Research

Research in the Agapie laboratory is targeted toward developing new materials and catalysts for sustainable technologies by using inspiration from biological systems. Some of the most fascinating catalysts in Nature display complex inorganic cofactors, sometimes in combination with organic cofactors, and perform chemical transformations (water reduction and oxidation, carbon dioxide reduction, dinitrogen reduction, dioxygen reduction) that are arguably prerequisites for the advance of society in the current context of limiting energy resources and environmental concerns. The group's approach to these chemical transformations is centered on the synthesis and study of metal complexes and materials relevant to organometallic and electrochemical catalysis. Given the scale of the potential applications, we focus on studies of inexpensive first-row transition metals and organic coatings for electrodes. We have developed new methodologies for the synthesis of coordination compounds, organometallic complexes and hybrid electrodes and have performed mechanistic studies to understand the properties and reactivity of these materials. The graphic below highlights some of our results and approaches.