Structure and Bonding in Transition Metal Complexes
Research Interests: The scientific approach of the Berry group is to discover new chemistry of the transition elements through systematic investigations of challenging electronic structures. Projects in the Berry lab typically combine synthesis, characterization, and computations for investigations of metal-metal bonded complexes. Group members become proficient in air/water-free synthetic chemistry, cryogenic techniques, magnetometry, molecular photochemistry, a variety of spectroscopic techniques, density functional theory calculations, electrochemistry, and X-ray crystallography. Typically, students gain an appreciation for all of these areas while specializing in a few of them.
The themes that bind our research projects are:
1. Exploring Electronic Structure to Understand Bonding and Reactivity in Transition Metal Complexes
While major ongoing projects are discussed below, the constant focus of the Berry group is the exploration of bonding and reactivity of organometallic complexes via elucidation of the electronic structure. Through an understanding of the electronic structure of these complexes, we seek to accomplish 2 goals:
(1) Explain unusual chemical or physical properties in systems with ambiguous or poorly understood bonding.
(2) Enable predictions regarding catalytic properties and new reactions by establishing relationships between electronic structure and reactivity.
Past work in this area can be read about here.
2. Investigating Metal-Metal and Metal-Ligand Multiple Bonds
While the Berry Group investigates a wide variety of transition metal complexes, our primary focus is on complexes involving metal-metal and/or metal-ligand multiple bonds. Metal-metal and metal-ligand multiple bonds are prevalent in many important catalytic intermediates. Due to their importance, we are developing systematic approaches to studying these novel type of compounds. Many of these complexes display a mixture of thermal, water, and air sensitivity necessitating the development of novel synthetic strategies for isolation and/or characterization. Two representative strategies are performing reactions at cryogenic temperatures or photochemically unmasking reactive species.
A short review of metal-metal bonds can be found here.
3. Electrocatalysis for a Nitrogen/Ammonia Economy
In a proposed “Nitrogen/Ammonia Economy,” extensive national and global infrastructures dedicated to the mass distribution and storage of ammonia could be leveraged toward green energy applications and the realization of a zero-carbon energy utilization scheme. To bring a Nitrogen Economy to fruition, there are two major challenges, (1) electrochemical ammonia synthesis from N2 and water and (2) catalytic ammonia oxidation for direct ammonia fuel cells that operate at ambient conditions. Our lab focuses on using the unique redox chemistry of metal-metal bonded complexes toward these goals.
Past work in this area can be read about here.
4. Chemistry of Heterometallic Extended Metal Atom Chains
In order to facilitate increasingly complex and powerful technological advancements, the size of electronic components is constantly being reduced. However, creating these components from bulk materials becomes increasingly complex and expensive as size decreases. Furthermore, the inherent limits of electronic components created from bulk materials is rapidly approaching. To overcome these limitations, research into creating electronic components at the molecular level has developed into the field of molecular electronics. Within this field, our lab focuses on the synthetic preparation and development of heterometallic extended metal atom chains (HEMAC) complexes. As HEMAC complexes have been computationally proposed to act as "molecular rectifiers", current work in the group is focused on experimental validation of this behavior and exploring the novel electronic structure of HEMAC complexes.
Past work in this area can be read about here.