Thursday, March 31
9:30 - 10:00 AM (ET)

“Formation and Redox Chemistry of Metal Polysulfanido Complexes for Sulfur Transfer Reactions”

Abstract

Polysulfur compounds participate in critical reactions in metal chalcogenide catalysts, in sulfur-based energy storage technologies, and in biological signaling processes. The unique reactivity of these species makes them very synthetically valuable, but chemical tools to control their complex solution equilibria and redox chemistry are needed. We are investigating the formation, redox chemistry, and reactions of transition metal polysulfanido complexes for energy-related chemical transformations and catalysis. In these compounds, the metal-sulfur interactions enforced by rigid ligand frameworks can control the speciation and electrophilicity/nucleophilicity of typically labile polysulfane S‒S bonds, resulting in tunable reactivity and physical properties.

Biography

Emily Tsui joined the Department Chemistry and Biochemistry at the University of Notre Dame as an Assistant Professor in 2017 after completing a postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Washington with Prof. Daniel Gamelin, studying the surface chemistry and photophysics of doped semiconductor nanocrystals. The Tsui group focuses on synthesizing molecules and materials relevant to energy-related transformations currently accomplished by bioinorganic active sites and heterogeneous catalysts. The Tsui group works on gaining fundamental mechanistic insight into chemical problems that challenge developing energy technologies, including C-H activation, carbon capture, and water oxidation/dioxygen reduction. She earned her Ph.D. in Inorganic Chemistry from the California Institute of Technology in 2014.