The Inorganic, Bioinorganic, and Organometallic Program of the Chemistry Division continues support to Dr. Mary Rakowski-DuBois of the Chemistry Department, University of Colorado at Boulder, for studies of carbon-carbon coupling reactions and synthesis of dinuclear compounds containing metals with vacant coordination sites. Binuclear molybdenum compounds with sulfide and hydrosulfide bridging ligands have been synthesized and found to catalyze the oligomerization of isobutene. Investigation of the mechanism of this reaction is planned so that the selectivity and stability of this catalyst can be compared to known catalysts for similar reactions. One part of the investigation will focus on reaction surveys, stoichiometric reactions, and Extended Huckel Molecular Orbital calculations to investigate the reaction mechanism. A second part of the project will be to synthesize new compounds in which the bridging and/or terminal ligands have been altered to enhance catalytic activity either by placing the substrate in proximity of the hypothetically critical bridging ligand or by increasing the likelihood that a vacant coordination site will form.
