Volume 3 Issue 1 Probing electronic structures of transition metal complexes using electron paramagnetic resonance spectroscopy
Published 13 March, 2023
About the Cover
Electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) or electron spin resonance (ESR) has been widely employed to characterize transition metal complexes. However, because of the high degree of complexity of transition metal EPR spectra, how to extract the underlying electronicstructure information inevitably poses a major challenge to beginners, in particular for systems with S > 1/2 . In fact, the physical principles of transition metal EPR have long been well-established and since 1970s a series of dedicated voluminous monographs have been published already. Not surprisingly, they are not appropriate stating points for novices to grasp a panorama of the profound theory prior to scrutinizing in-depth references. The present review aims to fill this gap to provide a perspective of transition metal EPR and unveil some peculiar subtleties thereof on the basis of our recent work.
Shengfa Ye
Shengfa Ye graduated from Peking University and received his doctorate in inorganic chemistry at the University of Stuttgart under the supervision of Prof. W. Kaim (2005). After working as a postdoctoral fellow at Max-Planck Institute for Bioinorganic Chemistry and University of Bonn, in 2011, he was appointed as a group leader (staff scientist) at Max-Planck Institute for Chemical Energy Conversion and Max-Planck Institute for Coal Research. In 2020, he became a professor at State Key Laboratory of Catalysis, Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences. His present research work focuses on elucidating the mechanisms of small-molecule activation by metalloenzymes and transition-metal complexes using a combined spectroscopic and theoretical approach.