The Daily Bulletin

Please join the Chemistry and Physics departments for the seminar "Synthetic, Spectroscopic, Electrochemical, and Catalytic Implications of Fe/Co/Ni-Based Complexes towards Small Molecule Activation," presented by Debashis Basu, postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Chemistry at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, on Thursday, March 5, from 12:15 to 1:30 p.m. in Science and Mathematics Complex 176.

The lecture will survey recent applications of Fe/Co/Ni complexes toward a range of topical themes including water splitting, homogeneous catalysis, and biomimetic chemistry. Cobalt complexes of redox-active ligands are active electrocatalysts for proton reduction to generate dihydrogen. Ligands were optimized to confer water solubility and to stabilize lower oxidation states of the metal center. Both tetra- and pentadentate ligand architectures were investigated, especially those with pyridine-based ligands at one of the axial positions. In another project aimed at water oxidation, very different ligands were investigated. Specifically, the tetradentate pyridine-rich 2-(2-(pyridin-2-yl)quinolin-8-yl)-1,10-phenanthroline) (PPQ) afforded iron complexes that were effective under oxidizing conditions. Yet a third class of metal complexes were developed as catalysts for hydrosilylation catalysts. Thus Fe(II)/Co(II) complexes of the pincer-type phosphine-quinoline-pyridine [RPQPy] ligands were effective for alkene hydro/dehydrogenative silylation reaction. Time permitting, tripodal trithiolate ligands will be described as structural models for the active sites of the [NiFe] hydrogenase.