The Macdonald Group, Carleton University
Our research is interested in studying unusual bonding environments and oxidation states of compounds containing main group elements, primarily in the p-block. Density functional theory analysis and synthetic ‘wet chemistry’ approaches are used to tackle our projects, which extend from materials applications to Lewis acid design.
 | August 2020 Nick Roberts of Dalhousie University joined our group this summer for the inorganic chemistry exchange. His impressive project was titled ‘Science: 1, Pandemic: 0; A Mostly Computational Study of Group 14/15 NHC Scorpionate Complexes‘. Awesome work Nick! |
 | April 2020 Ksenia successfully defended her 4908 honours project titled ‘Synthetic and Computational Investigation of Phosphorus containing Lewis acids bound by NH-BZIMPY’. She has decided to stay with the Macdonald lab in pursuit of her MSc. degree in main group Lewis acid research. |
 | April 2020 Dr. James LaFortune has been awarded a coveted post-doctoral NSERC scholarship of his proposal titled ‘Investigation into the Fundamental Structure, Bonding, and Reactivity of Compounds Featuring Terminal Pnictogen-Pnictogen Multiple Bonds.’ Congrats! |
 | September 2019 Dr. LaFortune successfully defended his doctoral thesis titled ‘Exploring the Synthesis and Reactivity of Phosphinoboranes and Organophosphorus-based Lewis Acids’ from the Stephan group at the University of Toronto. He joins Erica in the Macdonald lab as a post-doctoral fellow. Welcome James! |
 | June 2019 After hours of packing glassware and equipment, the Macdonald lab in Windsor Ontario is officially packed up for its new destination: Carleton University in Canada’s Capital. Erica and Chuck will make the ten-hour trip north. A big thanks to Justin, Ala, Lara and Brad for all the help. |