Friday, 1 December 11:00am – 12:00pm

This seminar will be delivered in Chemistry Lecture Theatre 2

Speaker: Professor Sally Brooker, Otago University

Host: Dr Marcello Solomon

Title: Tuneable spin crossover switches/sensors & macrocyclic catalysts

Abstract: The first part of this seminar considers some of the highlights of our work on tuneable spin crossover complexes formed from modular 1,2,4-triazole-based ligands. The focus is on the observation of spin crossover switching enabling:

• (a) qualitative and quantitative reversible guest sensing, and
• (b) useful correlations with other (calc/found) properties, enabling prediction of switching temperature or spin state in advance of synthesis.

In the second part of this talk, the focus shifts to responding to the impacts of climate change, which demand rapid replacement of our present range of carbon-emitting fossil fuels (coal, oil, natural gas) by a suite of carbon-zero and carbon-neutral fuels. The best carbon-zero fuel is direct electrification (from renewable generation), followed by batteries and green hydrogen, both of which are also carbon-zero fuels. This section will focus on our NZ-German-wide team’s activities in He Honoka Hauwai, and my team’s research into improved catalysts for H2 production and CO2 reduction.

Bio: Sally Brooker (MNZM, FRSNZ, FNZIC, FRSC) is one of 7 Inaugural Sesquicentennial Distinguished Professors at the University of Otago. Her chemistry undergraduate and PhD studies at Canterbury University (NZ) were followed by post-doctoral research at Göttingen University (Germany) before she joined the University of Otago (NZ).

Sally has been fortunate to consistently attract extremely talented students to her team, enabling the pursuit of wide ranging research interests (otago.ac.nz/brooker), and leading to numerous awards (https://blogs.otago.ac.nz/brooker/professional-background/).

Relevant to this talk are her leading contributions to the field of spin crossover, and to the making and testing of designer catalysts for green hydrogen production (and for the selective reduction of carbon dioxide). She is a principal investigator with the MacDiarmid Institute, and co-leader, with Dr Paul Jerabek (Helmholtz Zentrum Hereon), of the German-NZ green hydrogen team and centre, He Honoka Hauwai.