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Date of Award

2014

Document Type

Restricted Thesis: Campus only access

Degree Name

Bachelor of Science

Department

Chemistry

First Advisor

Dr. Raymond Dominey

Second Advisor

Dr. Emma Goldman

Abstract

Because fossil fuels, the most common worldwide source of energy, are diminishing rapidly and detrimental to the environment, it is necessary to find an alternative energy source. Solar energy is the only form of energy that can provide enough energy to meet the worldwide demand; however, it is not available when the sun is not shining. Therefore, there must be a way to store solar energy. Dr. Andrew Bocarsly at Princeton University discovered that the pyridinium ion acts as an effective catalyst in the reduction of CO2 to methanol. This reaction not only converts light energy into a storable chemical energy, but it also uses CO2, which is another potential environmental threat. The goal of this project was to synthesize ligands that could either speed up the rate of this reaction or allow the reaction to proceed without the use of an external electricity source.

We developed a synthesis of both the 2-(2-pyridyl)-1,6-naphthyridine and 2-(2-pyridyl)-1,8-naphthyridine ligands and have in hand gram quantities of these ligands. Additionally, we have developed a synthesis of the 2,2'-Bi-1,6-naphthyridine and 2,2'-Bi-1,8-naphthyridine. We have successfully purified all four ligands using sublimation and have characterized them using GC-MS and NMR. Additionally, we have synthesized some of their corresponding metal complexes. We focused on both rhenium and ruthenium complexes since their α,α’-diimine complexes are well known MLCT excited state reductants.

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