When
Where
TITLE
Photophysics of Photocatalytic and Radical Systems
ABSTRACT
Photoredox catalysis has enabled researchers to overcome previously intractable problems in organic synthesis. The use of light to drive catalysis has allowed for more selective reactions that generate both simple and complex molecules from renewable and economical starting materials under mild conditions. Using ultrafast broadband time-resolved spectroscopy, the Huxter group studies photoinduced single-electron transfer and electronic dynamics in photoredox catalytic and radical systems. These studies have revealed complex mechanisms of photoredox catalytic reactions, including the involvement of reduced solvent as intermediates, aggregation, multiple photoproducts as well as many productive and unproductive pathways. Experiments on neutral radical transition metal tripyrrindione systems with tunable redox-active chemistry have demonstrated controllable spin states, reversible antiferromagnetic coupling, and spin-dependent electronic relaxation.
BIO
Vanessa Huxter is an Associate Professor in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry and the Department of Physics at the University of Arizona. She received her B.Sc. from McGill University, her Ph.D. from the University of Toronto and went on to hold an NSERC Postdoctoral Fellowship jointly at UC Berkeley and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. Dr. Huxter has received an NSF CAREER award, a Scialog Collaborative Innovation Award, and has served as an Editorial Advisory Board Member for the Journal of Physical Chemistry. She has authored papers on topics ranging from semiconductor spin dynamics to vibrational coherences in solid-state materials and the electronic dynamics of molecular systems. Her current research interests are focused on developing using ultrafast multidimensional spectroscopy to understand radical and photocatalytic systems.