This award is made in the Inorganic, Bioinorganic and Organometallic Chemistry Program in support of the research of Dr. Kenton Whitmire at Rice University. The research deals with the synthesis, structure, and reactivity of main group/transition metal clusters. Work will focus on the heavy main group elements (thallium, indium, lead, tin, bismuth and antimony) clustered with Group VIII transition metals (iron, cobalt, ruthenium and osmium). The goals of the research are to synthesize new metal cluster compounds which will probe the limitations of current bonding theories, to study the reactivity of these complexes with a view to establishing stability and structure/function relationships, and to determine how structure, bonding and reactivity patterns vary as a function of transition metal and main group element. %%% The fundamental interactions of main group elements and transition metals is a topic of considerable importance to chemistry, materials science and catalysis. Main group/transition metal alloys have interesting electronic and magnetic properties while main group element compounds are often used as promoters in commercial catalytic processes.
