Transition-Metal Polyborane Interactions: Catalysis and Coordination Chemistry

宾夕法尼亚大学化学系Larry Sneddon教授在无机、生物无机和有机金属化学项目的支持下，研究聚硼烷化合物。聚硼烷化合物通常具有相关特性，可用于从抗癌剂到高温聚合物、燃烧速率改性剂，以及最近的陶瓷前体。为了充分利用这些聚硼烷的性质，需要合理、选择性地开发高收率的反应途径。因此，作为第一步，Sneddon教授将把重点放在新颖的通用方法上，以开发系统的高产量合成聚硼烷。同时，还将注意探索这样产生的独特簇的金属配位和其他化学和生物活性特性。下一步，研究工作将扩展到全新的方向，即为高产选择性聚硼烷修饰制定新型金属催化反应，以及新型早期金属聚硼烷簇的合成和评价，特别关注那些具有抗肿瘤和/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.