Academic Staff

Research Expertise

My research interests are in the areas of mechanistic organic chemistry and in the forensic chemistry of amphetamines.

Amphetamine Chemistry

Illicit methamphetamine is prepared from either phenyl-2-propanone or from ephedrine, while amphetamine is made from the propanone.


Previous work has investigated the nature of the impurities generated along with the methamphetamines by both these routes.

Current work involves the separation of the enantiomers of amphetamine and methamphetamine by hplc. The route from the propanone gives a racemic product while that from ephedrine should in principle give a single enantiomer. Thus a knowledge of the enantiomeric composition gives information on the method of synthesis of the drug sample. Currently in Victoria the most popular route is from ephedrine by reduction with HI and red phosphorus. Does this reaction lead to any racemisation in the methamphetamine produced? If it does then the optical purity of the drug may be a way of matching street drugs with the illicit laboratory of manufacture.

Nucleophilic Substitution at the C=N Bond

In this project the mechanism of nucleophilic substitution at configurationally stable C=N bonded systems has been studied.


The conditions of the reactions can be varied so that the compounds react by either an SN1 pathway (i) or by an addition-elimination mechanism (ii). Both routes have been studied but the main interest has been in investigating the stereoelectronic effects controlling pathway (ii).