Coordination chemistry of p-block element Lewis acceptors: Applying principles of transition metal chemistry to non-metal elements

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The synthesis and characterization of new compounds represents a fundamental foundation in the discovery of new pharmaceuticals, new catalysts for the production of commodity chemicals, and new materials exhibiting new properties, with potential function in society including new electrolytes, conducting polymers, flame retardants, elastomers and biomedical materials. Most industrially important catalysts employed in our society involve low abundance precious metals (e.g. platinum, rhodium) and most synthetic polymeric materials employed in society are composed of carbon based backbones. New synthetic compounds of the relatively abundant p-block elements (such as silicon, germanium, tin, phosphorus, antimony, bismuth, sulfur and selenium) offer cost-effective alternatives for catalysts and as molecular building blocks for new polymeric materials. Moreover, the distinct chemistry of many of the p-block elements, still under development, offers the discovery of new reactivity and compounds/materials with new physical properties. The Burford NSERC Discovery Grant will support the development of new synthetic methods for compounds featuring the p-block elements. Synthetic methods that have proven effectiveness for compounds of phosphorus will be extrapolated to the other the p-block elements. The proposed research offers the systematic application of coordination chemistry for the p-block elements to discover new Lewis acidic species, enabling the application of principles that are well established for the transition metal elements. The target compounds will have high molecular positive charges to effect exceptional reactivity at the p-block centers to discover new approaches for the activation of bonds and small molecules, to realise new approaches to element-element bond formation, and to develop extended frameworks to ultimately be used as building blocks for oligomers and polymers. The research program offers a systematic study that assesses the variety of oxidation states and molecular charges accessible for the featured p-block elements. This research program is changing, and will continue to change the way in which chemists understand the chemistry of the p-block elements and how society can make more effective use of the cost effective p-block elements. The proposed research projects will offer excellent training for undergraduate students, graduate students and postdoctoral fellows in synthetic chemistry, characterization techniques, solid state structure, chemical reactivity and computational modeling. In addition, co-workers are able to develop extensive experience with world class equipment and instrumentation. These broad range of experiences are readily transferred to a variety of career paths and former co-workers have an excellent record of obtaining appointments in academia and industry.