Citation | Distinguished for his synthetic, structural, and spectoscopic [n.m.r. and He(I) p.e.] studies on novel phosphorus compounds, and their ligating behavious rowards transition metals. Early work showed fluorophosphines to have wide applicability as ligands. The first comprehensive analysis and review of phosphorus 31 chemical shifts and coupling constants in transition metal-phosphine complexes (with A. Pidcock) has been very influential. Professor Nixon (with H W Kroto) has pioneered novel syntheses and structural characteristics of many transient phophorus compounds containing PC multiple bonds. He was the first to exploit the potential as ligands of phospha-alkenes, -alkynes, and -allenes, and of diphophacyclobutadiene, culminating in the remarkable penta- and hexa-phosphorus analogues of ferrocene. He is the author of over 170 papers, and has been the recipient of the RSC Corday Morgan Medal and the Main Group Element Award. |