Mechanochemical Synthesis of Porphyrins
Welcome to the Hamilton Research Group at Barry University! Research in the group is performed entirely by undergraduates, who learn techniques including organic synthesis, solid-state chemistry, synthesis of air-sensitive materials, column chromatography, self-assembly, coordination chemistry, green chemistry, crystallization, NMR, UV/Vis spectroscopy, IR spectroscopy, and analysis of X-ray crystallographic data.
Our research program has two goals:
- Development of more environmentally benign syntheses of porphyrins using a solvent-free approach called mechanochemistry, where reagents are ground together using a mortar and pestle, or an automated ball mill.
- Using exo-dentate porphyrins as ligands in metal-organic assembly metal-organic polyhedra and evaluation of their efficacy as catalysts.