This award from the Inorganic, Bioinorganic and Organometallic Chemistry Program is in the area of organometallic chemistry. The focus of the project is the mechanisms of reactions of new compounds in which two iron atoms are held together by a hydrocarbon bridge. Such compounds are important reagents for the synthesis of a wide variety of organic compounds, and information about their reaction mechanisms is expected to lead to improvements in synthetic methodology. The reactivity of new diiron compounds with bridging hydrocarbon ligands will be explored, and the mechanisms of new reactions of these compounds will be explored in depth. It is anticipated that this study will lead to several new carbon-carbon bond forming reactions of potential use in organic synthesis. In order for this synthetic potential to be realized, ways of cleaving the bridging hydrocarbyl group from the diiron complex will be explored. The mechanism of cyclopropane formation in the reactions of metal-carbene complexes with alkenes will be studied, and an attempt will be made to generate the suggested intermediates in cycloproponation reactions to see if they lead to cyclopropanes. The reactions of metal carbene complexes which are neither strong nucleophiles nor strong electrophiles will be explored to fill an important gap in the understanding of metal-carbene complexes.
