The Inorganic, Bioinorganic, and Organometallic Chemistry Program of the Chemistry Division is supporting Professor Kenneth Stevenson, Chemistry Department, Indiana-Purdue University at Fort Wayne, for the study of the excited state reactivity of copper(I) complexes in solution.The ultraviolet excitation of aqueous solutions of copper(I) complexes containing donor ligands, such as halide, cyano, amido, and alkyl, results in the formation of reactive species that include exciplexes, i.e. complexes formed between excited state and ground state species, and possibly excimers, i.e. excited dimers formed by excited and ground-state species. In some cases the exciplexes or excimers may form a bond through a bridging ligand; in other cases the bonding in the aggregated excited species may have metal-metal bonding, a very rare phenomenon. The goal of this project is to expand the understanding of these excited-state species, and to search for new complexes that generate them. A systematic study of the photochemistry and photophysics of copper(I) complexes will be conducted utilizing laser flash photolysis and time-resolved and steady-state spectrofluorimetry. The rates of formation and/or decay of the various excited state species will be determined and the various intermediates and energy relationships will be determined.
Copper has many important applications in electronics. This study will concentrate on the way copper complexes interact with very short bursts of intense laser generated light. This will provide information on the ways that copper compounds can effect the conversion of light energy to chemical energy and how they can mediate the generation of electrical energy by the absorbtion of light. A particularly significant part of this project is the heavy involvement of undergraduate students. The project will introduce these students to research at an early stage in their educational experience.
