Uncovering the Chemistry of ansa-Chromocene and ansa-Vanadocene Complexes/Innovations to Teaching Inorganic Chemistry

Pamela Shapiro博士，爱达荷大学化学系，在化学系无机、生物无机和有机金属化学项目的支持下，在教师早期职业发展奖下，发展弯曲夹层三色系和钒二世配合物的化学，以发现新的反应化学，发现新的均相催化剂，并进一步了解了电子结构和反应性对茂金属几何形状的依赖性。异环桥允许在双环戊二烯钒和铬配合物中定制弯曲的环构型，这将允许在配合物的赤道面上产生一个开放的位点。这些物种的化学性质将被探索，化合物的性质将通过调整连接两个环的桥接基团来调整。此外，本计划将重组无机化学教学实验室，以强调现代技术的使用，并在几门本科讲座课程中引入计算机生成的教学辅助工具。催化剂用于提高化学反应的速率或效率。因此，寻找新的、更有效的催化剂是当代化学的一个重要领域。在该项目的研究部分，将制备一系列钒和铬化合物，这些化合物被非反应性基团包围，以这样的方式留下一个楔形的空腔，小反应物可以很容易地进入。通过调整这个楔子的大小，化合物影响与它们相互作用的分子转化的能力可以被调整，以最大限度地提高金属的催化性能。教育部分将现代化并改进爱达荷大学的化学课程。

Dr. Pamela Shapiro, Chemistry Department, University of Idaho, is supported by the Inorganic, Bioinorganic, and Organometallic Chemistry Program of the Chemistry Division under a Faculty Early Career Advancement Award to develop the chemistry of bent-sandwich ansa-chromocene and vanadocene complexes in order to uncover novel reaction chemistry, discover new homogeneous catalysts, and further the understanding of the dependence of electronic structure and reactivity on metallocene geometry. Heteroannular bridges will permit a bent ring configuration to be tailored in the bis-cyclopentadiene vanadium and chromium complexes and this will allow an open site to be generated in the equatorial plane of the complexes. The chemistry of these species will be explored and the properties of the compounds will be tuned by adjusting the bridging groups which join the two rings. Also part of this project will be a restructuring of an inorganic chemistry teaching laboratory to emphasize the use of modern techniques and the introduction of computer generated teaching aids to several undergraduate lecture courses. Catalysts are used to improve the rate or efficiency of a chemical reaction. Thus, the search for new, more effective catalysts is an important area of contemporary chemistry. In the research portion of this project a series of vanadium and chromium compounds, which are surrounded by non reactive groups in such a way as to leave a wedged shaped cavity into which small reactants can easily fit, will be prepared. By tailoring the size of this wedge, the ability of the compounds to effect transformations of the molecules with which they interact can be tailored to maximize the catalytic properties of the metals. The educational portion will modernize and improve the chemistry curriculum at the University of Idaho.