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ABSTRACT:
Iron-containing enzymes are found in all domains of life and catalyze diverse chemical transformations. Several synthetic small molecule mimics of these enzymes have been developed and studied in detail. However, synthetic iron complexes are usually not used as catalysts for industrially relevant organic transformations; precious metals such as palladium and rhodium often take preference. Since iron is non-toxic and abundant, there is a great need to develop iron based catalysts for diverse chemical transformations. We have developed iron complexes that are excellent functional mimic of the peroxidase enzyme which activates H2O2 to perform selective oxidation of a wide variety of substrates. In my lecture, I will discuss the development of these catalysts and their use as catalysts for oxidation of unactivated C-H bonds as well as chemical probes for signal amplification in the detection of analytes.
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