USE OF ELECTROCHEMICAL METHODS AND STRUCTURALLY RELATED REDOX SERIES TO INVESTIGATE STERIC EFFECTS ON ELECTRON TRANSFER KINETICS.

The kinetics of electron transfer reactions involving transition metal complexes has played an important role in understanding the rates and mechanisms of this fundamental chemical process. The authors have synthesized several series of structurally related complexes that vary only in the size of organic substituents that are bonded to the ligands in positions remote from the donor atoms. Within each series, energetic factors associated with metal-based redox couples remain constant or vary in predictable ways so that steric effects can be discovered.