This award from the Inorganic, Bioinorganic and Organometallic Chemistry Program is the area of organometallic chemistry. The goal of the project is to develop more robust catalysts for conversion of alkanes to other organic compounds. Alkanes are the principal constituents of petroleum, and efficient catalysts for alkane conversion are therefore important in the industrial synthesis of plastics and other materials from petroleum. Replacement of these catalysts as they degrade is very expensive, and the development of catalysts which resist degradation is thus of great economic significance. The focus of the project is the development of homogeneous alkane conversion catalysts which are not subject to deactivation by P-C bond cleavage. Particular emphasis will be placed on transition metal polyhydrides which are stabilized purely by N-donor ligands and which contain dihydrogen ligands. A variety of N- and S-donor ligands will be explored, and the structures of the polyhydride derivatives will be studied by a variety of physical methods, notably by Raman spectroscopy and variable temperature NMR spectroscopy. In addition to studying catalysts of new types, attempts will be made to extend the range of possible alkane conversions. Among the types of reactions to be explored are hydroalkylation of unsaturated species, alkylation of arenes and of CO, and dehydrocylisation. Such reactions are either not currently known at all for alkanes or are only known to occur over heterogeneous catalysts.
