In this project within the Inorganic, Bioinorganic and Organo- metallic Chemistry Program, J.H. Espenson and A. Bakac of Iowa State University will continue their investigations of the reactivity of transition metal moieties bonded to oxygen. The study of the activation of dioxygen and its reactivity has practical relevance in many areas such as the transport and storage of oxygen in biological systems as well as the catalytic oxidations in organic synthesis. Complexes of cobalt(II) and chromium(II) with the ancillary ligand "cyclam" (a macrocyclic compound with four nitrogen donor atoms) will be employed in kinetic studies, using laser flash photolysis, of the uptake of dioxygen. The kinetics of the reactivity, via both electron transfer and oxygen atom transfer, of the dioxygen derivatives of these complexes will be investigated. In addition the reaction kinetics of peroxo complexes of cobalt(II), chromium(II) and several other metals will be examined.
