Synthetic, Mechanistic, and Catalytic Studies of Electrophilic d- and f-Element Complexes

This project joins two closely integrated scientific themes linking research and education, focusing on the fundamental and technological aspects of the unusual stoichiometric and catalytic reactions of earth-abundant lanthanide (4f), actinide (5f), and d0 early transition metals. Bond energy and quantum chemical analysis is employed to understand bonding modes and known stoichiometric and catalytic transformations, and equally important, to invent new chemical transformations. We seek to understand and optimize the principals of new, atom-efficient/sustainable, and environmentally benign, non-toxic “green” catalytic processes. Students engage in catalyst synthesis and purification, molecular structure and dynamics characterization in solution and in the solid state, use these catalysts in variety of exploratory catalytic studies, learn electronic structure computation and molecular modeling, and tackle rigorous reaction mechanism elucidation. Students also learn to carry out polymerization reactions and to conduct in-depth characterization of the polymeric materials they synthesize.