We are interested in capturing energy from light to provide the thermodynamic driving force for chemical reactions that would otherwise be uphill. An area of particular interest is understanding how to couple photon absorption events and corresponding chemical transformations which require energy from more than one photon.
We are interested in seeking mechanistic understanding of the role of metal-metal interactions in catalysis. The mechanistic details of heterogeneous catalytic processes are inherently more difficulty to study than those of molecular catalysis, but heterogeneous catalysts are very important for industrial processes due to the process desirability and high performance of heterogeneous catalysts. Metal-metal interactions are also very important biochemically and are essential for life. We are interested in synthesizing model complexes with multiple metal centers which can be used to investigate metal-metal interactions in atomically precise detail. The goal is to understand how to mimic biological processes using complexes synthesized in the laboratory and design heterogeneous catalysts.
We are interested in the chemistry of metal oxides and use of compounds, complexes, and results of our research in photochemistry and catalysis to construct devices for photo- and chemical electrosynthesis applications.