This research of Dr. Paul Knochel will be supported by the Organic Synthesis Program at the Department of Chemistry at the University of Michigan. Studies will be made of organometallic reagents which have the potential for producing new types of synthetic reagents. These will provide the synthetic organic chemist with more sophisticated reagents required for the synthesis of the more complex molecules. New classes of 1,1-, and to some extent 1,2- and 1,3- diorganometallics will be studied which have two carbon-metal bonds in close proximity so they can interact. As a result, the properties of the carbon-metal bonds will be essentially different from those of the isolated carbon-metal bond and special reactivities and structural properties may be observed (planar tetracoordinated carbon atom, unusual bridged structures). Efforts will be made to obtain X-ray structures of these sensitive compounds. However, the new synthetic possibilities of these diorganometallics will constitute the major part of the research. The possibility to have two carbanionic centers in a 1,1-, or 1,3- relationships will open unique synthetic possibilities in organic and in organometallic chemistry (synthesis of new reactive transition metal organometallics and new approaches for the formation of carbon-carbon bonds). A controlled and high yield oxidation of 1,1- diorganometallics has been established and will be extensively studied.
