This award in the Inorganic, Bioinorganic, and Organometallic Chemistry Program supports research and education on polyoxometalates by Dr. Richard G. Finke of the Chemistry Department, Colorado State University. New classes of polyoxometalates will be synthesized, characterized, and tested as oxidation catalysts. Detailed kinetic and mechanistic studies will be included. Methods will be developed to use the polyoxometalates to support organometallic derivatives for catalytic use. Also, a novel method for using molecular oxygen and aldehyde as co-catalysts for oxidation of important olefins such as propylene and ethylene will be explored. Polyoxometalate anions are complex, negatively-charged groups which contain a number of metal atoms, such as tungsten and titantium; oxygen atoms; and phosphorus. In this research, new classes of these anions will be synthesized and developed as oxidation catalysts. The robustness and inertness of these species make them advantageous for this application, and an approach which uses molecular oxygen as an oxidant is environmentally benign.
