Piers, WarrenFairburn, Laura2016-09-072016-09-0720162016http://hdl.handle.net/11023/3271Building on the idea of a pentapyridine ligand, the Piers group has recently focused on the development of a family of boron-substituted pentadentate ligands (B2Pz4Py). This work will describe the expansion of preliminary research completed by Dr. Denis Spasyuk, involving newly synthesized cobalt complexes coordinated with a dianionic pentadentate phenyl-substituted diborate ligand. Instead of continuing with the phenyl-substituted ligand, the synthetic procedure for the ligand was adapted to make a tolyl-substituted version. The synthesis and characterization of cobalt(II) complexes and their propensity to bind O2 forming a binuclear μ-peroxo cobalt(III) complex was explored. The binding of oxygen was found to be reversible and that the O2 was activated towards protonation and that reduction of the products lead back to cobalt(II). The relevance of this chemistry to the Oxygen Reduction Reaction (ORR) was discussed. The catalytic ability of the complex to reduce oxygen was measured and preliminary results showed comparable activity to the previously studied oxygen reduction cobalt catalysts.engUniversity of Calgary graduate students retain copyright ownership and moral rights for their thesis. You may use this material in any way that is permitted by the Copyright Act or through licensing that has been assigned to the document. For uses that are not allowable under copyright legislation or licensing, you are required to seek permission.Chemistry--Inorganiccobaltoxygen reductionmaster thesis10.11575/PRISM/26099