This award in the Inorganic, Bioinorganic and Organometallic Chemistry program to Professor Joseph Templeton at the University of North Carolina addresses new approaches to catalytic stereoselective synthesis and C-H functionalization. One method of promoting stereoselective intramolecular ligand reactions will be delved by preparing complexes with terminal alkyne ligands adjacent to reactive ligands. Since terminal alkyne C-H sites are particularly susceptible to attack, metallacycles are plausible intermediates in new ligand transformations. A second method is to capitalize on the analogy between four-electron donor alkyne ligands and eta2-nitrile ligands by constructing coordination spheres that will favor pi-coordination of nitriles, which promise to promote intramolecular ligand reactions. Efforts to activate alkanes and arenes with platinum reagents and saturated cycloalkane solvents under mild conditions will be continued with B(C6F5)3 as the activating Lewis acid. The major broader impact is motivating and training undergraduate and graduate students.
This project aims toward more efficient and selective catalytic conversion of organic molecules to useful products. Graduate and undergraduate students will receive training in organic synthesis, catalysis development and spectroscopic analysis.
