CAREER: Buckybowls: A Controlled Switch of Metal Coordination

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This CAREER award by the Inorganic, Bioinorganic and Organometallic Chemistry Program supports work by Professor Marina A. Petrukhina at the University at Albany, SUNY, to explore the reactivity and coordination limits of a new class of hydrocarbons, namely open geodesic polyarenes (buckybowls), in which inside and outside carbon surfaces exhibit different properties. An original and effective gas phase deposition approach will be used in this program to control the coordination properties of buckybowls and to unravel novel aspects of the reactivity of curved polyaromatic hydrocarbons in metal binding reactions. These investigations will explore fundamental metal-p-arene interactions with an emphasis on the perturbation of structure and reactivity induced by metal coordination to non-planar carbon-rich aromatic surfaces. Systematic investigation of such polyarenes is a new area of research that should stimulate the use of curved carbon-rich molecules in materials synthesis. It should open new practical pathways for functionalization of unsaturated carbon surfaces and for controlled preparation of endo-complexes of fullerenes and nanotubes that are very desirable targets for a variety of practical applications. Coupled with the research activities will be a program created for training and educating young chemists who will combine expertise in syntheses, crystal growth, various characterization techniques, powder and single crystal diffraction with knowledge and understanding of current materials chemistry needs and challenges. This educational program should significantly enhance professional development of our students in preparation for their successful research and educational careers. It should also contribute to the efforts of the Department of Chemistry to strengthen the materials chemistry emphasis, to increase the numbers of science majors and to provide students with a better learning environment at the University at Albany.