Dr Nicola Bell

EPSRC Open Fellow (Digital Inorganic Chemistry) (School of Chemistry)

telephone: 0141 330 5530
email: Nicola.Bell@glasgow.ac.uk

Biography

Nicola holds EPSRC Open Fellowship and a Lord Kelvin Adam Smith Fellowship. The Bell Group studies the application of digital tools to inert atmosphere synthesis and catalysis and in collaboration with the nuclear industry will design methods for remote investigation of actinide behaviour.

See our group website: www.BellGroupLabs.com for more info

Nicola is an expert in actinide science, having undertaken an EPSRC Doctoral Prize Fellowship in the lab of Prof. Polly Arnold at Edinburgh. Nicola has also gained expertise in catalysis, postdocing at the University of St Andrews with Prof. Allan Watson. Most recently Nicola has been a Senior Researcher in the Cronin Group investigating the use of automation in inorganic synthesis whilst also acting as Group coordinator overseeing PhD students and postdocs, managing collaborations and contributing to various outputs.

Outside of the lab Nicola has a passion for education & student developement and is a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy. Nicola is also an advocate for the use of evidence in policy making and attended Westminster as part of the Voices of the Future program. In 2016 Nicola founded the ECECR conference giving postdocs a chance to present their work and career path in a supportive environment and in 2017 Nicola joined the SciFinder Future Leaders Program.

Research interests

Nicola is an expert in organometallics and coordination chemistry and inert environment techniques particularly for the f-block metals. Nicola was the first to report the isolation of a thorium (bis)imido model compound of Thoria (ThO2) a species which is highly important in Nuclear wastes allowing important computational analysis (in collaboration w/Prof. Maron) of its behavour which confirmed theories about the structural & bonding nature of ThO2.

Nicola also has an interest in catalysis and developed the Ionising Cross Coupling methodology for copper whereby new C-N bonds can be created with neutral cross coupling partners. Nicola demonstrated how inert atmosphere techniques were key to the exploitation of this new methodology.

Nicola is now developing new automation tools to study the inorganic chemistry landscape, increasing throughput and safety.

Research groups

Functional Molecules & Assemblies

Publications

List by: Type | Date

Jump to: 2025 | 2024 | 2023 | 2022 | 2021 | 2020 | 2018 | 2017 | 2016 | 2015 | 2014 | 2013 | 2012 | 2011

Number of items: 33.

2025

Bell, Nicola L. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7497-9667, Gladkikh, Marina, Fraser, Cameron, Elsayed, Mostafa, Richards, Emma and Turnbull, Richard Drummond (2025) A cobotic, digitally-controlled Schlenk-line unlocks access to elusive Lewis-base stabilised copper bis(disilylamides). Angewandte Chemie International Edition, (doi: 10.1002/anie.202505408) (Early Online Publication)

2024

Drummond Turnbull, Richard and Bell, Nicola L. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7497-9667 (2024) f-block hydride complexes – synthesis, structure and reactivity. Dalton Transactions, (doi: 10.1039/D4DT00776J) (PMID:38953848) (Early Online Publication)

Jirasek, M. et al. (2024) Investigating and quantifying molecular complexity using assembly theory and spectroscopy. ACS Central Science, 10(5), pp. 1054-1064. (doi: 10.1021/acscentsci.4c00120) (PMID:38799656) (PMCID:PMC11117308)

Bell, Nicola L. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7497-9667, Boser, Florian, Bubliauskas, Andrius, Willcox, Dominic R., Sandoval Luna, Victor Esteban and Cronin, Leroy ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8035-5757 (2024) Autonomous execution of highly reactive chemical transformations in the Schlenkputer. Nature Chemical Engineering, 1, pp. 180-189. (doi: 10.1038/s44286-023-00024-y)

2023

Zhao, Tingting, Bell, Nicola L. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7497-9667, Chisholm, Greig ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4003-346X, Kandasamy, Balamurugan, Long, De-Liang ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3241-2379 and Cronin, Leroy ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8035-5757 (2023) Aqueous solutions of super reduced polyoxotungstates as electron storage systems. Energy and Environmental Science, 16(6), pp. 2603-2610. (doi: 10.1039/D3EE00569K) (PMID:37323468) (PMCID:PMC10265398)

Kowalski, Daniel J., MacGregor, Catriona M., Long, De-Liang ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3241-2379, Bell, Nicola L. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7497-9667 and Cronin, Leroy ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8035-5757 (2023) Automated library generation and serendipity quantification enables diverse discovery in coordination chemistry. Journal of the American Chemical Society, 145(4), pp. 2332-2341. (doi: 10.1021/jacs.2c11066) (PMID:36649125)

