Novel strategy for obtaining and studying metal complexes: a spectroscopic, computational and electrochemical study of metal complexes with pyridine based ligands

Several pyridine-based metal complexes were studied spectroscopically, electrochemically and computationally with the aim of achieving better insight of the metal centre and applying the fundamental knowledge gained in the development of an efficient catalytic centre. We were fairly successful in our goal. The NMR studies yielded improved understanding of several cobalt and manganese polypyridyl-based catalytic centres. A robust synthetic strategy, however, was needed to test these complexes for any catalytic activity. A novel and easy film forming metal complexation technique was developed. Using the technique a successful electrocatalyst for the reduction of nitrite was reported. An additional computational study of reorganization energies was carried out on a set of copper-polypyridine complexes to generate a trend that would assist in the identification of an efficient redox-mediator for use in dye sensitized solar cells.