Professor Louise Berben

"Ligand Cooperation in the Chemistry of Small Molecules Mediated by Aluminum Complexes"

About the seminar

This talk will discuss the synthesis and chemical reactivity of aluminum complexes of the phenyl-substituted bis(imino)pyridine ligand (denoted as PhI2P). We demonstrate that the two-electron reduced ligand in these Al complexes can mediate both proton transfer reactions. Some examples of the reactivity that is mediated by this process includes the dehydrogenation of formic acid to CO2 and H2, the dehydrogenation of alcohols to aldehydes and esters. The reduced I2P ligands can also mediate  reactions involving both ligand-based electron and proton transfer. An example of this process is the reduction of protons to H2 that is carried out by (I2P2-)Al(THF)Cl from two protons and two equivalents of reductant. Other examples of small molecule reduction chemistry will also be discussed.

About the Speaker

Louise Berben was born in Sydney, Australia. She received a Bachelor of Science degree with 1st class honors from The University of New South Wales in 2000, and in 2005 was awarded a Ph.D. from the University of California Berkeley for research undertaken with Professor Jeffrey Long. In 2006 Louise began postdoctoral research with Professor Jonas Peters at the California Institute of Technology and in July 2007, moved with the Peters research group to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. In July 2009, Louise joined the faculty at the University of California Davis where her research program focuses primarily on synthetic and physical inorganic chemistry.