The Chemistry Department presents:
"Bioinspired Small Molecule Activation for Energy-Related Catalysis"
Franc Meyer
University of Göttingen
Host: Dr. Christian Brueckner
Abstract: Metalloenzyme active sites provide great inspiration for the design of new types of catalysts for the activation of small inert molecules, and for substrate transformations relevant to sustainable energy schemes. Selected aspects of our recent work in this area will be presented.
Specifically, work in our group has exploited the use of compartmental pyrazolate-based ligand scaffolds for preorganizing two metal ions at tunable distances to enable beneficial metal-metal cooperativity, and to emulate bioinorganic reactivity and isolate key intermediates [1]. The focus of this lecture will be on systems that use H2 release from dinuclear metal hydride complexes to provide the required reducing equivalents for the binding and subsequent transformation of ubiquitous molecules such as O2, NO, or N2 [2]. Spectroscopic and kinetic investigations as well as DFT calculations for these systems are revealing electronic structure contributions to reactivity, and are providing important mechanistic insight.
Wednesday, March 2nd at 2:30pm
Join In-Person in CHEM A-203
Join via Webex: https://uconn-cmr.webex.com/join/aaa21018
This seminar is free and open to all
For more information, contact: Chemistry Department at 860-486-2012