This award will enable Professor Duward F. Shriver of Northwestern University to collaborate with Professor Masaru Ichikawa of Hokkaido University, Japan. They will study metal cluster compounds as catalyst precursors for the heterogeneous catalytic conversion of carbon monoxide to oxygen containing compounds. The catalytic incorporation of carbon monoxide into organic products is an area of considerable economic importance. This collaboration will bring the talents of two different groups to bear on the problem. Shriver's group is expert in the preparation of metal cluster compounds and they have developed versatile new precursors for mixed metal cluster syntheses. Ichikawa's group is exerienced in heterogeneous catalysis, and in particular, in the study of cluster-derived catalysts.
