Oxidation state is an identifier used by scientists to understand the mechanisms of oxidation-reduction reactions and catalysis. In a recent paper, published in Angewandte Chemie, by graduate student Haoyu Yu and Regents Professor Donald Truhlar, an MSI PI in the Department of Chemistry, the authors reveal the existence of oxidation state 10. Previously, oxidation states ranged from -4 through +9. An article about this paper appears on the chemistry department’s website: "Hot Paper” on research reveals that oxidation state 10 exists. The paper can be found on the Angewandte Chemie website: Oxidation State 10 Exists. 2016. H.S. Yu and D.G. Truhlar. Angewandte Chemie, DOI: 10.1002/anie.201604670. A story also appeared in Chemical & Engineering News.
Professor Truhlar is a long-time Principal Investigator of the Minnesota Supercomputing Institute. His group’s work at MSI uses quantum mechanical, quantum statistical, semiclassical, and classical mechanical methods to study a wide range of problems in chemical dynamics and quantum chemistry.