This award is funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Public Law 111-5). The Inorganic, Bioinorganic and Organometallic Chemistry Program supports the research of Professor Jake Soper of the Georgia Institute of Technology (GIT) to examine the development of more cost-effective 3d metal catalysts as surrogates for expensive platinum group metal catalysts in small molecule activation and functionalization. The research promises an enhanced ability to use molecular oxygen as a selective oxidant under mild conditions. This challenging project examines the multiple electron redox capacity in later first row metal ions (ions that typically effect only one electron redox changes) by incorporating redox-active, charge-localized catecholate and amidophenolate ligands into the metal coordination sphere. These ligands supply an additional one or two electron transfer capability. New methods for the assembly of carbon-carbon and carbon-heteroatom bonding also result from this research. The educational plan includes the development of a new lecture series, focusing on energy-related research which will demonstrate chemistry fundamentals to junior Advanced Placement (AP) students at Westlake High School in Atlanta, Georgia. Mechanisms have been mapped to transfer this lecture series to other chemistry classes at Westlake High School as well as to similar programs in the state of Georgia and nationwide. A series of five-week summer laboratory internships for college-bound high school juniors and seniors is in place in the School of Chemistry and Biochemistry at GIT. The education program increases the participation of underrepresented groups in chemistry.
