Degree Name
MS (Master of Science)
Program
Chemistry
Date of Award
12-2025
Committee Chair or Co-Chairs
Catherine McCusker
Committee Members
Gregory Bishop, Robert Standaert
Abstract
The release of CO₂ from fossil fuel combustion drives the need for its conversion into more sustainable options like CO and CH₄ via photocatalytic reduction. This process requires a catalyst, sensitizer, and electron donor. Zinc dipyrrin-based complexes are promising photosensitizers, offering an alternative to expensive, rare-metal-based systems. Most first-row transition metal dipyrrin compounds have short excited-state lifetimes due to rapid nonradiative decay, but Zn(II) dipyrrin complexes stand out. With a d¹⁰ configuration, they lack deactivating ligand field states and can access long-lived triplet states through a charge-separated intermediate. A phenyl-substituted Zn(II) dipyrrin complex was synthesized and studied using NMR to understand how aromatic groups affect its photophysics. The synthesis was done to improve triplet formation and excited-state lifetime. TLC and NMR indicated unreacted starting materials, likely due to steric hindrance from bulky phenyl groups or slow reaction kinetics, which limited the overall efficiency of complex formation and resulted in low product yield.
Document Type
Thesis - unrestricted
Recommended Citation
Ankomah, Stephen, "Synthesis of Phenyl-Substituted Zinc Dipyrrin Photosensitizer for Carbon Dioxide Reduction" (2025). Electronic Theses and Dissertations. Paper 4591. https://dc.etsu.edu/etd/4591
Copyright
Copyright by the authors.
