CAREER: Control of Electron Transfer Reactions Through Electrostatic Potentials in Organized Media

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This award in the Inorganic, Bioinorganic, and Organometallic Chemistry Program supports a Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) grant to Dr. Claudia Turro of the Chemistry Department, Ohio State University. The goal of the research is to determine the role of electrostatic effects on electron-transfer reactions. The surface potentials of micelles (macromolecules) will be tuned by varying the composition of the micelles using cationic, neutral, or anionic detergents. The rate of electron transfer will then be measured as a function of micellar potential. Attempts will also be made to use electrostatic fields to control directionality of electron transfer. The excited-state electron donors will be well-known neutral ruthenium(II) compounds so that the decrease of the steady-state luminescence and emission lifetime of their metal-ligand charge transfer states can be used to obtain electron-transfer rates. The acceptors will be viologen and pyridine-based species that have been incorporated into the micelle surface synthetically. In addition to teaching undergraduate chemistry courses, Dr. Turro is actively involved with mentoring women and minority students in science. Electron transfer is an important process in biological systems and in materials, and it is possible that charged groups within the large molecular structure could have an impact on the path and on the time required for electron movement. In this research, the influence of external electric field effects on the rate and direction of electron transfer will be studied. Dr. Turro will serve as a mentor to women and minority students at Ohio State University.