This award in the Inorganic, Bioinorganic, and Organometallic Chemistry Program supports continued fundamental studies of coordination chemistry by Dr. Henry Taube of the Chemistry Department, Stanford University. Emphasis will be placed on investigations of the reactivity of metal complexes, including substitution lability as a function of electronic structure, inner and outer sphere electron transfer, mixed valence behavior, linkage isomerism accompanying electron transfer, and acidity of coordinated ligands. Binuclear osmium complexes containing metals in different oxidation states will be probed, as well as unusual osmium species containing either a combination of aromatic and dihydrogen ligands, or facially-bound macrocyclic ligands. Understanding of the influence of structure and electron movement in metal-containing species is an essential underpinning for development of molecular-level electronics, molecular switches and synthetic enzymes. This research will provide new and important information on how to design molecules to control the transfer of electrons and of small atoms or groups of atoms.
