Dr. Joseph Derosa, PhD

Metallocene mediators have historically served as versatile single-electron transfer (SET) reagents for a multitude of applications in synthetic organic, organometallic, and inorganic chemistry; however, their reactivity in the presence of strong acids is largely unharnessed. Protonated metallocenes have immense untapped potential for proton-coupled electron-transfer (PCET) processes, as shown in seminal reductions of N2-to-NH3 with mixtures of strong acids with metallocene mediators. The goal of this proposal is to synthesize, analyze, and characterize a diverse library of metallocene mediators toward achieving catalytic PCET, providing a series of novel reagents pertinent to both synthetic chemistry and fundamental inorganic chemistry.