Transition-Metal Polyborane Interactions: Catalysis and Coordination Chemistry

宾夕法尼亚大学化学系Larry Sneddon教授得到了无机、生物无机和金属有机化学计划的支持，研究多硼化合物，这些化合物通常具有相关的性能，应用范围从抗癌药物到高温聚合物、燃烧速率调节剂，以及最近作为陶瓷前体。要开发这些聚硼烷的性质，就必须合理地、选择性地开发高产率的反应途径。因此，作为第一步，Sneddon教授将专注于新的、通用的方法，以实现系统的高产量聚硼烷合成的开发。与此同时，还将把注意力放在探索金属配位以及由此产生的独特簇合物的其他化学和生物活性性质上。接下来，这项工作将扩展到全新的方向，即开发用于高产量选择性聚硼烷修饰的新型金属催化反应，以及合成和评价新型早期金属聚硼烷簇合物，特别是那些具有抗肿瘤和/或催化活性的金属聚硼烷体系。

Professor Larry Sneddon, Department of Chemistry, University of Pennsylvania, is supported by the Inorganic, Bioinorganic, and Organometallic Chemistry Program to investigate polyborane compounds, which in general possess relevant properties useful in applications ranging from cancer agents to high temperature polymers, burn rate modifiers, and most recently as ceramic precursors. To exploit the properties of these polyboranes necessitates a rational, selective development of high yield reaction pathways. Hence, as a first step, Professor Sneddon will focus on novel, general methodologies to enable the development of systematic high-yield syntheses of polyboranes. Concomitantly, attention will also be directed at exploring metal coordination and other chemical and bioactivity properties of the unique clusters so produced. Next, the effort will be expanded into totally new directions, namely into formulating novel types of metal-catalyzed reactions for high-yield selective polyborane modifications, along with the synthesis and evaluation of new types of early metal metallapolyborane clusters, with a particular focus on those metallapolyborane systems that have the potential for antitumor and/or catalytic activity.