This project in materials chemistry is sponsored jointly by the Inorganic, Bioinorganic and Organometallic Chemistry Program and the Polymers Program. The research will apply reagents, reactions and components drawn from organometallic chemistry to problems in surface and interfacial chemistry and materials science. The research is expected to lead to new methods for making several kinds of important materials, such as highly ordered thin films and polymers which are stable at high temperatures. The research falls in four broad areas: 1) Catalytic C-H bond activation using homogeneous reactions; 2) Surface organometallic chemistry, especially the chemistry of metal surface alkyls and of coordination complexes on metal and metal oxide surfaces. Self-assembled, oriented organic monolayer films prepared by coordination of appropriate organic bases to metal and metal oxide surfaces are of particular interest. 3) New functional and temperature-stable polymers, including all-carbon-backbone condensation polymers and highly branched polymers, made using organometallic processes; 4) The organic solid state, particularly hyper-crosslinked organic solids and organometallic thin films prepared by sol-gel methods.
