Talk by Prof. Ramesh Giri on "Strategies towards Catalytic Olefin Dicarbofunctionalization"
02 Jan 2018
Seminar Room #350
Talk by Prof. Ramesh Giri on "Strategies towards Catalytic Olefin Dicarbofunctionalization"
About Speaker
Dr. Curtis P. Berlinguette is a Canada Research Chair in Energy Conversion, CIFAR Fellow, Member of the Stewart Blusson Quantum Matter Institute and Professor of Chemistry and Chemical & Biological Engineering at the University of British Columbia. Dr. Berlinguette completed his PhD in Inorganic Chemistry at Texas A&M University (Advisor: Prof. K. R. Dunbar) and postdoctoral studies at Harvard University (Advisor: Prof. R. H. Holm). He started his independent career in the Department of Chemistry and The Institute for Sustainable Energy, Environment & Economy at the University of Calgary in 2006 before moving his program to the University of British Columbia in 2013. He leads a research program dedicated to solar energy conversion and CO2 utilization
Abstract
Over 60 years have passed since Taube deduced inner-sphere electron transfer between distinct metal complexes (Nobel Prize in 1983), yet the direct observation of an orbital pathway for non-covalently bound species is unknown. While orbital pathways for electron transfer are widely known for conjugated covalent bonds (Nobel Prize in 2000), I will present the first direct experimental demonstration of an orbital pathway for inner-sphere electron transfer through an intermolecular bond. This observation of intermolecular inner-sphere electron transfer adds granularity to Marcus theory (Nobel Prize in 1992) and informs materials design for solar fuels production at an atomic orbital level of resolution.