Joel spent the summer with us doing research into rhenium compounds…

Photophysical and Redox Properties of Novel Bipyridine-Rhenium Complexes;  Joel Sowders, Nick Mortimer, Amber Prins and Dr. Tom Guarr

The photophysical properties of metal-ligand complexes have been well researched over the past two decades.  Due to their unique and wide range of properties, metal-ligand complexes have been investigated in energy and electron transfer research.  Rhenium(I) complexes are among these classes of compounds.  Rhenium(I) complexes have also been studied for their ability to catalyze both oxidation and reduction events, including the reduction of CO2 to CO.  Bimetallic rhenium and ruthenium complexes have also been the topic of many studies on intramolecular energy transfer.  In this study we show a rhenium-pyridine ligand complex. The ligand, 4,6-diphenyl-2,2’-bipyridine (BPY) was synthesized according to previous literature.  The complex was prepared from the ligand and chloropentacarbonylrhenium (1JMS045). Characterization was done with NMR, LC-MS, cyclic voltammetry, UV-Vis and fluorescent spectroscopy. The mono-rhenium complex was further reacted with 4,4’-bipyridine to bridge the complex to form a bi- or poly-rhenium bipyridine complex. LC-MS of the compound revealed the 4,4’-bipyridine did join a single complex but did not bridge to a second complex (1JMS037).

Joel is a Holland native that comes to us via Seattle Pacific University.  Much gratitude to Joel for all his hard work this summer.  Enjoy your time back at school.