Research

Synthesis and spectroscopic and structural characterization of heme and nonheme iron-oxygen intermediates in dioxygen activation chemistry by biomimetic compounds. Mechanisms of oxygenation reactions of organic compounds by iron-oxygen intermediates. Mechanisms of oxygen-oxygen bond cleavage of iron-dioxygen complexes. Development of environmentally benign catalytic oxidation systems using heme and nonheme iron complexes.

Synthesis, spectroscopic and structural characterization, and reactivity studies of nonheme metal-oxygen intermediates. Mechanisms of oxygen atom transfer from metal-oxygen intermediates to organic compounds. Catalytic oxidation of organic substrates by metal complexes. 

Elucidation of the mechanism of O-O bond formation using metal-oxygen intermediates. Mechanistic studies of metal ion effects on the reactivities of high-valent metal-oxo intermediates. Development of efficient water oxidation catalysts using inorganic and nano materials. 

Combined experimental and theoretical approaches to understand reactivities of metal-oxygen intermediates in electrophilic and nucleophilic oxidative reactions, such as activation energy barriers, geometries, and spin density distribution to support or exclude experimentally proposed mechanisms. Searching for new mechanisms and predict reactivities where experiments are not available.