Structural Foundations of Reactivity, Nanoscale Properties, and Photoresponses in Inorganic Molecules & Materials
Presented by AmyMarie K. Bartholomew
Abstract:
Synthetic inorganic chemistry can improve solar energy capture and storage, achieve efficient reactions of small molecules like dinitrogen, and enable next-generation nanotechnology. In each case, understanding the relationship between an inorganic molecule or material’s structure and its properties is key to realizing these advances. This presentation will address how to develop structure-function understanding using crystallography and a suite of spectroscopic techniques and how this understanding can be employed to develop materials by design. In particular, I will present how our work on highly reactive polynuclear clusters has elaborated the structural origins of a trichromium complex’s unique solvent-controlled multielectron reactivity, how we achieved the design and synthesis of a surface-addressable 2D framework using superatomic building blocks, and how we used structure-function relationships to explain the remarkable photomechanical response of copper azobenzene crystals to sunlight.