This Career Advancement Award for Women in the Inorganic, Bioinorganic, and Organometallic Chemistry Program will enable Colleen Partigianoni of Ithaca College to conduct pilot studies on multielectron activation of metal compounds with Dr. Thomas J. Meyer at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. The research will involve the synthesis of novel bimetallic complexes of osmium(II) or ruthenium(II) and copper(II) or cobalt(II). Transient absorption spectroscopy will be used to investigate the kinetics of the photoinduced charge-separated species. By altering the ligand environment, the properties of the excited state species will be controlled. The goal of the work is to photochemically generate cobalt(I) centers which can serve as effective sources of two electrons. The results are relevant to solar energy conversion. Also, this research experience will enable Partigianoni to establish a new area for undergraduate research at Ithaca College.
