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

有了这个职业奖，化学合成项目将支持爱荷华大学的Jan-Uwe Rohde教授的研究。罗德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活性的过渡金属络合物。该项目的一个方面涉及氧化还原活性配体，这些配体有能力促进由协调的金属中心介导的键形成和键断裂过程。首先，合成了这些配体的新配合物，并用光谱和结构技术对其进行了系统的研究，以确定它们的电子结构。其次，对络合物反应性的研究将指向识别激活小分子和惰性分子的选择性机制。该项目的另一个方面涉及强给体、氧化还原不活跃的配体，旨在开发高氧化态配合物的一般合成并确定其性质。这项研究最终可能导致新的底物功能化方法，并为开发更有效地利用能源和原材料的方法提供基本基础。罗德教授还将继续从事与研究交织在一起的教育项目。一项为主要来自代表性不足群体的高中生提供暑期研究机会的计划已经到位。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(例如，X射线衍射法和X射线吸收光谱学)开发新的教学工具，这些方法在化学、生命科学和材料科学中得到越来越多的应用，但获得这些方法的机会通常有限。

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.