Sinclair, Zoë L., Bell, Nicola L. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7497-9667, Bame, Jessica R., Long, De-Liang ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3241-2379 and Cronin, Lee ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8035-5757 (2023) A water-soluble self-assembled {Pd84}ᴬᶜ polyoxopalladate nano-wheel as a supramolecular host. Angewandte Chemie (International Edition), 62(1), e202214203. (doi: 10.1002/anie.202214203) (PMID:36336660)

2022

She, Shan, Bell, Nicola L. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7497-9667, Zheng, Dazhong, Mathieson, Jennifer S., Castro, Maria D., Long, De-Liang ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3241-2379, Koehnke, Jesko ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7153-1365 and Cronin, Leroy ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8035-5757 (2022) Robotic synthesis of peptides containing metal-oxide-based amino acids. Chem, 8(10), pp. 2734-2748. (doi: 10.1016/j.chempr.2022.07.007)

Ribó, Eduard Garrido, Bell, Nicola L. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7497-9667, Long, De-liang ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3241-2379 and Cronin, Leroy ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8035-5757 (2022) Engineering highly reduced molybdenum polyoxometalates via the incorporation of d and f block metal ions. Angewandte Chemie (International Edition), 61(21), e202201672. (doi: 10.1002/anie.202201672) (PMID:35257462)

2021

Tze-Kiat Ng, Marcus, Bell, Nicola L. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7497-9667, Long, De-Liang ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3241-2379 and Cronin, Leroy ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8035-5757 (2021) Facile and reproducible electrochemical synthesis of the giant polyoxomolybdates. Journal of the American Chemical Society, 143(48), pp. 20059-20063. (doi: 10.1021/jacs.1c10198) (PMID:34812622)

Hammer, Alexander J.S., Leonov, Artem I., Bell, Nicola L. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7497-9667 and Cronin, Leroy ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8035-5757 (2021) Chemputation and the standardization of chemical informatics. JACS Au, 1(10), pp. 1572-1587. (doi: 10.1021/jacsau.1c00303) (PMCID:PMC8549037)

Kandasamy, Balamurugan, Lee, Edward ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5752-2323, Long, De-Liang ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3241-2379, Bell, Nicola ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7497-9667 and Cronin, Leroy ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8035-5757 (2021) Exploring the geometric space of metal-organic polyhedrons (MOPs) of metal-oxo clusters. Inorganic Chemistry, 60(19), pp. 14772-14778. (doi: 10.1021/acs.inorgchem.1c01987) (PMID:34549944) (PMCID:PMC8493551)

Bell, Nicola L. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7497-9667, Kupper, Manuel and Cronin, Lee ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8035-5757 (2021) Design of experiments for optimization of polyoxometalate syntheses. Chemistry of Materials, 33(18), pp. 7263-7271. (doi: 10.1021/acs.chemmater.1c01401)

Pow, Robert W., Sinclair, Zoё L., Bell, Nicola L. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7497-9667, Watfa, Nancy, Abul-Haija, Yousef M. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0357-0653, Long, De-Liang ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3241-2379 and Cronin, Leroy ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8035-5757 (2021) Enantioselective recognition of racemic amino alcohols in aqueous solution by chiral metal-oxide keplerate {Mo132} cluster capsules. Chemistry: A European Journal, 27(48), pp. 12327-12334. (doi: 10.1002/chem.202100899) (PMID:34196438)

Bell, N. L. et al. (2021) Cu(OTf)2‐mediated cross‐coupling of nitriles and N‐heterocycles with arylboronic acids to generate nitrilium and pyridinium products. Angewandte Chemie (International Edition), 60(14), pp. 7935-7940. (doi: 10.1002/anie.202016811) (PMID:33449408) (PMCID:PMC8048606)

Lin, Chang-Gen, Hutin, Marie, Busche, Christoph ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3493-2020, Bell, Nicola L. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7497-9667, Long, De-Liang ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3241-2379 and Cronin, Leroy ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8035-5757 (2021) Elucidating the paramagnetic interactions of an inorganic–organic hybrid radical-functionalized Mn-Anderson cluster. Dalton Transactions, 50(7), pp. 2350-2353. (doi: 10.1039/D0DT04149A) (PMID:33564815)

She, Shan, Xuan, Weimin, Bell, Nicola L. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7497-9667, Pow, Robert ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9886-463X, Ribo, Eduard Garrido, Sinclair, Zoe, Long, De-Liang ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3241-2379 and Cronin, Leroy ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8035-5757 (2021) Peptide sequence mediated self-assembly of molybdenum blue nanowheel superstructures. Chemical Science, 12(7), pp. 2427-2432. (doi: 10.1039/D0SC06098D)

