Oana Luca

Our research lies at the interface of Physical, Inorganic and Organic Chemistry.

Modern chemical synthesis employs a variety of reagents to interconvert chemical functionalities and to impart molecular complexity. Such reagents often involve high-energy oxidizing and reductive species that require special handling and precautions during use in the laboratory.

Our overarching goal is to develop a systematic understanding of the electrochemical  and photochemical generation of  in situ oxidizing and reducing entities and overall circumventing the need for such energetic reagents. In this fashion, we address knowledge gaps related to the development of scalable, environmentally benign redox processes and catalysts, while we tackle problems in a variety of research fields such as water quality and purification, sustainable chemical synthesis as well as energy production and storage.

We use a variety of analytical tools for reaction monitoring such as calorimetry, NMR, GC-FT-IR, Online Mass Spectrometry, and UV-Vis to observe these transformations in real-time as they unfold, thus allowing us to get a high-level molecular picture of reaction progress during catalytic turnover.  We use these analyses to inform reaction optimization and identify intermediates along these complex chemical pathways.

Undergraduates and graduate students interested in learning more about the group should contact Oana at oana.luca@colorado.edu.

Postdoc applications should be directed to oana.luca@colorado.edu in .pdf format including a cover letter, a current CV with a list of publications and the contact information of at least 3 professional references.

• Oana R. Luca and Robert H. Crabtree, Redox-Active Ligands in Catalysis, Chemical Society Reviews 2013, 42, 1440-1459. (Werner special issue)
• Aidan Q. Fenwick, John M. Gregoire, Oana R. Luca, Electrocatalytic Reduction of Nitrogen and Carbon Dioxide to Chemical Fuels: Challenges as Opportunities for a Solar Fuel Device Photochem. Photobiol. B Special issue on “Artificial Photosynthesis” DOI: 10.1016/j.jphotobiol.2014.12.019.
• Oana R. Luca, Jeffrey L. Gustafson, Sean M. Maddox, Aidan Q. Fenwick, Daryl C. Smith, Catalysis by Electrons and Holes: Formal Potential Scales and Preparative Organic Electrochemistry Organic Chemistry Frontiers 2015, 2, 823-848.
• Oana R. Luca, Aidan Q. Fenwick, Organic reactions for the electrochemical and photochemical production of chemical fuels from CO₂ -The reduction chemistry of carboxylic acids and derivatives as bent CO₂ surrogates Photochem. Photobiol. B 2015, 10.1016/j.jphotobiol.2015.04.015.