This award from the Inorganic, Bioinorganic and Organo- metallic program is to support the investigation of poly- nuclear transition metal oxoalkoxide complexes. The general focus is on compounds that may serve as soluble models for oxide surfaces, intermediates in alkoxide hydrolysis, and as precursors for sol-gel synthesis of new materials. The metals of interest are molybdenum and vanadium with possible extensions to tantalum and niobium; alkoxides will be chosen from among several polyfunctional hydroxylic compounds. The broad objectives of the research are to gain insight into the fundamental aspects of aggregation and thereby the control of nuclearity of the polynuclear species. %%% Metal oxides are among the most common and most useful metallic compounds but are also among the most difficult to characterize with respect to their mechanisms of formation and action in many catalytic reactions. Many metal oxides are prepared by reaction of metal alkoxides (metal salts of alcohols) with water. This research is designed to improve our understanding of both processes through the study of cluster molecules and ions that contain multiple metal atoms, and both oxide and alkoxide ligands. The new compounds will be studied in solution and in the solid state by a variety of spectroscopic methods and solid state structures will be determined by x-ray crystallography. Some of the compounds whose syntheses are proposed may be useful for the preparation of new ceramic materials and catalysts.
