Solar energy driving electron transfers and redox reactions forms the basis of natural photosynthesis and provides a model for sustainable solar to fuels energy conversion in synthetic catalysts. The majority of the electron transfers are of single electrons, ensuring many paramagnetic intermediates that can be studies with EPR methods. This included catalysts for water oxidation, producing O2 as a product, the triplet ground state of which makes a fine target for EPR studies as well. Electrons and protons from water can be used to make stable reduced fuels, with H2 serving as a simple example. In the biological contexts, the active catalytic sites must be synthesized with the toolkit available to biology, which provides some interesting biochemical mechanisms. I will discuss a couple of examples of current interest to my group within this broad context of sustainable energy reactions.

Sustainable energy reactions as probed by electron paramagnetic resonance

2019 Spring National Meeting

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