Large scale chemical production processes, from olefin polymerization and petroleum refining to fertilizer synthesis, all depend upon heterogeneous catalysts.  For decades, attempts to employ homogeneous, mononuclear molecular compounds as models for the active sites on metal surfaces of heterogeneous catalysts have yet to fully capture the observed heterogeneous process behavior.  One of the challenges for mononuclear compounds may be the ability to mimic the metal interactions and atomic rearrangement events that occur on metal surfaces during the catalytic process.  Our new approach aims to construct homogeneous molecular models with enhanced electronic and steric flexibility through the use of multinuclear transition metal clusters contained within flexible, redox-active macrocyclic ligands.  A series of homobimetallic, late-<i>3d</i> transition metal complexes (Mn to Cu) have been synthesized by making use of flexible macrocyclic ligands that contain two redox active 2,6-pyridyldiimine (PDI) fragments connected by two, three or four carbon alkyl chains.  Systematic comparisons of the structural and electronic features of these complexes have been conducted to probe for characteristics that change based upon the identity of the metal and the increase in the distance between the two metals as a function of the size of the macrocycle pocket. <br/>

Synthesis and characterization of homobimetallic redox-active macrocycle transition metal complexes with increasing pocket size

2019 Fall National Meeting

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