U.S.-German Cooperative Research on the Applications of Organolanthanides in Organic Synthesis

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9422011 Molander This award supports the establishment of a collaboration between Professor Gary Molander of the University of Colorado, Boulder, and Professor Herbert Schumann of the Institute for Inorganic and Analytical Chemistry at the Technical University of Berlin. These investigators will join their diverse expertise in organic and inorganic chemistry in a joint effort focused on the design and synthesis of organolanthanides and certain other organometallic compounds, and the exploration of their use as catalysts in selective organic synthesis. The team led by Professor Schumann is one of the strongest in the world in the synthesis and structural determination of organolanthanides. It will play the lead role in designing new organometallic complexes for study in the catalytic reactions and it will provide experimental procedures to prepare the catalysts. It also provides important skills in the handling of air-sensitive materials. The research group headed by Dr. Molander brings expertise in synthetic organic chemistry. The U.S. group will provide the insights into important organic reactions which might benefit from the organometallic compounds produced by the German group, in effect, providing specifications for the catalysts to be explored. They will synthesize the organic substrates needed for the catalytic reactions of interest and carry out the organic reactions and study them in detail. Reciprocal visits of postdoctoral fellows and advanced graduate students for several months per year, funded by NSF and its German counterpart, the DFG, will enable the two groups to share and transfer their expertise in various aspects of organometallic chemistry. Because of their unusual properties, organolanthanides offer interesting possibilities as promoters and catalysts for organic reactions. Until now, there has been very little systematic work by synthetic chemists to study applications if the whole range of organolanthanides in organic synthesis. Now that inorganic chemists su ch as Dr. Schumann have succeeded in producing a range of lanthanide catalysts, it becomes possible for an expert in organic synthesis such as Dr. Molander to suggest characteristics for new "designer" catalysts that will greatly improve specific synthetic processes. Thus this collaboration will provide an outlet for the chemistry developed in the inorganic laboratory, with the promise of practical uses for the many organometallic complexes designed and synthesized there. ***