Alkane Functionalization using Transition Metal-Boryl Complexes

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This award in the Inorganic, Bioinorganic and Organometallic Chemistry program supports the research of Professor John F. Hartwig at Yale University. The project seeks to uncover unusual reactions and fundamental principles in the chemistry of metal-boryl and borane complexes. In particular, a process has been discovered in which an alkane reacts with a borane reagent to provide linear, terminal alkylboronate esters. Synthetic and mechanistic studies of this process will be pursued. Polyhydrides and labile alkane complexes will be used to develop catalytic functionalization of alkanes. By varying the substituents on the boryl ligand the effect of Lewis acidity and sigma basicity of the boryl ligand on the alkane chemistry will be assessed. Organoboranes are among the most versatile synthetic intermediates in chemistry because they can be converted to a variety of functionalized molecules. These are useful in molecular recognition, as enzyme inhibitors, as neutron capture agents for chemotherapy, and as materials that emit blue light. This project will develop new routes to these species and explore their chemical properties with respect to their ability to induce reactions or normally unreactive carbon-hydrogen bonds.