Date of Award

Spring 2019

Document Type

Restricted Thesis

Terms of Use

© 2019 Mackinsey A. Smith. All rights reserved. Access to this work is restricted to users within the Swarthmore College network and may only be used for non-commercial, educational, and research purposes. Sharing with users outside of the Swarthmore College network is expressly prohibited. For all other uses, including reproduction and distribution, please contact the copyright holder.

Degree Name

Bachelor of Arts

Department

Chemistry & Biochemistry Department

First Advisor

Christopher R. Graves

Abstract

Aluminum is significantly cheaper, more abundant, and more environmentally friendly than metals historically used in redox catalysis. However, the chemistry of aluminum is primarily defined by its stability in the A1(III) state. In order to impart redox-ability onto an aluminum complex, redox-active ligands can be coordinated to the aluminum center. The development of aluminum complexes implementing redox-active ligands has the potential to significantly broaden the reaction chemistry of the element through expansion into redox-based chemistries. Herein, we report the synthesis of aluminum coordination complexes implementing redox-active nitroxide-based ligands. Specifically, we present our work on the N(^(Y)benzylᴿNO)₃A1 (Y = H, OMe, tBu; R = tBu, Ad) system where the nitroxide ligand extends multi-electron redox chemistry to the complex. Characterization including multinuclear NMR spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction, and reactivity studies using EPR spectroscopy and DFT computations will be presented.

Download

Share

COinS