In this project in the Inorganic, Bioinorganic, and Organo- metallic Program of the Chemistry Division, Arnold will study metal complexes containing sterically hindered tellurolate ligands. The long term goals of the research are to better define the coordination chemistry of tellurolate ligands via comparisons with related alkoxides and thiolates and, in doing so, to provide a rational basis for the design of molecular precursors to a variety of potentially useful solid-state materials. Considerable attention has been focused on a range of metal compounds incorporating tellurium due to their novel chemical, optical and electronic properties. In contrast to the large body of data pertaining to the solid-state properties of these materials, however, there continues to exist a large gap in our knowledge relating to the chemistry of discrete metal-tellurium bonds. This project outlines work aimed at developing the general chemistry of such interactions by studying metal complexes incorporating organotellurium ligands. A particular focus of the work is to better define the coordination chemistry of tellurolate ligands by probing new synthetic routes to discrete, monomeric tellurolate species with bulky aryl, alkyl, silyl and related substituents. This type of approach can be compared to recent advances in corresponding alkoxide and thiolates, where use of bulky ligands has resulted in a much more detailed understanding of the properties of metal-oxygen and metal-sulfur bonds. Since relatively few metal tellurolates are known, this chemistry will be developed across a broad spectrum of main group and transition elements in order to address specific questions regarding bonding and reactivity.
