With this award the Organic and Macromolecular Chemistry Program supports the work of Dr. Stephen F. Nelsen at the University of Wisconsin at Madison. The research aims to probe the details of electron transfer (ET) reactions in organic intervalence compounds - compounds with two charged units connected by a bridge of connected atoms where the only difference between the two units is the amount of charge, and also between molecules of known oxidation potential. Intervalence compounds have no driving force (the energy is the same irrespective of which unit has the higher charge), and provide a good test of theoretical models. ET reactions are very important in both chemistry and biology, and are found for example in photosynthesis and respiration.
Intervalence compounds show a charge transfer band arising from a vertical ET transition induced by absorption of a visible photon. Compounds with organic charge-bearing units that are stable, and have high internal reorganization energies, will be synthesized and studied in order to measure rate constants for thermal ET and to compare the experimental results with theoretical models.
