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Welcome to the Bioinorganic and Supramolecular Chemistry group
(QBIS) web page. Research in the Bioinorganic and Supramolecular Chemistry group
(QBIS) aims at the preparation and study of molecules that
have relevance in the fields of Biological Inorganic Chemistry and/or
Supramolecular Chemistry.
In the Bioinorganic Chemistry projects our objective is to obtain
fundamental understanding of the mechanisms of O2 activation and/or
substrate oxidation taking place at the enzyme active site of non-heme
metalloproteins. Our approach involves preparation, characterization and
study of the chemistry associated to structural and/or functionalmodel
compounds of these enzymes. We are also interested in studying the
chemistry of high oxidation states of metal ions implicated in the
catalytic chemistry of oxygenases. This knowledge is fundamental in order
to develop bioinspired oxidation catalysts that could use O2 and/or peroxides to
carry out selective hydrocarbon oxidation reactions under mild conditions.
In the supramolecular chemistry area, our goal is to develop
nanoscopic scale molecules that could act as sensors, nanoreactors or
functional materials. To this end, molecules of high complexity are
prepared via self-assembly of simple building blocks directed by
coordination to metal ions.
Our research involves the use a number of characterization
techniques that include X-ray diffraction analysis, NMR of different nuclei
(including paramagnetic molecules), UV-Vis, circular dichroism, FT-IR, mass
spectrometry-ESI, GC/MS, cyclic voltammetry, Mössbauer spectroscopy,
resonance Raman and EPR. We also study reaction mechanisms by means of
isotopic labeling, and stereoselectivity substrate probes, as well as by
kinetic methods. We use computational methods to try to characterize our
molecules and understand their reactivity. Our students obtain then a
multidisciplinary formation in the synthesis, structural and spectroscopic
characterization of organic and inorganic molecules, and in the mechanistic
study of their reactivity.
The multidisciplinary nature of our research includes collaborations
with a number of groups. In this sense, we have collaboration with Prof M.
Solŕ and J.M. Luis from Institute of Computational Chemistry (IQC) of UdG
to carry out reaction mechanism studies and geometry optimizations by means
of DFT methods. We also work in
collaboration with the group of Dra Anna Roglans in the design of
supramolecular systems and catalysts. We collaborate with Dr Teodor Parella
(UAB) for studying complex systems with NMR methods, and Dr Benet Buchholz
(ICIQ) for the crystallographic characterization of complex molecules. We collaborate with
Prof. Rybak-Akymova from Tufts University to carry out kinetic studies by
means of stopped-flow UV-Vis techniques, and with Prof. L. Que from the
University of Minnesota, to carry out the spectroscopic characterization of
metastable reaction intermediates. We also collaborate with Prof. Stack
from Stanford University in the comprehension and characterization of
MˇˇˇH-C agostic interactions. Finally, we have a collaboration with Prof.
Veciana from ICMAB-CSIC with the goal of introducing open-shell organic
molecules as ligands in transition metal complexes that have biological
relevance, and/or in nanoscopic supramolecular structures.
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