The goals of this project in the Inorganic, Bioinorganic and Organometallic Chemistry Program are to synthesize new transition metal-sulfur compounds, and to characterize these new compounds structurally and with respect to the reactivities of the M-S bonds and the coordinated sulfur ligands. The important role of metal sulfur complexes in industrial and enzymatic catalysis is well-recognized. Previous studies have provided reliable and systematic methods for the synthesis of molybdenum complexes containing Mo=S bonds or eta-2-bonded disulfur or tetrasulfur ligands. Analogous methods will be used to synthesize similar sulfur complexes of other early transition metals, such as Zr, Nb and Ta, and the structures and reactivities of the new complexes will be determined. The synthesis, characterization and reactivity studies of heterometallic clusters that contain various M-S functional groups will be carried out in attempts to evaluate the importance of bimetallic cooperative effects in the activation of specific molecules.