2020

Traustason, Hrafn, Bell, Nicola L. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7497-9667, Caranto, Kiana, Auld, David C., Lockey, David T., Kokot, Alex, Szymanowski, Jennifer E.S., Cronin, Leroy ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8035-5757 and Burns, Peter C. (2020) Reactivity, formation, and solubility of polyoxometalates pprobed by calorimetry. Journal of the American Chemical Society, 142(48), pp. 20463-20469. (doi: 10.1021/jacs.0c10133) (PMID:33203207)

Garrido Ribó, Eduard, Bell, Nicola L. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7497-9667, Xuan, Weimin, Luo, Jiancheng, Long, De-Liang ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3241-2379, Liu, Tianbo and Cronin, Leroy ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8035-5757 (2020) Synthesis, assembly, and sizing of neutral, lanthanide substituted molybdenum blue wheels {Mo90Ln10}. Journal of the American Chemical Society, 142(41), pp. 17508-17514. (doi: 10.1021/jacs.0c07146) (PMID:32965108)

Salley, Daniel S., Keenan, Graham A., Long, De-Liang ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3241-2379, Bell, Nicola L. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7497-9667 and Cronin, Leroy ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8035-5757 (2020) A modular programmable inorganic cluster discovery robot for the discovery and synthesis of polyoxometalates. ACS Central Science, 6(9), pp. 1587-1593. (doi: 10.1021/acscentsci.0c00415) (PMID:32999934) (PMCID:32999934)

Porwol, Luzian, Kowalski, Daniel J., Henson, Alon ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6028-439X, Long, De-Liang ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3241-2379, Bell, Nicola L. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7497-9667 and Cronin, Leroy ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8035-5757 (2020) An autonomous chemical robot discovers the rules of supramolecular chemistry without prior knowledge. Angewandte Chemie (International Edition), 59(28), pp. 11256-11261. (doi: 10.1002/anie.202000329) (PMID:32419277) (PMCID:PMC7384156)

Pow, Robert W., Xuan, Weimin, Long, De-Liang ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3241-2379, Bell, Nicola L. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7497-9667 and Cronin, Leroy ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8035-5757 (2020) Embedding alkenes within an icosahedral inorganic fullerene {(NH4)42[Mo132O372(L)30(H2O)72]} for trapping volatile organics. Chemical Science, 11(9), pp. 2388-2393. (doi: 10.1039/C9SC06217C)

2018

Bell, Nicola L. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7497-9667, Shaw, Brian, Arnold, Polly L. and Love, Jason B. (2018) Uranyl to uranium(IV) conversion through manipulation of axial and equatorial ligands. Journal of the American Chemical Society, 140(9), pp. 3378-3384. (doi: 10.1021/jacs.7b13474)

2017

Arnold, Polly L., Stevens, Charlotte J., Bell, Nicola L. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7497-9667, Lord, Rianne M., Goldberg, Jonathan M., Nichol, Gary S. and Love, Jason B. (2017) Multi-electron reduction of sulfur and carbon disulfide using binuclear uranium(iii) borohydride complexes. Chemical Science, 8(5), pp. 3609-3617. (doi: 10.1039/C7SC00382J) (PMID:30155206) (PMCID:PMC6094157)

Pankhurst, James R., Bell, Nicola L. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7497-9667, Zegke, Markus, Platts, Lucy N., Lamfsus, Carlos Alvarez, Maron, Laurent, Natrajan, Louise S., Sproules, Stephen ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3587-0375, Arnold, Polly L. and Love, Jason B. (2017) Inner-sphere vs. outer-sphere reduction of uranyl supported by a redox-active, donor-expanded dipyrrin. Chemical Science, 8(1), pp. 108-116. (doi: 10.1039/C6SC02912D) (PMID:28451154) (PMCID:PMC5304617)

2016

Bell, Nicola L. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7497-9667, Arnold, Polly L. and Love, Jason B. (2016) Controlling uranyl oxo group interactions to group 14 elements using polypyrrolic Schiff-base macrocyclic ligands. Dalton Transactions, 45(40), pp. 15902-15909. (doi: 10.1039/C6DT01948J) (PMID:27356021)

Zheng, Xiu-Jun, Bell, Nicola L. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7497-9667, Stevens, Charlotte J., Zhong, Yu-Xi, Schreckenbach, Georg, Arnold, Polly L., Love, Jason B. and Pan, Qing-Jiang (2016) Relativistic DFT and experimental studies of mono- and bis-actinyl complexes of an expanded Schiff-base polypyrrole macrocycle. Dalton Transactions, 45(40), pp. 15910-15921. (doi: 10.1039/C6DT01625A) (PMID:27373562)

