The collaborative research team of Professors Uribe-Romo and Yuan at the University of Central Florida is designing and creating new catalysts that use sunlight to synthesize organic chemicals such as pharmaceuticals. These catalysts also contain earth-abundant elements, are easy to recover and reuse, and are thus sustainable. As a result, they are potential replacements for traditional catalysts that rely on rare and expensive metals. These catalysts combine the three-dimensional structural features characteristic of a class of materials known as metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) with molecular groups with high light absorption ability. MOFs are highly porous structures, and this combination allows for shape-selective, light-driven catalysis at superior rates within the MOF pores. The research team is strongly emphasizing undergraduate participation in research, and is also engaging students from underrepresented groups in STEM through seminar series and outreach activities such as scientific public speaking workshops.
The use of sunlight as the driving force in the synthesis of organic compounds is the focus of the field of Photoredox Catalysis. This field offers a promising alternative for synthesis of complex organic compounds, such as natural products and pharmaceuticals, because visible sunlight is free, readily available, and can add the energy needed for reactions to proceed in a sustainable manner. The collaborative research team of Professors Uribe-Romo and Yuan at the University of Central Florida is designing and creating new catalysts that use sunlight to synthesize organic chemicals. These catalysts are crystalline and porous metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) composed of elements that are abundant, inexpensive and reusable (e.g., titanium and zirconium) and organic building blocks that are able to harvest light of specific energies and promote transfer of electrons between the catalysts and substrates. This work is coupling theory, solid-state synthesis, and organic chemistry for the preparation and tuning of the MOF catalysts to adjust their light-absorbing ability, as well as their internal pore structures to achieve pathways in chemical transformations that are challenging to observe in solution. This work is also including activities for the active participation in research and outreach by undergraduate students, and by students from underrepresented groups in STEM through seminar series and scientific public speaking workshops.
