| People
- Faculty
- Professor:
Peter C. Ford |
| Field(s): |
Inorganic/Organometallic Chemistry |
 |
| Email: |
ford@chem.ucsb.edu |
| Phone: |
(805)
893-
2443 |
Fax:
(805)
893-
4120 |
| Office: |
4649C PSB North |
 |
Selected
Publications |
|
Go
to Research Group website |
| Bio: |
Dr Ford joined the UC Santa Barbara faculty in 1967 after his Ph.D. at Yale in 1966 and a NSF postdoctoral fellowship at Stanford. He is a Fellow of the AAAS and has been a Dreyfus Foundation Teacher-Scholar and a Senior Fulbright Fellow. His awards include an Alexander von Humboldt Foundation Senior U.S. Scientist Award (1992) and the Richard C. Tolman Medal of the ACS (1993). |
|
Current
Research
Our research is concerned with three long-term interests: catalysis,
the photochemistry and photophysics of transition metal complexes,
and the bioinorganic chemistry of nitric oxide complexes. The
common theme is our interest in reaction mechanisms and in applications
of quantitative spectroscopic techniques to investigate these
systems.
Our
catalysis research is currently focused on exploratory studies
to develop new methodologies for the conversion of renewable
resources, such as biomass, to fuels and more chemical precursors.
In addition we have exploited our expertise in photochemistry
to utilize laser flash photolysis techniques for studying
the IR spectra and reaction kinetics of short-lived organometallic
intermediates involved in catalytic cycles. This has already
proved to be a powerful tool in probing CO migratory insertion
into metal-alkyl bonds and the activation of C-H bonds in
alkanes and aromatic hydrocarbons.
Recent
photophysical studies have been concerned with the development
new approaches to the delivery of bioactive substances to
targets such as malignant tumors. The idea is to develop materials,
which are themselves chemically inactive but which can be
triggered with a signal (the absorption of light in this case)
to release a bioactive substance such as nitric oxide and
carbon monoxide or some other substance. Both NO and CO are
known to be biological signaling agents at very low concentrations.
We are designing and building polychromophoric compounds that
incorporate desired photophysical properties as well as the
carriers of the "caged" bioactive agent. Our studies
include the possible applications of nano-crystal quantum
dots as the antenna in such complex systems as well as the
use of two-photon excitation using near infrared light, which
has the advantage of being more tissue penetrating than other
wavelengths. We are also studying molecular systems that may
prove active as luminescent sensors for the detection of specific
analytes in living cells or organisms
The
third area is concerned with the chemistry of nitric oxide
which several years ago was identified as an important chemical
messenger in mammalian physiology and to have a significant
role in immune response. This activity is largely mediated
by reactions with metal ions, molecular oxygen or highly reactive
radicals such as the superoxide ion. In this context, we are
carrying out fundamental studies of the reactions of NO under
biologically relevant conditions and are investigating the
kinetics of NO reactions involving metal ion centers by laser
flash photolysis and stopped-flow reactors as well as more
conventional methods.
Links
NSF Center for
Enabling New Technologies through Catalysis
|
| Selected
Research Publications |
| Intramolecular
reductive nitrosylation. Reaction of nitric oxide and a copper(II)
complex of a cyclam derivative with pendant luminescent chromophores.
Kiyoshi Tsuge, Frank DeRosa, Mark D. Lim, Peter C. Ford* J.
Amer. Chem. Soc. 2004, 126, 6564-6565. |
| New
chromium(III) complexes for photochemical nitric oxide generation
from coordinated nitrite. The synthesis and photochemistry of
macrocyclic complexes with pendant chromophores, trans-[Cr(L)(ONO)2]BF4,
Frank DeRosa, Xianhui Bu, Peter C. Ford*. Inorganic Chemistry,
2005, 44, 4157-4165. |
| The
Remarkable Axial Lability of the Iron Corrole Complex FeIII(TNPC),
Crisjoe A. Joseph and Peter C. Ford J. Amer. Chem. Soc., 2005,
127, 6737-6743. |
| Reactions
of Nitrogen Oxides with Heme Models. Spectral Characterization
of an Elusive 5-Coordinate FeIII(porphyrin) Nitrito Intermediate,
Tigran S. Kurtikyan, and Peter C. Ford, Angewandte Chemie 2006,
45, 492-496. |
| Photochemical
and Time Resolved Spectroscopic Studies of Intermediates Relevant
to Iridium-Catalyzed Methanol Carbonylation: Photoinduced CO
Migratory Insertion, Maurizio Volpe, GuangWu, Alexei Iretskii,
and Peter C. Ford, Inorganic Chemistry 2006, 45, 1861-1870. |
| A
Two-Photon Antenna for Photochemical Delivery of Nitric Oxide
from a Water Soluble, Dye Derivatized Iron Nitrosyl Complex
Using NIR Light, Stephen R. Wecksler, Alexander Mikhailovsky,
Dmitry Korystov, and Peter C. Ford. J. Amer. Chem. Soc. 2006,
128, 3831-3837. |
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