Chemistry Seminar

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Friday, December 1, 2017, 3 pm– 4 pm

This is a past event.

On the Syntheses and Applications of Light Gathering Ligands

Dr. Rudy L. Luck

 

One of the goals of our research is to synthesize light harvesting ligands. These ligands will be capable of absorbing light energy from the sun (or a suitable artificial source) and transfer this to a catalytic center to accomplish green epoxidations at room temperature. These reactions can usually be accomplished at high temperatures but this often leads to isomers or undesired products. In order to utilize light, metal complexes containing ligands that can absorb photons and transmit this to a metal atom (i.e., the catalytic center) will have to be synthesized and characterized. Some of the proposed molecules will be constructed featuring light harvesting sections and high oxidation state metal clusters. Other complexes will consist of these ligands binding to lanthanide elements where the ability of the ligand to transmit light can be easily ascertained due to the known emission spectra of the lanthanide elements. In this seminar, the synthesis and properties of a new sensitizing bidentate ligand, diphenyl((5-phenyl-4H-1A4-pyrazol-3-yl)methyl)phosphine oxide, 2, capable of demonstrating the emissive properties of lanthanide elements, is described. Two ligands are attached to LnCl3 moieties, Ln = Sm, Eu and Tb, resulting in complexes of formulae LnCl3(2)2. These complexes were structurally characterized by single-crystal X-ray crystallography and have geometries that are pentagonal bipyramidal with the two bidentate ligands in a cisoid conformation on the equatorial plane and the three chloride ligands in a mer-configuration. The coordination bond distances decrease from Sm to Tb paralleling the decrease in lanthanide ionic radii. The photoluminescent properties of these complexes were examined and, one of them, TbCl3(2)2, was assessed a 2 for a hydrogen atom hopping between nitrogen atoms on the pyrazolyl moiety and, to assess aspects of the coordination sphere of the lanthanide complexes. A projection of future work based on other reactive chemistry of this ligand 2 is also detailed.

 

 

Biography:

Rudy Luck obtained all of his degrees from the University of Toronto and engaged in postdoctoral research at Texas A&M University. As of 1997, he was employed at Michigan Technological University where he now serves in the capacity of an Associate Professor of Chemistry. His research interests include inorganic syntheses, catalysis and characterization of single crystals by X-ray diffractometry. More recently, he has also conducted calculations on the HPC known as Superior and on Hydrogen a computer in his office. This fall semester he is enjoying teaching Inorganic Chemistry I (3 cr h), Inorganic Chemistry Laboratory (2 cr h) and a course on Chemical Safety (1 cr h). He will be teaching courses in single crystal crystallography (CH5800, 3 cr h) and on group theory (in Inorganic Chemistry II, CH 4320, 3 cr h) during the Spring 2018 semester.

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