10.1039/d5cc06433c

Grogan, JR, Friščić, T, Bazin, N, Bolton, P & Windows-Yule, CRK 2026, 'Discrete element method study of the impact of vessel wall friction on the mixing dynamics of a resonant acoustic mixer', Powder Technology, vol. 479, 122499. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.powtec.2026.122499

Gonnet, L, Lennox, CB, Borchers, TH, Askari, MS, Wahrhaftig-Lewis, A, Koenig, SG, Nagapudi, K & Friščić, T 2026, 'Establishing parameters for resonant acoustic mixing (RAM) chemistry using Buchwald–Hartwig amination as a model', Green Chemistry. https://doi.org/10.1039/d6gc00784h

Suh, I, Ferguson, M, Topić, F, Gong, F-Q, Arhangelskis, M, Titi, HM, Bohle, DS, Nemec, V, Kiss, L, Morris, AJ, Silvestru, C, Cinčić, D & Friščić, T 2026, 'Short Sb···Sb Contacts in Polymorphic Tris(p-Tolyl)Antimony: A Hallmark of Organoantimony(III) Solid-State Chemistry?', Angewandte Chemie - International Edition, vol. 65, no. 41, e5894899. https://doi.org/10.1002/anie.5894899

Lennox, CB, Vainauskas, J, Marrett, JM, Do, JL, Arhangelskis, M, Topić, F, Ferguson, M, Wahrhaftig-Lewis, A, Etter, M, Morris, AJ, Friščić, T & Borchers, TH 2026, 'Synchrotron X-ray powder diffraction validation of real-time in situ terahertz-Raman monitoring of resonant acoustic mixing cocrystallization', Communications Chemistry, vol. 9, no. 1, 308. https://doi.org/10.1038/s42004-026-02072-w

Lennox, CB, Taylor, CR, Huskić, I, Vainauskas, J, Nickels, CW, Stein, RS, Borchers, TH, Lutton Gething, ARBJ, Marrett, JM, Day, GM & Friščić, T 2026, 'The elusive endo-product of the archetypal Diels–Alder reaction of furan and maleic anhydride – observed in the solid state at last', Chemical Science, vol. 17, no. 32, pp. 15432-15442. https://doi.org/10.1039/d5sc06724c

Rabani, A, Khaleel, FA, Al-Gburi, FS, Ramirez, I, Friščić, T & Stafford, J 2026, 'Vibrational Exfoliation of 2D Materials', Small. https://doi.org/10.1002/smll.202511652

Floyd, KR, Mella, LS, Kwok, RW, Gray, M, Broker, Jr., EJ, Marianski, M, Friščić, T, Batteas, JD & Batteas, JD 2025, 'Harnessing the copper surface for direct mechanocatalysis: a case study on mechanochemical sulfonylurea synthesis', Chemical Science, vol. 16, no. 42, pp. 19830-19842. https://doi.org/10.1039/d5sc04099j

Lisac, K, Germann, LS, Arhangelskis, M, Etter, M, Dinnebier, RE, Friščić, T & Cinčić, D 2025, 'Mechanochemical Cis/Trans Isomerization of a Metal Centre Involving a Metal-Organic Halogen-Bonded (MOXB) Cocrystal', Angewandte Chemie, vol. 137, no. 47, e202517004. https://doi.org/10.1002/ange.202517004

Brekalo, I, Lisac, K, Ramirez, JR, Pongrac, P, Puškarić, A, Valić, S, Xu, Y, Ferguson, M, Marrett, JM, Arhangelskis, M, Friščić, T & Holman, KT 2025, 'Mechanochemical Solid Form Screening of Zeolitic Imidazolate Frameworks Using Structure-Directing Liquid Additives', Journal of the American Chemical Society, vol. 147, no. 31, pp. 27413-27430. https://doi.org/10.1021/jacs.5c04043

Editorial

Emmerling, F, Bantreil, X & Friščić, T 2026, 'Celebrating the 60th birthday of Frédéric Lamaty: a pioneer of green mechanochemistry', RSC Mechanochemistry, vol. 3, no. 5, pp. 634-636. https://doi.org/10.1039/d6mr90020h

Letter

Grogan, JR, Claydon, AJ, Williamson, DM, Friščić, T, Bazin, N, Bolton, P & Windows-Yule, CRK 2026, 'The influence of unexpected off-axis motion on the mixing performance of a resonant acoustic mixer', Chemical Engineering Science, vol. 336, 124576. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ces.2026.124576

Lisac, K, Germann, LS, Arhangelskis, M, Etter, M, Dinnebier, RE, Friščić, T & Cinčić, D 2025, 'Mechanochemical Cis/Trans Isomerization of a Metal Centre Involving a Metal-Organic Halogen-Bonded (MOXB) Cocrystal', Angewandte Chemie - International Edition, vol. 64, no. 47, e202517004. https://doi.org/10.1002/anie.202517004

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