Department of Chemistry Seminar – Dr. Trevor Hayton

About the event

Speaker: Dr. Trevor Hayton, UC Santa Barbara

Host: Dr. Jim Boncella

Title: Using NMR Spectroscopy to Evaluate Actinide-Ligand Bond Covalency

Abstract: Understanding actinide-ligand covalency is at the center of efforts to design new separations schemes for spent nuclear fuel, and thus features considerable practical importance.  NMR spectroscopy is a widely available means of measuring 5f covalency that is complementary to more established methods, such optical spectroscopy and XANES.  However, its use for this purpose is still in its infancy.  Herein, I will discuss our efforts to develop 1H and 13C NMR spectroscopy for the evaluation of An-L covalency in a wide variety of diamagnetic actinide complexes, including thorium allenylidenes and thorium hydrides.

Bio: Trevor Hayton received his Ph.D. in Chemistry from the University of British Columbia in 2003, under the direction of Prof. Peter Legzdins.  After graduating, he began a postdoctoral fellowship at Los Alamos National Laboratory, working under the direction of Dr. James M. Boncella. In 2006, he started a faculty position at the University of California, Santa Barbara.  He was promoted to Associate Professor in 2012 and then to Full Professor in 2014.  He has been awarded an Alfred P. Sloan Foundation Fellowship, the Dalton Transactions Lectureship, and a Humboldt Foundation Bessel Research Award.  In 2019, he was elected a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.