This award in the Inorganic, Bioinorganic and Organometallic Chemistry program supports Dr. Oleg Ozerov at Brandeis University to explore the organometallic chemistry of a new class of diarylamido-based "pincer" PNP ligands with group 9 and 10 metals to develop of new, superior catalysts for complementary C-C and C-heteroatom coupling reactions. The first section of the project also includes an interdisciplinary study of the kinetics of the solid-state N-C oxidative addition reaction. The second section concerns the development of new Lewis acid catalysts based on the PNP complexes of Ni (and possibly Pd or Pt). The novelty lies partly in the unusual Lewis acidity of [(PNP)M]+ cations but also in the use of Ni, an underutilized metal in pincer-based catalysis, that is cheaper than the more commonly-used Pd and also more environmentally benign. The second section alsoincludes the investigation of very unusual, apparently three-coordinate, paramagnetic compounds of Pd(II) and Pt(II). Three-coordinate Pd and Pt compounds are often invoked as intermediates in catalytic processes, but the plausibility of the triplet spin state for such species has not yet been brought to light.
Broader impacts are in the training of graduate and undergraduate students, particularly women, and the establishment of collaborations with researchers from three non-PhD schools. In collaboration with Dr. William Armstrong at Boston College, Dr. Ozerov has also expanded the Boston Regional Inorganic Chemistry (BRIC) meetings sphere of reach outside of the metro Boston area and also to non-PhD granting institutions.
