This Presidential Young Investigator Award from the Inorganic, Bioinorganic and Organometallic Chemistry Program is in the area of organometallic chemistry. The major theme of the project is the activation of carbon-fluorine bonds by compounds of transition metals, such as tungsten. The new chemistry which will be developed may be useful in the synthesis of new carbon-fluorine compounds to replace the chlorofluorocarbon compounds currently used in large quantities as refrigerants, but which have been identified as major actors in the destruction of ozone in the stratosphere. The discovery in Dr. Richmond's laboratory of facile C-F bond activation at W(O) is the first well-defined reaction in which a metal is inserted into a C-F bond. Tungsten(O) will be investigated as a possible catalyst for the functionalization of polyfluorinated molecules. The reverse of metal insertion, namely reductive elimination to form a new C-F bond will be explored. The insertion of other metals into C-F bonds will be investigated, as will the activation of other C-X bonds, including C-O, C-H and C-C bonds.
