Ben Tickner
Postdoctoral Research Associate

Research

Overview

His research has focused on the areas of NMR, catalysis, and inorganic chemistry. In
particular, it has involved using hyperpolarisation to boost NMR signal intensity and using those enhanced signals for applications in mixture analysis, chemosensing, and reaction monitoring.

Publications

Selected publications

J. Tickner, R. Gammons, A. C. Whitwood and S. B. Duckett: Pyrazine-bridged polymetallic copper-iridium clusters. Acta Cryst. E, 2024, 80, 890-893. [DOI: 10.1107/S2056989024007151]

B. J. Tickner, K. Singh, V. V. Zhivonitko and V.-V. Telkki: Ultrafast Nuclear Magnetic Resonance as a Tool to Detect Rapid Chemical Change in Solution. ACS Phys. Chem Au, 2024, 4, 5, 453-463. [DOI: 10.1021/acsphyschemau.4c00042]

B. J. Tickner, A. C. Whitwood, C. Condon, C. Platas-Iglesias and S. B. Duckett: Trapping Highly Reactive Metal(H)2(η2-H2) species to form Trihydride Complexes and Clusters. Eur. J. Inorg. Chem., 2024, e202400397. [DOI: 10.1002/ejic.202400397]

B. J. Tickner, M. Dennington, B. G. Collins, C. A. Gater, T. F. N. Tanner, A. C. Whitwood, P. J. Rayner, D. P. Watts and S. B. Duckett: Metal-Mediated Catalytic Polarization Transfer from para Hydrogen to 3,5-Dihalogenated Pyridines. ACS Cat. 2024, 14, 994-1004. [DOI: 10.1021/acscatal.3c05378]

A. Alshehri, B. J. Tickner, W. Iali and S. B. Duckett: Enhancing the NMR signals of plant oil components using hyperpolarisation relayed via proton exchange. Chem. Sci. 2023, 14, 9843-9853. [DOI: 10.1039/D3SC03078D]

G. Angelovski, B. J. Tickner and G. Wang: Opportunities and challenges with hyperpolarized bioresponsive probes for functional imaging using magnetic resonance. Nat. Chem. 2023, 15, 755-763. [DOI: 10.1038/s41557-023-01211-3]

B. J. Tickner, K.-M. Svensson, J. Vaara and S. B. Duckett: Toward Optimizing and Understanding Reversible Hyperpolarization of Lactate Esters Relayed from para-Hydrogen. J.Phys. Chem. Lett., 2022, 13, 6859-6866 [DOI:10.1021/acs.jpclett.2c01442]

B. J. Tickner, C. Platas-Iglesias, S. B. Duckett and G. Angelovski: In Situ Ternary Adduct Formation of Yttrium Polyaminocarboxylates Leads to Small Molecule Capture and Activation. Chem. Eur. J., 2022, 28, e202201780 [DOI:10.1002/chem.202201780]

B. J. Tickner and V. V. Zhivonitko:Advancing homogeneous catalysis for parahydrogen-derived hyperpolarisation and its NMR applications. Chem.Sci., 2022, 13, 4670-4696 [DOI: 10.1039/D2SC00737A]

B. J. Tickner, S. Komulainen, S. Palosaari, J. Heikkinen, P. Lehenkari, V. V. Zhivonitko and V.-V. Telkki: Hyperpolarised NMR for molecular profiling of electronic cigarette
aerosols. RSC Adv., 2022, 12, 1479-1485. [DOI: 10.1039/D1RA07376A]

B. J. Tickner, V. V. Zhivonitko and V.-V. Telkki: Ultrafast Laplace NMR to study metal-ligand interactions in reversible polarisation transfer from parahydrogen. Phys. Chem. Chem. Phys., 2021, 23, 16542-16550. [DOI: 10.1039/D1CP02383G]

B. J. Tickner, Y. Borozdina, S. B. Duckett and G. Angelovski: Exploring the Hyperpolarisation of EGTA-based ligands using SABRE. Dalton Trans., 2021, 50, 2448-2461. [DOI:10.1039/D0DT03839C]

B. J. Tickner, F. Ahwal, A. C. Whitwood and S. B. Duckett: Reversible Hyperpolarization of Ketoisocaproate using Sulfoxide-containing Polarisation Transfer Catalysts.Chem. Phys. Chem., 2021, 22, 13-17. [DOI: 10.1002/cphc.202000825]

B. J. Tickner, G. J. Stasiuk, S. B. Duckett and G. Angelovski. The use of yttrium in medical imaging and therapy: historical background and future perspectives. Chem. Soc. Rev., 2020, 49, 6169-6185. [DOI: 10.1039/C9CS00840C]

B. J. Tickner, P. J. Rayner and S. B. Duckett. Using SABRE hyperpolarized 13C NMR to
interrogate organic transformations of pyruvate. Anal. Chem., 2020, 92, 9095-9103. [DOI: 10.1021/acs.analchem.0c01334]

B. J. Tickner, O. Semenova, W. Iali, P. J. Rayner, A. C. Whitwood and S. B. Duckett. Optimising the Hyperpolarisation of Pyruvate using SABRE by Tuning the Active Polarisation Transfer Catalyst. Cat. Sci. Technol., 2020, 10, 1343-1355.[DOI: 10.1039/C9CY02498K]

B. J. Tickner, R. R. Parker, A. C. Whitwood and S.B. Duckett. Probing the Hydrogenation of Vinyl Sulfoxide using Parahydrogen. Organomet., 2019, 38, 4377-4382. [DOI: 10.1021/acs.organomet.9b00610]

B. J. Tickner, J. S. Lewis, R. O. John, A. C. Whitwood and S. B. Duckett. Mechanistic Insight into Novel Sulfoxide Containing SABRE Polarisation Transfer Catalysts. Dalton Trans., 2019, 48, 15198-15206. [DOI: 10.1039/C9DT02951F]

P. J. Rayner, B. J. Tickner, W. Iali, M. Fekete, A. D. Robinson and S. B. Duckett. Relayed
Hyperpolarisation from Parahydrogen Improves the NMR Detectability of Alcohols.
Chem. Sci., 2019, 10, 7709-7717. [DOI:10.1039/C9SC02765C]

W. Iali, S. S. Roy, B. J. Tickner, F. Ahwal, A. J. Kennerley and S. B. Duckett. Hyperpolarising Pyruvate through Signal Amplification by Reversible Exchange (SABRE). Angew. Chem., 2019, 131, 10377-10381. [DOI: 10.1002/ange.201905483]

B. J. Tickner, R. O. John, S. S. Roy, S. J. Hart, A.C. Whitwood and S. B. Duckett. Using Coligands to gain Mechanistic Insight into Iridium Complexes Hyperpolarized with Parahydrogen. Chem. Sci., 2019, 10, 5235-5245. [DOI: 10.1039/C9SC00444K]

B. J. Tickner, W. Iali, S. S. Roy, A. C. Whitwood and S. B. Duckett. Iridium α-Carboxyimine Complexes Hyperpolarized with Parahydrogen Exist in Nuclear Singlet States before Conversion into Iridium Carbonates. ChemPhysChem, 2019,
20, 241-245. [DOI: 10.1002/cphc.201800829]

N. Cakić, B. J. Tickner, M. Zaiss, D. Esteban-Gómez, C. Platas-Iglesias and G. Angelovski. Spectrally Undiscerned Isomers Might Lead to Erroneous Determination of Water Exchange Rates of paraCEST Eu(III) Agents. Inorg. Chem., 2017, 56, 7737-7745. [DOI: 10.1021/acs.inorgchem.7b00441]