Lawrence "Larry" Que Jr.

Inorganic & Organometallic Chemistry: bioinorganic chemistry

Chemical Biology: nonheme iron enzymes

Environmental & Green Chemistry: enzymatic oxidation

Energy & Catalysis

Our group focuses on bio-inorganic chemistry, specifically on the topic of iron, oxygen and (bio)catalysis. Our research effort, involving a combination of biochemical, synthetic inorganic, and spectroscopic approaches, is aimed at elucidating the oxygen activation mechanisms of nonheme iron enzymes, designing functional models for such enzymes, trapping and characterizing reaction intermediates, and developing bio-inspired oxidation catalysts for green chemistry applications. The pictures illustrate the crystal structure of a recently isolated oxoiron(IV) complex with the oxo atom syn to the methyl groups of the TMC macrocycle and a DFT-calculated structure for a reactive intermediate that we have trapped in our efforts to develop bio-inspired iron catalysts for hydrocarbon oxidation.