CAREER: Allosteric Tuning of Transition Metal Photophysics

点击翻译按钮获取中文摘要

This CAREER award in the Inorganic, Bioinorganic, and Organometallic Chemistry Program supports research and education on allosterism in transition metal complexes by Dr. Marc W. Perkovic of the Chemistry Department, Western Michigan University. Allosterism is a phenomenon in which structural change in one molecule is induced by introduction of another molecule, ion, or molecular fragment. Novel ligands that simultaneously induce a structural change in the primary coordination site and coordinate a photophysically active transition metal and a photophysically benign metal ion will be synthesized. The effect of the allosteric interaction on the d-orbital energies of the photophysically active transition metal will be determined using luminescence and transient absorbance methods. The project will determine if metal complexes can function as luminescent indicators for other photophysically quiet ions. Systems using these allosteric interactions will be useful as molecular-level chemical sensors to detect environmentally-unfriendly traces of toxic and heavy metal ions or otherwise unfriendly molecules. The method involves changes in the luminescence of the sensor as these metal ions interact with the sensor. The educational component of this CAREER Award presents innovative ideas on how to bring laser-based experiments into several existing laboratory courses in order to introduce undergraduate students to laser technology. Of particular interest, undergraduates will build parts of the laser equipment in one laboratory course to be subsequently used in another course. In so doing, students will have a better comprehension of lasers.