Gagnon, Nicole2020-08-252020-08-252018-03https://hdl.handle.net/11299/215163University of Minnesota Ph.D. dissertation. March 2018. Major: Chemistry. Advisor: William Tolman. 1 computer file (PDF); viii, 178 pages.The synthesis of copper-oxygen complexes to model copper metalloenzymes has been a long-standing research area in bioinorganic chemistry. Modelling the active site of metalloenzymes with small molecule models can provide insight into the role of structural characteristics towards reactivity. This thesis describes the work towards synthesis of monocopper and dicopper complexes supported by nitrogen-donor ligands and the nucleophilic reactivity towards substrates. The characterization of high valent, copper(III)-oxygen complexes by resonance Raman spectroscopy is also described.enThesis or Dissertation