The Inorganic, Bioinorganic, and Organometallic Chemistry Program supports the efforts of Professor David A. Shultz of North Carolina State University for the examination of electron transfer and electron transport. The research group determines long-range intramolecular electron correlations modulated by ancillary ligand effects, synthesizes donor-bridge-acceptor biradical ligands with new bridges and investigates lifetimes and thermal stabilities of photoinduced valence tautomerism in various compounds. The PI has developed laboratory experiments on magnetochemistry and group theory and these will be incorporated into an "in-house" and a public textbook. He mentors a large percentage of African American and women students.
," sought to understand how electrons within molecules communicate in order to rationally design future electronic devices based on molecules and to understand "electron transfer" in general -- an important aspect of solar energy conversion. Harnessing solar energy for use here on earth requires new materials that absorb sunlight and convert it into energy or store it as fuel. Achieving this requires an in-depth understanding of how these new materials "communicate" to achieve the detailed steps at converting light into energy or fuel. Our research seeks to demonstrate fundamental relationships between portions of molecules called "electron donors" and "electron acceptors." Understanding the interactions between these donors and acceptors is at the heart of solar energy conversion. Our research has shown how this communication changes as a function of the molecule's length and as a function of the molecule's shape -- both of which can be controlled by chemists. We have also prepared a new class of compounds in which electronic communication is achieved over a long distance (on the molecular scale!). Likewise, interaction of donors and acceptors is fundamental to designing new electronic devices that operate at the single-molecule level, and not only make use of an electron's charge, but its "spin." Electron spin is the property that gives rise to magnetism, and harnessing magnetic properties of electrons could result in new elecronic devices that are faster and consume less energy. Our research has resulted in several new molecules whose magnetic properties change upon illumination with white light. All of our discoveries are at the fundamental level, but could play an important role in theories of electron transfer, and in new single-molecule devices. As such, our research is of interest to chemists, physicists and materials scientists. Finally, it is worth noting that this research has provided the training ground for several excellent students who are now employed in Academia (Georgia-Gwinnett and Shaw), as well as companies such as Advanced Liquid Logic, BASF, Cree, Inc., Combi-Blocks and Advanced Liquid Logic.
