Metal Cluster Synthesis and Ligand Transformations

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The focus of this project in the Inorganic, Bioinorganic and Organometallic Chemistry Program is the chemistry of transition metal cluster compounds, which constitute an important class of industrial catalysts. The project is expected to provide a better understanding of the way in which such clusters are assembled and of the transformations of organic molecules bound to the clusters. Two important areas of metal cluster chemistry will be addressed: ligand transformations on clusters and the synthesis of new types of mixed-metal clusters. In the former area the recent finding of ways to split the C-O bond of the CCO ligand will be exploited. The mechanism of this reaction will be studied, and the cleavage of the C-O bond will be utilized to synthesize a variety of new substituted acetylide ligands bound to three-metal clusters. These ligands will permit systematic studies of the very large substituent effects on C-C cleavage reactions for substituted acetylene ligands bound to metal clusters. Cluster building reactions based on the cleavage of the C-O bond should provide a new route to clusters containing C2 moieties. In the second area of metal cluster research, the synthesis and physical characterization of new types of early- late transition metal cluster compounds will be explored.