In this project in the Inorganic, Bioinorganic, and Organometallic Program of the Chemistry Division, Merola will study oxidative addition reactions of alkanes to an iridium complex and investigate the chemistry of the resulting complexes. The goal is to develop a catalyst for the homogeneous conversion of certain hydrocarbons into more useful chemicals, an endeavor that, if successful, would have important industrial applications. The oxidative addition reactions of a variety of E-H substrates (E = H,B,C,N,O) to iridium/phosphine complexes will be investigated. The reaction chemistry of the resulting E-Ir-H compounds, especially insertion of unsaturated molecules, will be studied. In this way important information concerning fundamental processes occurring at the metal center will be gathered. The knowledge gained from both parts of the study will provide valuable leads for developing systems for C-H activation and functionalization, catalytic hydroboration, catalytic amination, and the catalytic addition of a number of other E-H compounds to unsaturates.
