Events in inorganic chemistry.

Inorganic Seminar with Dean Seth Cohen: 2025 - The Year of the MOF - From Pores to Polymers

On October 8, 2025, Richard Robson, Susumu Kitagawa, and Omar Yaghi shared the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for the discovery of metal-organic frameworks (MOFs).  Although we have had a new Nobel Prize in Chemistry since then, MOFs remain an exciting topic in synthetic and materials chemistry.  Our laboratory has a 20+ year history in the synthetic chemistry of MOFs, including in postsynthetic modification (PSM), MOF-polymer composites, and more recently low-valent MOFs (LVMOFs).

Inorganic Seminar: mm-Wave pulse EPR spectroscopy of high spin transition metal centers

Electron Paramagnetic Resonance (EPR) is most often performed in microwave frequency bands, with X-band (~9.4 GHz) being the most common. With superconducting magnets, one can explore higher frequency EPR spectroscopy.   This has mostly been done at low rf power due to difficulties in obtaining high rf power levels as one approaches mm-wave frequencies.  There has been a good bit of low power continuous wave (CW) EPR at higher frequencies, but the lack of high power and high bandwidth pulse amplifiers has limited pulse EPR instrumentation.

Student-Invited Inorganic Chemistry Seminar: Between Layered Solids and 2D Materials: Synthesis-Driven Exploration of the Functional Properties of MAX Phases and MXenes

My group is routed in solid state and materials chemistry but draws inspiration from research challenges in the context of polymers/advanced manufacturing, physics as well as energy and ceramics technologies. Carbides and nitrides are a fantastic platform to develop sustainable and innovative synthesis strategies as well as explore their physicochemical and functional properties. Within that space, we focus on layered solids and two-dimensional materials that belong to the large – and growing – families of MAX phases and MXenes.

Mn(III) trihalides: missing high-potential oxidants and useful reagents in benzylic C–H functionalization and stereoselective alkene dihalogenation

CrCl3 and FeCl3 are stable, useful compounds. So, where is MnCl3? Seeded by this curiosity, my research focuses on a class of manganese compounds that have historically been inaccessible due to their instability: Mn(III) tri-halide and tri-pseudohalide complexes. We found the instability arises from an unusual electronic structure and their extremely high one-electron reduction potentials. Nature leverages these properties in processes such as photosynthesis, microbial metabolism, and the oxidative degradation of organic matter.

Mechanism-Guided Approach to Late First-Row Transition Metal Catalysis

This presentation highlights two complementary, mechanism-guided approaches to advancing catalytic transformations. The first centers on constructing electronic structure-reactivity relationship in metal–ligand multiple-bond systems. Specifically, we investigated two series of square-planar metal nitrenoid complexes spanning various oxidation states, where systematic modulation of metal–ligand covalency tunes spin-density distribution at the metal–nitrogen fragment and directly governs hydrogen-atom transfer reactivity.

Rational Design of Molecularly Inspired Electrocatalysts for Energy and Environmental Applications

The Villagrán group at UTEP addresses challenges in energy and environmental chemistry by developing advanced synthetic techniques to create novel materials at the molecular, surface, and nanoparticle levels. This talk will explore the rational design of molecular electrocatalysts for water oxidation, focusing on mechanistic studies of metal-free organic macrocycles such as porphyrins and phthalocyanines.

Crystal Growth of New Transuranic Phases using High Temperature Solutions and a Low-Temperature Route for the Preparation of Monazite-type Materials

Our interest in finding suitable waste forms for the effective immobilization of minor actinides in persistent architectures has led us to explore the molten salt syntheses of Np, Pu, and Am containing materials to study their crystal chemistry.  This effort has resulted in several new neptunium, plutonium, and americium containing phases including K3Am(PO4)2, K3AmSi2O7, Ba3Am2(BO<

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