Transition Metal Dithiolene Complexes and Clusters
Gary Miesser - Professor of Chemistry
Research Students
Micheal Marty
Christopher Roberts
My main research interests are in the organometallic chemistry of molybdenum and tungsten. For example, I hope to develop syntheses of new compounds of these metals that contain dithiolene ligands (bidentate ligands coordinating to metals through two sulfur atoms) in addition to organic ligands such as CO and 5-C5H5. Some important molybdenum- and tungsten-containing enzymes have dithiolene ligands, and I hope to prepare compounds that might serve as models for the metal sites.
A more recent interest is cluster chemistry. For example, a molybdenum dithiolene complex and Ru3(CO)12 react to generate a variety of clusters in which sulfur forms bridges between different metals. These clusters have very interesting symmetries—visually appealing, at least to a chemist! I would like to have students explore reactions using different CO complexes to examine how broad this range of chemistry might be and how far the “isolobal analogy,” which can be used to draw analogies between inorganic and organic chemistry, can be carried in understanding this chemistry.
Students participating in this work will gain experience in vacuum line synthesis and purification techniques and will also use a variety of spectroscopic methods, especially NMR, mass spec (APCI and MALDI), IR, and UV-vis. Crystal structures of new compounds will be determined by the University of Minnesota X-ray crystallography lab.
