This Career Advancement Award for Women is made in the Inorganic, Bioinorganic, and Organometallic Chemistry Program to Dr. Claire A. Tessier of the Chemistry Department, University of Akron. Due to impurities, commercially available main-group metal silicides have not proved to be useful starting materials for further functionalization. Dr. Tessier will prepare pure silicides by low temperature routes, study their reactivity and functionalization, and determine which impurities in commercially available materials impede or accelerate reactions. Solid state NMR and X-ray diffraction will be used in characterization. The long term goal of the research is to synthesize novel polysilanes and metal-silicon compounds which might serve as precursors to silicon carbide and solid state transition-metal silicides. The work undertaken here will enable Dr. Tessier to expand research areas in her laboratory and establish an independent research program.
