CAREER: New Late-transition Metal Platforms for the Activation of Inert Molecules

有了这个职业奖，化学合成计划支持爱荷华州大学的Jan-Uwe Rohde教授的研究。Rohde教授和他的学生将开发和研究具有独特电子结构和不同反应性的过渡金属配合物。该项目的一个方面涉及氧化还原活性配体，其具有促进由配位金属中心介导的键形成和键断裂过程的能力。首先，将合成这些配体的新配合物，并通过光谱和结构技术系统地检查，以确定其电子结构。第二，调查的反应性的配合物将被导向识别的选择性机制的小分子和惰性分子的激活。该项目的另一个方面涉及强供体、氧化还原惰性配体，旨在开发高氧化态配合物的一般合成并确定其性质。这项研究可能最终导致底物功能化的新方法，并为开发更有效地利用能源和原材料的方法提供基础。罗德教授还将继续追求与研究交织在一起的教育项目。一个为来自代表性不足的群体的高中生提供暑期研究机会的项目已经到位。罗德教授还将向学生，化学家和非化学家介绍在科学领域具有广泛意义的技术。将为基于X射线的方法开发新的教学工具（例如，X射线衍射和X射线吸收光谱），在化学、生命科学和材料科学中的应用越来越多，但访问通常是有限的。

With this CAREER Award, the Chemical Synthesis program is supporting the research of Professor Jan-Uwe Rohde of the University of Iowa. Professor Rohde and his students will develop and investigate transition metal complexes with unique electronic structure and diverse reactivity. One aspect of the project involves redox-active ligands, which have the capacity to facilitate bond-forming and bond-breaking processes mediated by a coordinated metal center. First, new complexes of these ligands will be synthesized and systematically examined by spectroscopic and structural techniques, in order to define their electronic structure. Second, investigations into the reactivity of the complexes will be directed toward the identification of selective mechanisms for the activation of small and inert molecules. Another aspect of the project deals with strongly-donating, redox-inactive ligands and is designed to develop the general synthesis of high-oxidation state complexes and to determine their properties.This research may ultimately lead to new methods of substrate functionalization and provide a fundamental basis for the development of methods that use energy and raw materials more efficiently. Professor Rohde will also continue to pursue educational projects that that are interwoven with research. A program that offers summer research opportunities to high school students from predominantly underrepresented groups is already in place. Professor Rohde will also introduce students, chemists and non-chemists, to techniques that have broad significance across scientific fields. New teaching tools will be developed for X-ray based methods (e.g., X-ray diffraction and X-ray absorption spectroscopy) that find increasing application in chemistry, the life sciences and materials science, but to which access is usually limited.