Organometallic frustrated Lewis pairs for stoichiometric and catalytic bond activations

Abstract:
Pairs of Lewis acids and bases, which are prevented from the mutual bonding interaction because of their sterical encumbrance, so called “frustrated Lewis pairs” (FLPs), were recently shown to exhibit interesting and unprecedented reactivity. This project is aimed at the synthesis, characterization, and reactivity studies of novel FLP-type compounds utilizing organometallic moieties, particularly electrophilic group 3 and 4 neutral or cationic complexes as the Lewis acidic components. These “organometallic FLPs” will be modified with various Lewis basic functional groups attached mainly to auxiliary cyclopentadienyl ligands. Ability of the prepared systems to activate bonds in small molecules (such as dihydrogen, carbon dioxide, alkenes, alkynes, organyl halides, ethers, ketones) will be investigated in order to gain insight to the reactivity patterns of these systems. Subsequently, the potential of the new FLP systems in catalytic processes involving heterolytic bond cleavage or activation of unreactive molecules for further transformations will be explored.