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Newly published research focuses on the oxidation of ethane to ethanol in a metal-organic framework—a step toward greater energy efficiency.

A collaborative effort between the experimental research group of Jeff Long at the University of California Berkeley and the computational groups of Laura Gagliardi and Don Truhlar at the University of Minnesota has shown significant progress in this direction. Also participating in the study were post-doctoral associate Nora Planas and graduate students Joshua Borycz, Allison L. Dzubak, and Pragya Verma from the University of Minnesota and several students and postdoctoral associates from Berkeley. A paper by these groups that appeared, Sunday May 18, 2014, in Nature Chemistry shows that isolated terminal iron–oxo moieties, supported on a metal–organic framework (MOF), selectively oxidizes ethane into ethanol in the presence of N2O under mild conditions.

In a recent Journal of the American Chemical Society (JACS) communication, two members of the Gagliardi group, graduate student Chad Hoyer and post-doctorate Giovanni Li Manni, computationally characterized an unprecedented two-coordinate, high-spin Mn(0) complex.

The work was in collaboration with Professor Cameron Jones of Monash University and Professor Keith Murray of Cardiff University. The molecule has been experimentally shown to behave as an “inorganic Grignard reagent” in the preparation of the first two-coordinate Mn(I) dimer and a heterobimetallic Mn(II)-Cr(0) complex.

Gagliardi Group research featured on February 5th cover of JACS

Gagliardi group research was featured on the February 5 cover of the Journal of the American Chemical Society.

The study established magnetic and bonding properties for specific metal-metal pairings, which holds promise for achieving predictable and precise control of cluster properties through metal atom substitution. The work is a collaboration between the groups of Laura Gagliardi, Connie Lu, and Eckhard Bill, Ph.D., from the Max Planck for Chemical Energy Conversion. Graduate student Steve Tereniak designed and executed the syntheses. Graduate student Becky Carlson performed the theoretical calculations with assistance from Rémi Maurice, Ph.D., and Hyun Jung Kim. The anomalous X-ray scattering experiments were performed by Laura Clouston from the Lu group, Vic Young Jr., Ph.D., and Yu-Sheng Chen, Ph.D., from ChemMatCARS.