Eckenhoff, William T. (Will)Hutchison, Phillips S.Kiker, Meghan T.Tinker, Cameron W.2018-05-092018-05-092018-04-27http://hdl.handle.net/10267/33454Presentation by Phillips Hutchison ('19), Meghan Kiker ('19), and Cameron Tinker ('19) delivered at the Rhodes College Undergraduate Research and Creative Activity Symposium (URCAS).As the world's population increases, developing new energy sources, such as artificial photosynthetic hydrogen production, is becoming a priority. Recent studies have shown the effectiveness of cobalt complexes with polypyridine ligands acting as catalysts for light driven hydrogen production. 1,1-(pyridine-2,6-diyl)bis(2-(2-pyridinyl)ethyl)ethanimine is a promising ligand because of its electronic similarity to ligands previously used for cobalt catalyzed hydrogen production. Ligands were synthesized following procedures in available literature and subsequently complexed to cobalt using a Co(BF4)3 salt. Recent work has focused on further purification of the ligand to eliminate impurities in the complex. Electrochemical analysis shows redox waves at -0.725V and -2.147V vs Fc/Fc+. In the presence of acetic acid, a catalytic wave, indicative of hydrogen formation, was observed at -2.147 V vs Fc/Fc+. These results suggest that this complex might be suitable in light driven artificial photosiynthetic systems.Class of 2019URCASStudent research2018 SpringChemistry, Department of