PhD Studentship: Biomimetic Foldamers as a New Class of Sustainable Catalysts

Foldamers are synthetic oligomers that adopt stable conformations bio-inspired (e.g., helices) but their solid forms have recently been shown to have functional applications in materials science, supramolecular chemistry and biological chemistry. Foldamers possess excellent bio- and environmental-compatibility and, due to their modular system design, have highly tuneable molecular properties. Importantly, we have shown that the compressibility and molecular dipole of foldamers can be readily and widely tuned. Hence, given their bio- and environmental-compatibility and highly tuneable nature, this makes biomimetic foldamers ideal candidates in the search for new sustainable catalysts.

Objective: This project will establish foldamers as a new class of bio- and environmentally-compatible sustainable catalysts, which are highly tuneable for use in green synthesis of functional organic molecules.

Methodology: The project requires a combination of organic chemistry synthesis and advanced analytical study including computational analysis to generate the novel foldamers and to assess their performance as sustainable catalysts. This work will be carried out under the supervision of Drs. Pike and Michalchuk in the Department of Chemistry.

The project will be supervised by Dr Sarah Pike and Dr Adam Michalchuk.

Candidates should check their eligibility on the Midlands Integrative Biosciences Training Partnership CDT website (https://warwick.ac.uk/fac/cross_fac/mibtp) before applying.

Deadline for applications: 23rd November 2026

Funding notes:
This PhD studentship is fully funded through the Midlands Integrative Biosciences Training Partnership CDT (https://warwick.ac.uk/fac/cross_fac/mibtp).

You will need a 1st class degree in chemistry

Applications should be made here: https://warwick.ac.uk/fac/cross_fac/mibtp/phd/supervisors/SPike/#Biomimetic_Foldamers

References:
I. Saraogi et al., Chem. Soc. Rev., 2009, 38, 1726.

A. D. Peters et al., Chem. Sci., 2020, 11, 7023.

K. Kubota et al., Belstein J. Org. Chem., 2022, 18, 855.

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