Leslie J. Murray

Date: 

Wednesday, April 14, 2021, 4:15pm to 5:15pm

Location: 

Zoom

Professor Leslie J. Murray, University of Florida. "Weak-field Ligated Polynuclear Homometallic Complexes + Electrons + Small Molecules =..." Harvard/MIT Inorganic Chemistry Seminar.

 

“Weak-field Ligated Polynuclear Homometallic Complexes + Electrons + Small Molecules = …”

Polynuclear metal assemblies in synthetic, materials, and biological systems effect multi-electron redox transformations under mild conditions in many cases. The design details, such as metal-metal distance, that allow access to that reactivity, however, remain poorly understood. For example, are rare or novel coordination modes for substrates to discrete monometallic aggregates critical for reactivity? Are substrate interactions localized only to one metal center with redox participation from other metal ions within the assembly? We interrogate the nature of cooperative substrate activation by using macrocyclic ligands to controlling steric and electronic effects local to each metal center as well as the separation of and interactions between metal centers (or so we hoped!) in polynuclear metal complexes. Our recent work in the reductive activation of carbon oxygenates and dinitrogen by polynuclear metal compounds will be discussed here.