This research was supported by the following nice people. Thanks!

National Science Foundation (NSF) CAREER program, Inorganic/Organometallic/Bioinorganic Chemistry Division, and Catalysis Program, NSF-REU (Research Experience for Undergraduates) program, American Chemical Society, Petroleum Research Fund (PRF), DuPont, Union Carbide (Innovation Recognition Award), Exxon Education Foundation, Cytec Canada, Johnson-Matthey Alfa/Aesar, Cambridge Isotope Labs, Dartmouth College.

How can metal complexes be used to make P-C bonds for the preparation of valuable chiral phosphine ligands?

We have developed several new catalytic reactions for asymmetric synthesis of chiral phosphines. These include Pt-catalyzed asymmetric hydrophosphination of activated olefins, Pd-catalyzed asymmetric phosphination of aryl halides, and Pt-catalyzed asymmetric alkylation of secondary phosphines.

Research goals:

1. Develop these reactions for practical synthesis of enantiomerically pure chiral phosphines.

2. Understand the mechanism of P-C bond formation to develop better catalysts.

3. Use the new phosphines in asymmetric catalysis.

Check out these papers for more.

We make molecules.  Organic (especially organophosphorus), organometallic, and inorganic.

Check out these papers for more.

2. Characterization of phosphines and metal complexes relies on NMR and X-ray crystallography (thanks to Arnie Rheingold and coworkers at the University of California, San Diego).

Materials projects have included the synthesis of gold nanoparticles, smaller gold cluster molecules, and block copolymer/metal nanoparticle composites (collaboration with Barney Grubbs).  In a newer NSF-REU project, we are studying structure-property relationships in luminescent metal complexes. See these papers for more.

last update 11-16-12