Dr. Stryker will focus his studies on developing new carbon-carbon bond making reactions using transition metal organometallic complexes which permit the regioselective addition of nucleophilic reagents to the central carbon of certain eta-3-allyl complexes. Thus, the regioselectivity normally observed in such nucleophilic additions will be reversed along with an inversion of the natural electron demand shown by allylic electrophiles. The resulting metallacyclobutane complexes represent an important organometallic structural class. The PI will study the mechanism of the reaction by probing the nature of the metal, its oxidation state, coordination geometry, the ancillary ligand set and the nucleophile. Manipulation of alkylative metallacyclobutane formation is anticipated to lead to the development of useful organic synthetic methodology. %%% With this award the Synthetic Organic Program will support the research of Dr. Jeffrey M. Stryker of the Department of Chemistry at Indiana University. The research will focus on developing new methods of carbon-carbon bond formation using transition metal organometallic compounds to synthesize derivatives of cyclobutane. The project is expected to provide a deeper understanding of how such reactions occur as well as new organic synthetic methodology.
