With the support of an award from the Chemical Structure, Dynamics and Mechanism Program (CSDM) at the National Science Foundation, Professor Joseph M. O'Connor of the University of California, San Diego will lead a research program that will investigate the chemistry of metallacyclobutene and vinylcarbene complexes. Such complexes have been widely proposed as intermediates or transition state structures in metal-catalyzed reactions that impact the fields of organic synthesis, polymer chemistry, pharmaceuticals, material science and theory. The approach will involve a combination of synthetic, structural, computational and mechanistic work. Targeted molecules are chosen to maximize the potential for subsequent reactivity and to reveal mechanistic features of new and existing chemical transformations.
The proposed chemistry will advance the fundamental knowledge base of organic, inorganic, and organometallic processes, and contribute to future advances in the environmentally friendly construction of molecules with useful properties. A key objective of the proposed studies it the interdisciplinary training of graduate students in the area of organometallic chemistry which will position them to make important scientific contributions to both industrial and academic endeavors.
