Systematic Metallaborane Chemistry

University Of Notre Dame, Notre Dame IN

Investigators

Abstract

Dr. Thomas P. Fehlner, Department of Chemistry, University of Notre Dame, is supported by the Inorganic, Bioinorganic, and Organometallic Program of the Chemistry Division for the synthesis of new clusters containing both main-group and transition-metal atoms. The project has several goals. Metal facilitated monoborane condensation reactions will be developed as routes to functionalized boranes and carboranes and these ligands will be used to prepare analogs of metal-allyl complexes. In this regard the borane fragment will be used as a complex ancillary ligand and its ability to influence organic chemistry at the metal center will be evaluated. Lanthanide-boron and transition metal-aluminum complexes will be prepared by metal halide reactions with monoboranes. The reactions of these species with small molecules will be investigated, with one objective being metal supported B-H reductions driven by dihydrogen. The chemistry of the transition metals when combined with carbon containing substituents is the basis of the vast field of organometallic chemistry. Research in this area has led to many advances in pure and applied chemistry. This project aims to open a related area in which transition metals are combined with units containing boron. Preliminary results indicate that these "metallaboranes" will possess an extensive chemistry that in some ways resembles organometallic chemistry, but in other ways is very different. In this investigation new combinations of boranes and transition metals will be prepared and their chemistry investigated. The new compounds will express the unique aspects of their electronic structures in new kinds of reaction chemistry.