This CAREER award in the Inorganic, Bioinorganic and Organometallic Chemistry program supports work by Professor Marc Johnson at the University of Michigan to prepare late metal complexes with triple bonds to carbon or nitrogen. This project will explore the synthesis, bonding, and reactivity of late metal LnMCR and LnMN moieties. Calorimetric and computational methods will be employed to understand the energetics of species relevant to alkyne and nitrile metathesis reactions. Ruthenium carbyne, carbide, and nitrido complexes will provide access to the chemistry of late metal ligand triple bonds. A computational laboratory companion to an advanced inorganic lecture course at Michigan will be developed. Students involved with a GAANN program entitled Chemical Sciences at the Interface will collaborate with science education personnel to assess student learning outcomes in this setting.
Olefin metathesis has developed into a particularly powerful tool for reconstructing complex organic molecules. In both natural product strategies and macromolecular reaction mechanisms, the impact of olefin cross reactions for new carbon-carbon bond formation is enormous. This project is designed to move toward an understanding of the principles involved in metathesis of triple bonds involving both carbon and nitrogen with transition metal complexes serving the role of mediators.
