Chemistry and Biochemistry
Professor
Research in the Figueroa Group centers on the design and synthesis of highly tailored and reactive transition metal complexes for small molecule activation chemistry. A major focus is the development of new and useful transformations of stable small molecules such as N2, O2 and CO2. We hope to discover efficient means to utilize these abundant chemical feedstocks in transformations relevant to organic synthesis, industry and alternative energy. A second theme is the modulation and control of redox equivalents in chemical reactions through the explicit use of redox-active ligands and/or spectator agents.
Students in the Figueroa group will become well-versed in organic and inorganic synthetic methodologies. In addition, we routinely use a host of spectroscopic techniques including UV-vis, FTIR, EPR and multi-nuclear NMR. X-ray crystallography and quantum-chemical calculations (DFT) are also major components of our research effort and allow us to both predict and interpret molecules of interest.
