Scott Bunge

The Bunge research group designs and characterizes metal complexes to understand how their structures determine their chemical behavior. Foundational work includes metal amides, guanidinates, alkoxides, and aryloxides, with particular interests in low-coordinate complexes, unusual metal assemblies, and reactive molecular precursors. These studies connect fundamental questions about bonding and coordination with applications in catalysis and materials synthesis, including precatalysts for lactide polymerization and molecular routes to semiconductor nanostructures.

A complementary focus is the relationship between molecular organization and material properties. Collaborative projects have examined multinuclear copper and nickel assemblies, hydrogen-bond-directed supramolecular structures, organic semiconductors, and liquid crystals.  Single-crystal X-ray diffraction provides a central link between synthesis and an understanding of molecular geometry, crystal packing, and structure–property relationships.  More recent biomedical collaborations apply coordination chemistry to the development of metal-containing antimicrobial agents.

Dr. Bunge has co-authored over 80 peer-reviewed publications with collaborators in chemistry, physics, materials science, and biology. He maintains the department’s single-crystal X-ray diffraction facility.   Mentoring is at the heart of Dr. Bunge’s work. He has supervised more than 60 research students, most of them undergraduates, many of whom appear as co-authors on his publications and conference presentations. Research methods include Schlenk-line and glovebox techniques for air-sensitive synthesis, single-crystal X-ray diffraction, multinuclear NMR, infrared spectroscopy, and UV–visible spectroscopy. Collaborations provide complementary expertise in materials characterization and biological evaluation.

Selected Publications

Representative peer-reviewed publications spanning biomedical chemistry, molecular materials, supramolecular assembly, catalysis, and synthetic inorganic chemistry.

1. Chen G, Whitley L, Tong X, Bunge SD, Kim MH, Shin WS, Huang SD. Repurposing the Anticancer Drug KP46 to Beat the CRAB out of Resistance: Towards an Orally Active Ga-Based Antiplantonic and Antibiofilm Agent. Antibiotics. 2025;14(12):1175. https://doi.org/10.3390/antibiotics14121175
2. Li Z, Powers M, Ivey K, Adas S, Ellman B, Bunge SD, Twieg RJ. Fluorinated triphenylenes and a path to short tailed discotic liquid crystals: synthesis, structure and transport properties. Materials Advances. 2022;3:534–546. https://doi.org/10.1039/D1MA00606A
3. Wang Z, Li J, Benin BM, Yu B, Bunge SD, Abeydeera N, Huang SD, Kim MH. Lipophilic Ga Complex with Broad-Spectrum Antimicrobial Activity and the Ability to Overcome Gallium Resistance in both Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Staphylococcus aureus. Journal of Medicinal Chemistry. 2021;64(13):9381–9388. https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.jmedchem.1c00656
4. Tandon SS, Bunge SD, Patel N, Wang EC, Thompson LK. Self-Assembly of Antiferromagnetically-Coupled Copper(II) Supramolecular Architectures with Diverse Structural Complexities. Molecules. 2020;25(23):5549. https://doi.org/10.3390/molecules25235549
5. Wang KL, Bhandari S, Bunge SD, Twieg RJ, Dunietz BD. Enhancing charge mobilities in selectively fluorinated oligophenyl organic semiconductors: a design approach based on experimental and computational perspectives. Journal of Materials Chemistry C. 2019;7:3881–3888. https://doi.org/10.1039/C8TC06517A
6. Ng JJ, Durr CB, Lance JM, Bunge SD. A Family of 1,1,3,3-Tetraalkylguanidine (H-TAG) Solvated Zinc Aryloxide Precatalysts for the Ring-Opening Polymerization of rac-Lactide. European Journal of Inorganic Chemistry. 2010;2010(9):1424–1430. https://doi.org/10.1002/ejic.200900986
7. Bunge SD, Bertke JA, Cleland TL. Synthesis, Structure, and Reactivity of Low-Coordinate 1,1,3,3-Tetraethylguanidinate Complexes. Inorganic Chemistry. 2009;48(16):8037–8043. https://doi.org/10.1021/ic9007153
8. Bunge SD, Ocana JA, Cleland TL, Steele JL. Synthetic, Structural, and Theoretical Investigation of Guanidinate Complexes Containing Planar Cu₆ Cores. Inorganic Chemistry. 2009;48(11):4619–4621. https://doi.org/10.1021/ic9003627