This CAREER award in the Inorganic, Bioinorganic, and Organometallic Chemistry Program supports research and education on oxygen transfer reactions by Dr. Mahdi M. Abu-Omar of the Chemistry Department, University of California - Los Angeles. New rhenium-based catalysts will be prepared and used to enhance the oxygen-transfer chemistry of sulfoxides. The catalytic reactions of complexes of the general formula ReOCl3LL' will be studied in detail using spectroscopic and kinetic methods. Density Functional Theory calculations on model systems will be used to understand the catalytic reactivities. Using the results, chiral Re(V) oxazoline complexes that are resistant to degradation will be designed in order to promote asymmetric oxo-transfer reactions.
Efficient new catalysts will be developed for the asymmetric epoxidation of olefins by sulfoxides. The educational component of this CAREER Award will focus on incorporating contemporary research issues into undergraduate classes in inorganic chemistry and new approaches to problem sessions will be developed.
