Project Grant 2247692

This Project Grant from the National Science Foundation Division of Chemistry, under the Mathematical and Physical Sciences program (CFDA 47.049), provides $550,000 to The Trustees of the University of Pennsylvania from July 1, 2023 to June 30, 2026.

The award will support research at the University of Pennsylvania aimed at developing new base metal complexes capable of efficiently activating aliphatic C-H bonds through two complementary objectives. First, ligand scaffolds will be created to engage in low-barrier hydrogen bonds with protonated cupric superoxide units, boosting C-H bond activation reactivity. Second, superbasic functionalities will be introduced into copper complexes' coordination spheres to thermodynamically enable proton transfer under anaerobic conditions. Computational methods including machine learning will aid ligand discovery.

The research also includes outreach efforts like short educational videos explaining alternative fuels concepts. Trainees will gain skills in air- and moisture-sensitive synthetic chemistry. Findings seek to advance C-H bond activation understanding and guide catalytic processing of alternative fuels relevant to renewable energy.