CAREER: Environmental Dechlorination Catalysis

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This award from the Inorganic, Bioinorganic and Organometallic Chemistry Program supports work by Kristopher McNeill in the Department of Chemistry at the University of Minnesota to implement a research and teaching plan centered on environmental chemistry. Motivated by the widespread contamination of US drinking water supplies with chlorinated solvents, the research component of this plan has as its two goals the development of new, highly active dechlorination catalysts and the elucidation of mechanisms of metal-promoted dechlorination reactions. A variety of cobalt, nickel, and iron complexes will be examined, and the mechanistic principles that are uncovered will be used to rationally design synthetic dechlorination catalysts that have superior properties to naturally occurring catalysts such as vitamin B12 and F430. The proposed experiments will lead to an improved fundamental understanding of dechlorination reactions and will bring about the discovery of synthetic catalysts that will be useful for remediation. The educational activities in this plan include development of environmentally themed general chemistry and freshman seminar courses. A distinguishing feature of the proposed educational activities is its assessment plan, which will be developed and conducted with collaborators in educational psychology. By uncovering the working principles of metal-mediated dechlorination reactions and developing synthetic catalysts, this work will help provide solutions to an important environmental problem: contamination of drinking water with chlorinated methanes, ethylenes and arenes. This study will enhance the environmental science understanding of undergraduate students, helping them to make informed decisions as individuals and as voters. It will also provide an ideal training opportunity for undergraduate and graduate researchers that will enable them to become future leaders in environmental research and teaching.