“The search for renewable and clean energy sources is one of the most important challenges of the century. One of the promising approaches to circumvent the current energy crisis is to mimic nature and develop a system for artificial photosynthesis (that contain a terminal Mn(V)=O) that converts water into oxygen. In addition, other metalloenzymes (i.e., superoxide dismutase, Methane monooxygenase, Ribonucleotide Reductase etc.) containing metals in the higher oxidation state, have been employed by nature for the efficient chemical transformations. Our group strives to imitate such high valent metal species (including 3d and 4d) through spectroscopic characterization, in order to get a mechanistic understanding of the crucial processes.
Developing artificial metalloenzymes to catalyze abiological reactions has been a major endeavor for many years, but most of the times the observed rate of the synthetic mimics are lower than those of metalloenzymes, making them unsuitable for practical applications. A critical step to advance the field is to fundamentally understand what it takes to not only support the high valent metal species but also modulate the reactivities of those artificial synthetic mimics. This can be achieved by making the alterations within the ligand framework supporting the metal center in functional and structural mimetics. Hence, we employ a variety of redox active (Salens, amidate, oxazolines, BDA to name a few) and inactive ligands to modulate synthetic mimics activity to rival (or surpass!) natural enzymes.”
Developing artificial metalloenzymes to catalyze abiological reactions has been a major endeavor for many years, but most of the times the observed rate of the synthetic mimics are lower than those of metalloenzymes, making them unsuitable for practical applications. A critical step to advance the field is to fundamentally understand what it takes to not only support the high valent metal species but also modulate the reactivities of those artificial synthetic mimics. This can be achieved by making the alterations within the ligand framework supporting the metal center in functional and structural mimetics. Hence, we employ a variety of redox active (Salens, amidate, oxazolines, BDA to name a few) and inactive ligands to modulate synthetic mimics activity to rival (or surpass!) natural enzymes.”