Group News

Our latest work on two-electron redox chemistry with nickel complexes was published in Chemical Communications. https://pubs.rsc.org/en/content/articlelanding/2025/cc/d4cc06547f

This work uses Ni(II/0) redox couples associated with nickel bis(diphosphine) complexes to show that we can easily change the redox cycle from a sequential one-electron redox cycle to a concerted two-electron redox cycle with the appropriate choice of diphosphine ligand and available anions in the electrolyte. Overall, a concerted two-electron redox cycle is shown to be more stable and occur at a more negative redox potential when the molecule is used as an anolyte (negolyte) in an RFB. We are very excited for the future directions of this work.

Maynard Marlow has joined the group as an undergraduate researcher for the Spring 2025 semester. He will work alongside Smriti Somai exploration Ni(II/IV) redox chemistry.

Dr. Farnum and Dr. Goldsmith published an article in Accounts of Chemical Research describing their efforts to use ligand tethered quinol groups in cooperativity with first-row metals to catalyze the transformations of O₂, O₂^.-, and H₂O₂. https://pubs.acs.org/doi/full/10.1021/acs.accounts.4c00645

This work has been going on for some time in the Goldsmith lab, focusing on mimicking the activity of superoxide dismutase and catalase enzymes. The recent collaboration between the Farnum and Goldsmith labs has focused on electrocatalysis of the oxygen reduction reaction.

Megan Henley joined the group as a new graduate student. She will be working on metal oxide synthesis via slow injection methods.

The group traveled to SERMACS in Atlanta, GA. Byron gave oral talks and Musharraf, Smriti, and Maksuda delivered poster presentations.