Transition Metal Complexes of o-Benzoquinone, o-Semiquinone and Catecholate Ligands
As a graduate student in Professor Cortlandt Pierpont’s lab at West Virginia University and the University of Colorado my research focused on the synthesis, structural, electronic and spectroscopic properties of metal complexes of ortho-quinone ligands. Quinone and quinoid molecules occupy a special place in the areas of bioorganic and biochemistry, and little was known of their coordination chemistry and properties prior to our work. Several notable discoveries were semiquinone complexes are interesting examples of molecules containing paramagnetic ligands and magnetic susceptibility measurements and EPR experiments provided fundamental information on the electronic structure of these complexes. Also, my work examined both inter- and intramolecular electron transfer reactions involving the quinone complexes, and their potential utility as e!ectrocataIysts. Representative and informative articles on our studies are listed below.
Citations
C. G. Pierpont, R. M. Buchanan, "Distorted Trigonal Prismatic Coordination in Tris(9,10-phenanthrenequinone)molybdenum", J. Amer. Chem. Soc., 1975, 97(17), 4912-4917. doi: 10.1021/ja00850a022.
R. M. Buchanan, H. H. Downs, W. B. Shorthill, C. G. Pierpont, S. L. Kessel, D. N. Hendrickson, "Intramolecular Antiferromagnetic Exchange in Tris o-Semiquinone Complexes of Vanadium(III), Chromium(III) and Iron(III)", J. Am. Chem. Soc., 1978, 100(13), 4318-4320. doi: 10.1021/ja00481a060.
H. H. Downs, R. M. Buchanan, C. G. Pierpont, "Multi-step Redox Series of the Tris(o-semiquinone)chromium(III) Complexes", Inorg. Chem., 1979, 18(7), 1736-1740. doi: 10.1021/ic50197a003.
R. M. Buchanan, C. G. Pierpont, "Tautomeric Catecholate-Semiquinone Interconversion via Metal-Ligand Electron Transfer. Structural, Spectral, and Magnetic Properties of (3,5-Di-tert-butylcatecholato)-(3,5-di-tert-butylsemiquinone) (bipyridyl)-cobalt(III), a Complex Containing Mixed-Valence Organic Ligands", J. Am. Chem. Soc., 1980, 102(15), 4951-4957. doi: 10.1021/ja00535a021.
