Date Thesis Awarded
11-2020
Access Type
Honors Thesis -- Access Restricted On-Campus Only
Degree Name
Bachelors of Science (BS)
Department
Chemistry
Advisor
William R. McNamara
Committee Members
Robert J. Hinkle
Douglas D. Young
Michael F. Leruth
Abstract
The need to develop a renewable technology that is capable of generating and storing the sun's tremendous amounts of energy is imperative as we face a future wherein our current energy stores are projected to diminish. A photochemical water-splitting process which enables solar-converted energy to be stored within chemical bonds in a fashion similar to that of photosynthetic organisms, the principal of Artificial Photosynthesis (AP) serves as a hopeful model on which to base the assembly of such a system. The ultimate component of a fully assembled AP system is the photocatalyst which enables the conversion of protons to hydrogen, a renewable, carbon-free fuel that has the potential to transform the current energy landscape into one that relies primarily on the burning of clean fuels. A series of Fe (III) complexes that are active for photocatalytic hydrogen generation have been previously reported by our group, however such developments provide a basis for improvement. Herein is reported the synthesis of an iron catalyst bound to ligands with anchoring functional groups that are further from the metallo-center than those explored previously. Future studies will enable the determination of the effect of this distance on the catalytic electron transfer reaction previously confirmed by our group and others.
Recommended Citation
Lawrence, Margaret, "Photocatalytic Generation of Hydrogen Catalyzed by Iron (III) Polypyridyl Complexes" (2020). Undergraduate Honors Theses. William & Mary. Paper 1579.
https://scholarworks.wm.edu/honorstheses/1579
