Synthesis of Main Group Element Ring and Cage Assemblies

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Dr. Robert T. Paine, Chemistry Department, University of New Mexico, is supported by the Inorganic, Bioinorganic, and Organometallic Chemistry Program of the Chemistry Division for the study of phosphorus-boron cage molecules and closely related species in which a phosphorus or boron atom is substituted by another main group element. The basic objective of the project is to determine if new polycyclic boron-phosphorus cage compounds can be formed from cyclic and acyclic phosphinoborane molecules by sequential addition and elimination chemistry. As a portion of the investigation, polycyclic B-P cage molecules which contain a heteroatom will be prepared and the extent to which the size and composition of the cage can be tailored will be assessed. Finally, these species will be utilized as precursors to electronic material including quantum confined semiconductors. While boron phosphide (BP) is a semiconductor with potentially valuable electronic properties, it is currently only available as an impure material, which displays low electron mobility and which is hard to process. These features have retarded commercial development of BP. In this project molecular cage molecules, which are composed of a three dimensional B-P framework, will be prepared. These compounds, together with closely related molecules that incorporate small amounts of yet a third element into the cage, will be examined as precursors from which BP can be made more easily and cleanly. As small fragments of BP will be preformed in the core of the molecules, precise control of the size of the resulting BP may be possible, leading to the possibility of obtaining very small particles of BP for use as `quantum-confined semiconductors.`