With support from the Major Research Instrumentation (MRI) Program, the Department of Chemistry at the University of Missouri in St. Louis will upgrade its CCD-based X-ray diffraction laboratory. Faculty at Washington University and St. Louis University will also have access to this resource. This equipment will enhance research in a number of areas including studies on a) the development of new copper-based radiopharmaceuticals; b) the synthesis of neutral multimetallic arrays; c) formation of bimetallaboranes containing widely differing transition metals; d) metallabenzenes and other benzenoid metallacycles; e) Si-H bond activation by electron-rich transition metal complexes; f) chemistry and biology of steroids; g) the study of electron-deficient species; h) the supramolecular chemistry of alkali metal cations; and i) the synthesis of organometallic complexes with interesting optoelectronic properties.
The X-ray diffractometer allows accurate and precise measurements of the full three dimensional structure of a molecule, including bond distances and angles, and it provides accurate information about the spatial arrangement of the molecule relative to the neighboring molecules. These studies will have an impact in a number of areas, especially synthesis of important inorganic chemicals and medicinal chemistry.
