Department of Chemistry Seminar – Dr. Kyle Lancaster

About the event

Speaker: Dr. Kyle Lancaster, Cornell University

Host: Dr. Ivan Popov

Title: Configuration, Count, and Covalency

Abstract: The oxidation state formalism is a useful contributor to chemical intuition. However, there can exist substantial rifts between transition-metal electronic structures implied by formal oxidation states and those arrived at by structural and spectroscopic methods. Ligand redox non-innocence, ligand field inversion, and covalency are some key contributors to these disagreements. Spurred by the assertion that electronic structure insight informs understanding and prediction of reactivity, this lecture will survey cases of extreme departure between oxidation state formalism and electronic structure. A focus will be the use of synchrotron-based spectroscopies to interrogate electron populations at transition metal centers, thus establishing a clear distinction between a metal’s “d-count” and its “d-configuration.” Ties between these electronic structures and reactivity will be discussed. Our group’s extension of these perspectives to the reactivity of p-block metals will be included.