This award is made as the starter grant increment of Dr. Chad Mirkin's Postdoctoral Research Fellowship in Chemistry award in support of his research at Northwestern University. Early transition metal metallocene-mediated, electrocatalytic oxygen atom transfer reactions will be studied. The goal of the research will be to develop electrocatalytic oxidation reactions by electrochemically, photochemically and chemically generating highly reactive organometallic species bound to a polymer support for use as oxygen atom transfer catalysts. Oxygen atom sources will be carbon dioxide and water and typical substrates will be olefins. Expected products will be epoxides and ketones. Catalyst species will be site-isolated on supported surfaces and spectroscopically characterized. Individual steps in the catalytic cycle will be defined by infrared and ESR spectroscopy. %%% Catalytic oxygen atom transfer reactions are of great commercial importance. The epoxidation of olefins is currently carried out on a large scale. New, more efficient catalysts could have a major impact both on commercial technology as well as on understanding fundamental oxidation mechanisms.