2015

Bell, Nicola L. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7497-9667, Maron, Laurent and Arnold, Polly L. (2015) Thorium mono- and bis(imido) complexes made by reprotonation of cyclo-metalated amides. Journal of the American Chemical Society, 137(33), pp. 10492-10495. (doi: 10.1021/jacs.5b06630) (PMID:26244991)

2014

Arnold, Polly L., Bell, Nicola L. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7497-9667, Marr, Isobel H., She, Siyi, Hamilton, Jonathan, Fraser, Craig and Wang, Kai (2014) Protonolysis and thermolysis reactions of functionalised NHC-carbene boranes and borates. Dalton Transactions, 43(41), pp. 15419-15428. (doi: 10.1039/C4DT01464B) (PMID:25188908)

Arnold, Polly L., Cadenbach, Thomas, Marr, Isobel H., Fyfe, Andrew A., Bell, Nicola L. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7497-9667, Bellabarba, Ronan, Tooze, Robert P. and Love, Jason B. (2014) Homo- and heteroleptic alkoxycarbene f-element complexes and their reactivity towards acidic N-H and C-H bonds. Dalton Transactions, 43(38), pp. 13436-14358. (doi: 10.1039/C4DT01442A) (PMID:24920060)

2013

Bailey, Philip J., Bell, Nicola L. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7497-9667 and Nichol, Gary S. (2013) Homoleptic 'sandwich' complexes of substituted tris(methimazolyl)borate ligands with ruthenium, rhodium and palladium. Dalton Transactions, 42(31), pp. 11281-11294. (doi: 10.1039/C3DT51150B) (PMID:23811763)

2012

Bailey, Philip J., Bell, Nicola L. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7497-9667, Nichol, Gary S., Parsons, Simon and White, Fraser (2012) Insertion and substitution chemistry at the boron fourth position in charge-neutral zwitterionic tripodal tris(methimazolyl)borate ligands. Inorganic Chemistry, 51(6), pp. 3677-3689. (doi: 10.1021/ic202618p) (PMID:22376269)

2011

Bailey, Philip J., Bell, Nicola L. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7497-9667, Gim, Lim Li, Yucheng, Tai, Funnell, Nicholas, White, Fraser and Parsons, Simon (2011) “Twisted” scorpionates: synthesis of a tris(2-pyridonyl)borate (Thp) ligand; lessons in the requirements for successful B(L2D)3 type ligands. Chemical Communications, 47(42), pp. 11659-11661. (doi: 10.1039/C1CC14473A) (PMID:21959268)

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Articles

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Grants

EPSRC Open Fellowship

Inert Atmosphere Automated Synthesis for the Investigation of Nuclear Waste relevant species (DIGINERT)

2023-

Reinvigorating Research Fund

Co-I

Spectroscopic monitoring of Sodium in Urine of Heart Failure patients

2021-2022

EPSRC Doctoral Prize Fellowship

Fellow

Ligand design for f-block stabilisation

2012-2014

EPSRC Standard Grant (EP/M010554/1)

Co-I Researcher

Actinide Polyoxo Complexes

2014-2018

Supervision

BSc Project - Chloe Dunsire

Teaching

Quant 1 labs - Academic Lab Supervisor
Frontiers of Inorganic Chemistry Module

Previous Insitutions

Lecturing & Assessment (UoE)

Syllabus development including selecting teaching strategy and identification of KLOs.
Delivering lectures for the 2^nd Year Environmental Chemistry course at Edinburgh.
Writing and marking summative exams including sitting on exam panel. Tutorials
Small group tutoring 2010-2017:
Chemistry 1a, 1b & 2b (Physical and Inorganic sections)
Chemistry for Biologists & Engineers
Writing formative tutorial question sets and answer guides and using Blackboard LMS. Lab Supervision
Developing teaching lab manual & demonstrator guidance (2^nd year teaching labs).
Laboratory demonstrating 2009-2012 (2^nd Year Chemists).
Developing & supervising MChem & BSc research projects.

Development and Recognition

Fellow of Higher Education Academy.
CPD to develop skills further includes:
- Mentoring by senior chemistry teaching fellow and pedagogy academic.
- Pedagogical courses on topics including ‘Designing courses’, ‘Delivering effective tutorials’ and ‘Marking and providing feedback’.

Dr Bell in the Advanced Research Centre ARC

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