Page 11 • Lehigh University Research Highlight! The Young Lab has published two recent articles on a Pd(II)-biladiene moiety that we are developing as a photosensitizer drug for photodynamic therapy. Photodynamic therapy (PDT) is a way to treat cancer using light. PDT relies on photosensitizer (PS) drugs that are activated to kill cancer cells when light is shined on them, thereby making the treatment spatially specific within the body. The key aspect to advance this therapy is the development of PS drugs with the necessary properties. Effective photosensitizers should ideally exhibit these four key characteristics: (1) absorb light in the therapeutic window, (2) have prolonged excited-state triplet lifetimes for the treatment to be effective, (3) efficiently generate reactive oxygen species (singlet oxygen), and (4) have high specificity for targeting cancer cells. In collaboration with the Rosenthal group at the University of Delaware, the Young lab has developed and investigated a series of porphyrinoid complexes that can be used as PS drugs for PDT. Our lab has carried out the time-resolved spectroscopy to quantify the excited-state evolution of three specific Pd(II) biladine complexes. In doing so, we discovered excitation-wavelength dependent photophysics that is uncommon in most chromophores. In collaboration with the Fredin group at Lehigh, we rationalized that excitation into higher-energy metal-mixed-chargetransfer excited states with high spin–orbit coupling to higher-energy metal-mixed-charge-transfer triplet states leads to the additional excitation deactivation pathway. The results of our team’s work demonstrate that Pd(II) biladienes support a unique triplet photochemistry that may be exploited for development of new photochemical schemes and applications. Our results are reported in the following two publications: Over the summer of 2022, Professor Young and Professor Fredin, continued the second year of the PURE program (Photochemistry Undergraduate Research Experience), which combines computation and experimental physical chemistry research. Four Lehigh undergraduate students (Jake Haber, Chem ’25; Allen Chen, Physics ’25; Rachel Joh, Chem ’25; Gabe Masso, Chem ’24) are continuing their research projects during the 2022-2023 academic year. See https://wordpress.lehigh.edu/younglablehigh/pure/ for more details. Pictured here, L to R, Lisa Fredin, Gabe Masso, Jake Haber, Christian Guzman (Grad mentor), Zach Knepp (Grad mentor) Domenica Fertal (Grad mentor), Rachel Joh, Allen Chen , Elizabeth Young
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