This award in the Inorganic, Bioinorganic, and Organometallic Program provides continued support for research by Dr. Joseph L. Templeton of the Chemistry Department, University of North Carolina, on the reactions of coordinated 4-electron donor ligands. Templeton will synthesize chiral metal alkyne complexes of niobium (III) and tungsten (II) containing new alkyne, alcohol and eneyne ligands. Enantioselective reactions with resolved metal complexes will be used to build intermediate size rings, to promote 1,4-conjugate addition across the olefin tail of coordinated eneynes, and to cleave the alkyne to generate organic products. Diastereoselective nucleophilic additions will be promoted by aldehyde and ketone complexes. Platinum (IV) alkyne complexes will be studied, and nitrogen activation will also be explored using analogous reactions with isoelectronic dinitrogen. %%% Organic molecules will be tranformed while they are attached to a metal. The reactions are of a special type in which the "handedness" or chirality of the product is controlled. Development of powerful and versatile reagents which can be selective in this way is the important goal of this research. The results have implications for many industrial processes which are catalyzed by transition metals and for the synthesis of pure organic compounds for use in drug manufacture.
