Research
The Thornton group aims to combine synthetic inorganic and bioinorganic approaches to design systems that promote challenging transformations. We seek to leverage metal-metal and metal-ligand cooperativity to manipulate the electronic structure and reactivity of earth-abundant, first-row transition metals in the context of catalysis and small molecule activation. With an interest in C–H bond functionalization, we are targeting bimetallic complexes to (1) explore a polarization-induced mechanism for C–H bond cleavage and (2) fundamentally understand electronic structure requirements of bioinspired dimeric oxo motifs for C–H bond hydroxylation. Synthetic and spectroscopic techniques will be employed in the lab.
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Tuning the Reactivity of First-Row Transition Metals
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