Publication Date

2020

Document Type

Thesis

Committee Members

Kuppuswamy Arumugam, Ph.D. (Advisor); Eric Fossum, Ph.D. (Committee Member); David Dolson, Ph.D. (Committee Member)

Degree Name

Master of Science (MS)

Abstract

Separately, N-Heterocyclic carbene and Tetrathiafulvalene compounds show great promise for a variety of applications. N-heterocyclic carbenes exhibit desirable metal bonding characteristics which allow for modulation of the metal center via back-bonding interactions. Additionally, this creates a system of increased bonding strength creating stable complexes. Tetrathiafulvalene exhibits strong redox-active and optical characteristics. These are owed to an increased aromaticity as oxidation of the compound occurs and thus, is stable through a multitude of oxidative states. The marriage of these two functionalization creates a unique opportunity for a “cure-all” compound, able to address many problems the world faces today including, but not limited to, battery energy storage, semiconductor fabrication and even photonic applications. This work successfully synthesized and characterized precursor compounds for a ligand that could fuse these two functionalizations. The most promising, a TTF-BTD styled compound was tested for the redox activity as well as optical absorption characteristics of the compound. Other precursors synthesized, mainly compound 11, 12, 15, and 16 do not yet exhibit these characteristics and thus, both 1H-NMR and 13C-NMR were utilized for characterization of these precursor compounds. More testing in the final proposed synthetic route must be achieved in order to determine its efficacy. However, marriage of these moieties as well as subsequent testing must occur to prove these methods synthetically useful.

Page Count

56

Department or Program

Department of Chemistry

Year Degree Awarded

2020


Included in

Chemistry Commons

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