This proposal on "Kinetics and Mechanisms of Oxygen Atom Transfer" between Dr. Fred Basolo of Northwestern University and Professor Qizhen Shi of Lanzhou University, China, is jointly sponsored by the National Science Foundation (NSF) and the Chinese State Educational Commission (SEDC). In this renewal of their earlier grant, the investigators propose to continue their research on the kinetics and mechanisms of O-atom transfer reactions to CO of a metal carbonyl, extending it to other O-atom transfer reagents and to attempt to understand better the properties responsible for a good O-atom transfer reagent. The investigators will conduct experiments to understand why (CH3)3NO is such a strong nucleophile of the carbon atom of CO in certain metal carbonyls. Since these types of reactions are often used in the syntheses of organometallic compounds and in their use as homogeneous catalysts, the knowledge gained on this project should be of value to research chemists in industry working on more applied related problems.
