Chemistry PhD final defense — Brena Thompson

About the event

Title: Utilizing Fluorescent Dyes to Manipulate Reactivity in Molecular Complexes

Abstract: Main group Lewis acids can promote some of the same chemical transformations that can be promoted with metal complexes, but their inability to undergo redox chemistry limits their applicability as an alternative to metal-containing complexes in chemical and catalytic transformations. The following presentation describes an approach to investigate how Lewis acid coordination can controllably alter the reactivity of bound substrates and the design and utilization of Lewis acids that respond to external stimuli in predictable ways. This controllable reactivity is achieved through the incorporation of 4,4-difluoro-4-bora-3a,4a-diaza-s-indacene (BODIPY) dyes into the ligand scaffold of main group and metal-based Lewis acids, which introduces ligand-based redox activity capable of manipulating the reactivity of the main group or metal-based Lewis acidic centers. Specifically, the redox-active nature of a BODIPY dye fragment is utilized to generate Lewis acids that are capable of exhibiting tunable Lewis acidities through BODIPY-based redox events, leading to tunable reactivity.