Research Interests

I have several years of experience as a synthetic chemist, with a breadth of skills across organic and inorganic chemistry, including different characterisation techniques such as X-ray crystallography (powder and single crystal), NMR, UV-Vis, Mass Spectrometry, Fluorescence and Electrochemistry. What fascinates me the most is the interplay between organic molecules and metal ions, what is called coordination chemistry. In particular, I am interested in chemical systems that show magnetic properties and how these properties correlate with molecular structure.

My current research focuses on building the key components of a quantum computer, namely quantum bits and quantum gates, from molecules via supramolecular coordination chemistry. The project aims to construct electron-spin based molecular qubits and quantum gates by synthesising supramolecular paramagnetic metal-organic cages and their related 2D frameworks, which possess permanent cavities capable of hosting magnetic and/or redox-active guests.

Supramolecular paramagnetic metal-organic cages have the potential to play a key role in the field of quantum computing. These structures have unique magnetic properties that can be harnessed for quantum computing applications. For example, they can be used as qubits, the basic building blocks of quantum computers. The magnetic properties of these cages can also be controlled and manipulated to perform quantum operations, making them highly attractive for developing practical quantum systems. By carefully selecting the guest molecules and controlling the interactions between the cages and guests, it is possible to design and synthesise new materials with specific magnetic properties for quantum computing applications.

Overall, the combination of magnetic properties, host-guest behaviour, and the potential for synthesizing tailored materials makes supramolecular paramagnetic metal-organic cages an exciting and promising area of research in the field of quantum computing.

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Past research

My research career started in 2012, while I was preparing my undergraduate dissertation at the Universidad de Chile. For this dissertation, I worked on the organic synthesis of bioactive molecules, employing ionic liquids as solvents. This allowed me to learn a variety of synthetic procedures and solution state characterisation techniques. This led to my first published paper (see here).

For my PhD project, I worked on the synthesis of organic molecules and their coordination compounds, their characterisation through UV-Vis, Fluorescence Spectroscopy and Electrochemistry, and their application in molecular conductance devices and optoelectronics (see here).