This award from the Inorganic, Bioinorganic and Organometallic Chemistry Program will support research on two rather diverse projects in organometallic chemistry. In one of these projects new metal-containing derivatives of the molecule decaborane will be synthesized and studied. The new compounds are expected to be useful as precursors for metal borides, a group of materials valued for their exceptional thermal stability, strength and hardness. In the other project the possibility of carrying out organic syntheses on the diironhexacarbonyl framework will be be explored. The iron compound is a member of a class of compounds which contain two or more metal atoms per molecule and which are important as industrial catalysts and as models of metalloenzymes. The goals of the research project are: (1) To develop novel and potentially useful proximity-assisted ligand reactions in chemistry which is based on salts of the mu-CO,mu-RS-diironhexacarbonyl anion. (2) To use the above anions as starting materials for the synthesis of novel dibridged complexes and to explore the reactivity of the bridging ligands in these new complexes. (3) To develop further the organometallic and organic chemistry of decaborane. Of particular interest is the synthesis of adducts of decaborane with such early transition metals as titanium, zirconium, hafnium, vanadium, niobium and tantalum.
