With funding from the Inorganic, Bioinorganic and Organo- metallic Chemistry Program, Professor Theopold will continue his studies of chromium alkyl complex chemistry. In this grant period the focus will be on Cp*Cr(III), Cp*Cr(II) and Cp*Cr-oxo alkyl complexes, and on some novel Cp*Cr-oxo-M cluster compounds (Cp* is the pentamethylcyclopentadienyl group). Examples of Cp*Cr-oxo alkyl complexes in the formal IV, V and VI oxidation states have already been discovered. Although one objective of the research is the synthesis and structural characterization of new examples of the above compounds, the primary thrust of the work is to define the reactivity patterns of these classes of compounds. Of special interest is their activity as new polymerization catalysts and as models for the known heterogeneous chromium oxide/aluminum alkyl based industrial olefin polymerization catalysts. Because most of the compounds to be considered are paramagnetic, their characterization must rely on elemental analysis, reaction product analysis and x-ray structure determinations on suitably crystalline materials. %%% This project will explore the fundamental chemistry of organometallic compounds that contain unpaired electrons. As such, they have very different properties from the vast majority of known organometallic compounds. Because they are much harder to characterize with respect to structure, the chemistry of these novel compounds is not well known. It is believed that they may be related to current industrial catalysts that are used for production of polyolefins which are used in many household consumer products. This research may lead to even better catalysts for the production of these materials.
