Teresa Heinz Professor of Green Chemistry
Carnegie Mellon University
email: tc1u@cmu.edu
Phone: (412) 268-6335
Fax: (412) 268-1061
Office: Mellon Institute 712
Teresa Heinz Professor of Green Chemistry
Green Chemistry, Green Oxidation Catalysis in Water, Inorganic Chemistry, Biomimetic Chemistry of Peroxidase Enzymes, Mechanisms of Oxidation Catalysis, Novel Approaches to Water Purification
We design homogeneous oxidation catalysts to activate the natural oxidants, hydrogen peroxide and oxygen. By following an iterative design protocol, we have developed TAML activators with iron as the active metal that are outstanding peroxidase mimics, but are only about 1% the size of the enzymes. Peroxidase enzymes are distributed widely in nature and activate hydrogen peroxide to oxidize organic substrates. We are continuing to develop our insight into how to control catalyst lifetime, reactivity and selectivity via ligand design and are producing new peroxidase mimics with targeted reactivity features. Students learn to design high performance oxidation catalysts and to apply synthetic organic and inorganic chemistry to enable their design work.
In water with hydrogen peroxide (or some other oxidizing agents), TAML activators produce exceptionally strong oxidizing systems that generally perform rapidly and are capable of large turnover numbers. The reaction chemistry is usually highly efficient in hydrogen peroxide use and appears to be primarily non-radical in nature. We design ways to kinetically isolate the various steps in the complex catalytic cycle and then measure the rate behavior as we work to construct a full quantitative picture of the catalysis. Students learn how to perform kinetic studies on complex catalytic systems including stopped-flow and conventional techniques.
TAML activators do their catalytic work at remarkably low concentrations, low micromolar to nanomolar. By using design understanding informed by mechanistic insight, we have been able to produce variants that oxidize many pollutants in water over a wide range of reaction conditions. The list includes persistent chlorinated phenols, natural and synthetic estrogens, active pharmaceutical agents, dyes and colored lignin fragments, chemical warfare agents, persistent explosives residuals, pesticides, and colored and smelly pollutants from the pulp and paper industry. High performance disinfection of hardy pathogens including bacterial spores and clostridia has also been discovered. Students learn how to follow these processes using a range of analytical techniques.
| 2010–present | Teresa Heinz Professor of Green Chemistry Carnegie Mellon University |
| 2001–2010 | Thomas Lord Professor of Chemistry, Carnegie Mellon University |
| 1988–1992 | Associate Professor of Chemistry, Carnegie Mellon University |
| 1981–1987 | Assistant Professor of Chemistry, California Institute of Technology |
| 1978–1980 | Postdoctoral Fellow, Stanford University |
| 1978 | Doctor of Philosophy, University of Auckland |
| 1975 | Master of Science with First Class Honors, University of Auckland |
| 1974 | Bachelor of Science, University of Auckland |
| 2010 | Heinz Award for the Environment |
| 2008 | Honorary Fellow of the Royal Society of New Zealand |
| 2008 | Charles E. Kaufman Award of the Pittsburgh Foundation |
| 2007 | Award of the New York Metropolitan Catalysis Society |
| 2007 | Distinguished Alumnus Award, University of Auckland, New Zealand |
| 2006 | Fellow of the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemists |
| 2004 | Pittsburgh Award of the American Chemical Society |
| 2004 | Award of the Baylor University ACS Students Affiliates for Outstanding Achievements in Green chemistry |
| 2002 | Golden Goggles Award, Middle Tennessee State University |
| 2001 | Honorary Professor, University of Auckland, 2001 |
| 1998 | Presidential Green Chemistry Challenge Award |
| 1997 | Award of the Japanese Society of Pure and Applied Coordination Chemistry |
| 1997 | Award of the Japanese Society of Pure and Applied Coordination Chemistry |
| 1986 | Alfred P. Sloan Research Fellow |
| 1985 | Camille and Henry Dreyfus Teacher-Scholar |
S. Kundu, M. Annavajhala, I. V. Kurnikov, A. D. Ryabov, T. J. Collins, Experimental and Theoretical Evidence for Multiple FeIV Reactive Intermediates in TAML Activator Catalysis: Rationalizing a Counterintuitive Reactivity Order, Chem. Eur. J., 2012, 18, 10244–10249.
Soumen Kundu, Jasper Van Kirk Thompson, Alexander D. Ryabov, and Terrence J. Collins, On the Reactivity of Mononuclear Iron(V)oxo Complexes, J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2011, 133, 18546–18549, DOI: 10.1021/ja208007w
Longzhu Q. Shen, Evan S. Beach, Yan Xiang, Dwight J. Tshudy, Natalya Khanina, Colin P. Horwitz, Mark E. Bier, and Terrence J. Collins, Rapid, Biomimetic Degradation of Sertraline in Water by TAML Catalytic Activation of Hydrogen Peroxide, Environ. Sci. Technol., 2011, 45 (18), pp 7882–7887, DOI: 10.1021/es201392k
Designing green oxidation catalysts for purifying environmental waters, W. Chadwick Ellis, Camly T. Tran, Riddhi Roy, Marte Rusten, Andreas Fischer, Alexander D. Ryabov, Bruce Blumberg, and Terrence J. Collins, J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2010, 132, 9774-81 DOI: 10.1021/ja102524v
Fast Water Oxidation Using Iron, Ellis, William Chadwick; McDaniel, Neal D.; Bernhard, Stefan; Collins, Terrence J., J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2010, 132, 10990–10991, DOI: 10.1021/ja104766z
T. J. Collins, S. K. Khetan and A. D. Ryabov, “Iron-TAML catalysts in green oxidation processes based on hydrogen peroxide", in "Handbook of Green Chemistry", Anastas, P. and Crabtree, R., Eds., pp. 39–77, 2009 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & KgaA, Weinheim.
D. Ryabov, T. J. Collins, "Mechanistic Considerations on the Reactivity of Green FeIII-TAML Activators of Peroxides", Adv. Inorg. Chem. 2009, 61, 471–521
Ghosh, A.; Mitchell, D. A.; Chanda, A.; Ryabov, A. D.; Popescu, D.-L.; Upham, E. C.; Collins, G. J.; Collins, T. J., Catalase−Peroxidase Activity of Iron(III)-TAML Activators of Hydrogen Peroxide, J. Am. Chem. Soc., 2008, 130 (45), 15116–15126, 2008. 10.1021/ja8043689
Shappell, N. W., M. Vrabel, P. Madsen, Jr., G. Harrington, L. O. Billey, H. Hakk, G. Larsen, C. P. Horwitz, E. Beach, K. Ro, P. G. Hunt, T. J. Collins, Destruction of estrogens using Fe·TAML/peroxide catalysis, Environmental Science and Technology, 2008, 42 (4), 1296–1300
Tiago de Oliveira, F. T.; Chanda, A.; Banerjee, D.; Shan, X.; Mondal, S.; Que, L., Jr.; Bominaar, E. L.; Münck, E.; Collins, T. J., Chemical and spectroscopic evidence for an Fe(V)-oxo complex, Science, 2007, 315, 835–838.
Chanda, A., S. K. Khetan, D. Banerjee, A. Ghosh, T. J. Collins, Total Oxidative Degradation of Fenitrothion and Other Organophosphorus Pesticides, J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2006, 128, 12058–12059.
Gupta, S. S., M. Stadler, C. A. Noser, A. Ghosh, B. Steinhoff, D. Lenoir, C. P. Horwitz, K.-W. Schramm, T. J. Collins, Rapid total destruction of chlorophenol pollutants by activated hydrogen peroxide, Science, 2002, 296, 326–328.