Michael Matthews
Faculty Sponsor: Dr. Striplin
In this project, we used computational methods to study a series of bipyridyl-phenanthrolyl ligands that could be easily reduced, a property that would make them ideal candidates in producing low-cost dyes once bound to metal moieties such as Zn(II) thiols or Re(I) tricarbonyl. These dyes would be useful for solar energy capture in functionalized protein assemblies or dye-sensitized solar cells. A synthetic target was chosen involving the building of a functionalized phenanthrolyl ligand with a trans-2-methyl-2-butenoic acid. This project outlines our efforts in synthesizing the ligand, characterizing it, and finally, incorporating it into a metal complex capable of light harvesting.