Dr. John Arnold, Chemistry Department, University of California - Berkeley, is supported by the Inorganic, Bioinorganic, and Organometallic Chemistry Program of the Chemistry Division for the development of new monoanionic ligands. The chemistry of early transition metal and lanthanide complexes of the ligands will be explored. The major thrust is a new series of monoanion ligands that will be capable of supporting chemistry related to that presently dominated by Cp based systems. Specifically new functionalized 14-membered tetraazamacrocycles will be developed, their complexes with di and trivalent metals prepared, and their stoichiometric and catalytic reactivity investigated.
Reactions mediated by transition metal and lanthanide element compounds are important on an industrial scale and provide ever increasing fundamental knowledge regarding the nature of the chemical bond. In recent years, there has been considerable effort in developing ligands that will tailor the chemical reactivity and properties of the metal. In this study new ligands will be designed to facilitate reactions at metal ions with a 2+ and 3+ charge. This is an important goal since many important processes that are known to take place at 4+ ions have not yet been efficiently developed for 2+ and 3+ counterparts. An important goal of the project is the education of young scientists at the graduate and postdoctoral level.
