A seminar with Gabby Riscia & Noriyo Onishi, Sarah Lawrence College thesis students.
Gabby Riscia '17—Synthesis and Characterization of Carbone Complexes
Carbones are neutral molecules that contain a central carbon atom with two lone pairs of electrons, despite carbon liking to form four bonds. These molecules are powerful ligands that are used to stabilize metal complexes. However, only a very small number of carbone complexes have been characterized and no examples with early transition metals have been reported to-date. Riscia's research will describe a new preparation of one carbone compound and the structures of several novel metallic species formed by its reactions with different metal containing substrates.
Noriyo Onishi '17—PNP Pincer Ligand and Its Complexes
Pincer ligands are a class of tridentate ligands that have three electron-donor sites that can bond to a central metal atom or ion. They are widely employed in the design of transition metal-based catalysis. PNP (2,6-bis(di-tert-butylphosphinomethyl)pyridine) is a commonly used pincer ligand, which has two phosphorous and one nitrogen as donor atoms. PNP thus has the ability to bind to both soft and hard metal centers due to their characteristics of its three electron-donor sites (1 hard nitrogen donor atom and 2 soft phosphorous atoms). To-date, PNP-vanadium and PNP-zinc complexes have not been reported in literature. Herein, we report the first structurally characterized PNP complexes of these metals. The synthesis and structures of these complexes will be discussed in this presentation.