9409446 Ruhlandt-Senge Syracuse University Dr. Karin Ruhlandt-Senge, Chemistry Department, Syracuse University, is supported by the Inorganic, Bioinorganic, and Organometallic Chemistry Program of the Chemistry Division with a Research Planning Grant to explore the preparation of compounds in which an alkaline earth is bonded to another metal. Compounds containing a homometallic bond between two group 2 metals will be prepared by reduction of an alkaline earth halide, R-M-X (R = bulky alkyl, aryl, sily, amido, thiolato; M = Be, Mg, Ca, Sr, or Ba; X = Cl, Br, or I). In addition, complexes containing a transition metal to alkaline earth bond will be produced from the reactions of metal carbonyls or carbonylates with R-M-X or with the products obtained from the reduction of R-M-X. A series of chemical reactions will be attempted in order to probe the characteristics of metal-metal bonds involving a group 2 atom. There are many compounds which contain two or more metals bonded to one another. These species have a variety of applications including as catalysts and electronic materials. However, there are no well characterized molecules in which an alkaline earth metal, i.e. beryllium, magnesium, calcium, strontium, or barium, is bonded to another metal. In this project methods will be devised for the preparation of such species and the chemical properties of the metal-metal bonds will be explored. Ultimate uses as precursors to advanced materials are foreseen.
