Transition metal complexes with ambiphilic and borabenzene ligands and their reactivity with small molecules

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Lewis acids have played an important role in catalysis using transition metals, but the coordination chemistry of boron and aluminum containing species is still understudied compared to that of Lewis basic molecules. Over the past decade, several research groups have look at stabilizing interactions between Lewis acids and transition metals using chelation with a Lewis base, forming what are formally called ambiphilic ligands. Our group is interested in the interaction of these ambiphilic molecules with transition metals. Two different backbones will be studied in the next five years of our research program. First, we will continue our investigation of ligands having the general morphology L-E-Z (L = Lewis base, E = a one-atom spacer, Z = B- or Al- Lewis acid). We will also look at integrating functional groups in various positions of a borabenzene framework in order to generate species that will interact with transition metals in a novel fashion not involving the pi system of the aromatic ring.