Coordination chemistry, photosensitization and electrochemistry

该研究的长期实际目标是开发、测试和实现金属配体配合物在燃料电池、光伏电池、储能和信息存储中的催化作用。这是建立在对含钌和含钛配合物以及特殊配体的合成所获得的专业知识的基础上，并寻求在合成方法和结构分析方面取得更基本的进展，以获得对催化机制的更深入的理解，并研究结构，电子和光物理性质之间的关系。在短期内，五年计划包括努力(i)建立更有效的二氧化碳（CO2）还原催化剂，并确定作用机制；（ii）研究迄今为止尚未开发的光伏敏化剂家族，并对其中一些进行还原猝灭；（iii）通过电聚合将光和电催化中心固定在电极上；（iv）测试一种新的信息存储方案，利用光谱和电化学响应来读取、(v)开发可以自组装成可控长度的线性、光活性和电活性阵列的材料，以及（vi）研究新型钛配合物的配位化学和电化学，作为直接甲醇燃料电池甲醇氧化的潜在电催化剂。

The research has as a long-term practical objective to develop, test and implement metal-ligand coordination complexes in catalytic roles in fuel cells, photovoltaic cells, energy storage and information storage. This builds upon expertise acquired with ruthenium- and titanium-containing coordination complexes and in the synthesis of specialized ligands, and seeks to make more fundamental advances in synthetic methodology and structural analysis, to gain a deeper understanding of the catalytic mechanisms, and to study the relationships between structural, electronic and photophysical properties. In the short-term, the five-year plan includes efforts to (i) build more efficient carbon dioxide (CO2) reduction catalysts, and determine the mechanism of action, (ii) investigate a hitherto-unexplored family of photovoltaic sensitizers and implement reductive quenching for some, (iii) anchor the photo- and electro-catalytic centres to electrodes through electropolymerization, (iv) test a new information storage scheme employing spectroscopic and electrochemical responses to read, write and erase data, (v) develop materials that can self-assemble into linear, photo- and electro-active arrays of controlled length, and (vi) investigate the coordination chemistry and electrochemistry of novel titanium complexes as potential electrocatalysts of methanol oxidation for Direct Methanol Fuel Cells.