Presidential Young Investigator Award/Electronic Spectroscopy, Photochemistry, and Photophysics of High-Valent Organometallic Complexes

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This grant provides the base funding for the first year of a five-year Presidential Young Investigator award. The research is in the area of organometallic chemistry and focuses on light-induced reactions of compounds containing multiple bonds between the metal atom and one of the surrounding ligands. The research will consist of two projects. In the first of these, photochemical reactions of high-valent organometallic complexes containing multiple metal-ligand linkages will be investigated. Of particular interest are photochemical reactions of complexes in which the metal has two d electrons and is either triply bonded to a nitride ligand or doubly bonded to either an alkylidyne or an alkylidene ligand. The lowest-lying electronic excited states of these species, which are pi-antibonding with respect to the multiply bonded ligand, should facilitate reactions at these moieties. The second project will involve the synthesis and physical characterization of heterobimetallic compounds in which the metal centers are joined by an inorganic substrate. Emphasis will be on the reactions of electronically unsaturated early transition metal complexes with compounds of the later metals containing a ligand which can serve as a bridge to the early transition metal. Specifically, the reaction of 16-electron hydride complexes with electronically saturated complexes ligated by dinitrogen, carbon monoxide or carbon dioxide should yield dimers with these ligands as bridges.