Synthesis of new phosphinoborate ligands for organometallic catalysis

7 months, January- July 2001,  Caltech, CA, USA.

  Cationic, coordinately unsaturated complexes are very promisive catalysts, supporting a wide range of reactions, from fine organic transformations to C-H bond activation. They also present many limitations, and particularly their slight solubility in non-polar media.

Using zwitterionic complexes would be a solution, as these complexes have the same kind of reactivity as their cationic analogs, but show greater solubility.

In the lab a family of bis and tris(phosphino)borate ligands is widely used (scheme). To extend this zwitterionic strategy, I was proposed to synthesize new monodentate, monoanionic phosphine ligands. It was envisioned that these molecules would have interesting properties and would provide a very exciting chemistry while associated to a metal center.

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Director of the lab: Jonas C Peters,                     email : jpeters@caltech.edu

Address : Division of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering

California Institute of Technology,

1200 E. California Blvd, Mail code 127-72, Pasadena, CA 91125