NSF Award
1565893
The Chemical Catalysis Program of the Chemistry Division supports the project by Professors Chin and Hall. Professor Chin is a faculty member in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry at the University of Northern Iowa, while Professor Hall is a faculty member in the Department of Chemistry at Texas A&M University. They are developing transition metal catalysts that transform unreactive and low-value hydrocarbon molecules into synthetically useful and valuable building blocks. These new building blocks (molecules) are used in the creation of more complex structures like pharmaceuticals or fine chemicals. The project has both synthetic and computational components. The research involves undergraduate students from both universities. High school students and teachers from the Cedar Valley in Iowa also participate in the project. The participating high school teachers are able to incorporate the principles of catalysis and kinetics from the research into their classroom content. The results of this work are disseminated to the public and to the broader chemistry community.<br/><br/>This project is focused on developing a series of diruthenium catalysts that cleave the unreactive Carbon (C)-hydrogen (H) bond of a hydrocarbon while making a new C-silicon (Si) bond, resulting in new triorganosilanes. Professors Chin and Hall are working to better understand the mechanism of this reaction using synthetic, isotopic labeling, kinetic, and computational methods. The synthetic work, performed at the University of Northern Iowa, involves changing the bidentate ligands at the ruthenium centers to diphosphines or nitrogen (N)-heterocyclic carbenes. In addition, the synthesis and reactivity studies of possible reaction intermediates like sigma-silane complexes and mu-silyl-eta2-silane complexes are performed. This work is guided by the computational work of Professor Hall using Density Functional Theory (DFT) at Texas A&M University. The work involves undergraduate researchers and local area high school teachers and students. The participating high school teachers are able to incorporate the principles of catalysis and kinetics from the research into their classroom content. The results of this work are disseminated to the public and to the broader chemistry community.
