The Inorganic, Bioinorganic, and Organometallic Chemistry Program of the Chemistry Division supports Dr. Narayan S. Hosmane, Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry Northern Illinois University, for research into the synthesis, structure, and reactivity of metallacarboranes of main-group, transition, and lanthanide elements. The project will develop syntheses specifically aimed at constructing mixed open- pentadienylmetallacarborane sandwich complexes of main group, transition and lanthanide metals; carboranyl-chalcogenol-bridged metallocene derivatives of groups 3-5 transition metals, lanthanides, and some metals of the mid-transition elements; carborane-based ruthenium catalytic systems structurally based on the Hoveyda-Grubbs catalyst; and carborane- and metallacarborane-appended single-wall carbon nanotubes and fullerenes. The catalytic properties and further reactivity of these materials will be evaluated.
The goal of this research is to produce a number of new and novel compounds containing cages of carbon and/or boron combined a wide range of metals. These species might be useful in applications such as boron neutron capture therapy and in homogeneous catalysis. The students involved in this project, both graduates and undergraduates, will learn a breadth of synthetic skills.
