Organic and Organometallic Chemistry

University Of California-Berkeley, Berkeley CA

Investigators

Abstract

This award in the Inorganic, Bioinorganic and Organometallic Chemistry program supports research by Professor Robert G. Bergman at the University of California at Berkeley to obtain a basic mechanistic understanding of the reactions of metal complexes and organic compounds in homogeneous solution using both new and known late transition metal complexes that bear metal-heteroatom single bonds. The project builds on potentially general methods for the synthesis of parent (i.e., N-unsubstituted) low-valent, late transition metal amide complexes and extend it to others involving nitrogen or phosphorus. Specific research goals include: (a) the synthesis and study of a wider range of parent metal amides, (b) the preparation of related compounds, such as metal hydrazido complexes and an examination of their reactivity, (c) the development of new methods for catalytic alkene and alkyne hydroamination, (d) the use of metal amides in the selective synthesis of primary amines, (e) the study of metal amide-catalyzed isomerization reactions, and (f) the extension of methods developed in amido chemistry to the synthesis of parent phosphido complexes, including their use in the asymmetric synthesis of P-chirogenic phosphines. The projects will be carried out by undergraduate students, graduate students and postdoctoral fellows whose training obtained during the performance of this research will be useful in their future work. This research probes fundamental aspects of homogeneous catalysis and prepares undergraduate, graduate and postdoctoral students for participation in the advanced scientific workforce.