This award is funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Public Law 111-5).
This grant will initiate a new project on the design of catalysts that can harvest solar energy and relay this to the metal centers to promote the rate of reactions or to induce desirable selectivity effects. Specifically, ligands are designed to be in direct conjugation with the metal so that energy may be transferred fast through bonds. Such chemistry will contribute to environmentally benign methods for chemical synthesis as the reactions need only sunlight to drive them, and they may lead to useful selectivities that could only be achieved in this manner.
With this Early-concept Grants for Exploratory Research (EAGER) award, the Organic and Macromolecular Chemistry Program is supporting the research of Professor Kevin Burgess of the Department of Chemistry at Texas A & M University. Professor Burgess' research efforts revolve around the development of catalytic reactions for application in synthetic methodology. If successful, these reactions will have an impact on synthesis in the pharmaceutical and agricultural industries.
