Asymmetric Synthesis of Chiral Phosphines, Arsines, and Stibines. There are now chiral phosphine-transition metal catalysts that rival enzymes in their efficiency for the asymmetric synthesis of important chiral drugs, fragrants, cosmetics, nutrients, vitamins, and pesticides. This project is aimed at a generalised asymmetric synthesis of the critical components of these enzyme mimics, notably enantiopure chiral phosphines, but also chiral arsines and stibines, by a highly innovative approach t ....Asymmetric Synthesis of Chiral Phosphines, Arsines, and Stibines. There are now chiral phosphine-transition metal catalysts that rival enzymes in their efficiency for the asymmetric synthesis of important chiral drugs, fragrants, cosmetics, nutrients, vitamins, and pesticides. This project is aimed at a generalised asymmetric synthesis of the critical components of these enzyme mimics, notably enantiopure chiral phosphines, but also chiral arsines and stibines, by a highly innovative approach that involves novel six-electron phosphenium, arsenium, and stibinium cations that are themselves stabilised by chiral phosphines so that chemical breeder reactions are possible. The use of chiral auxiliaries from the natural pool and from biotechnology will also be investigated.Read moreRead less
Quantum-chemical design of stereoregular polyphosphines for nanowires. In this project we will be designing and producing stereoregular polyphosphines that can self-assemble gold and silver complexes that mimic the molecular architectures of DNA and certain proteins. The longer gold complexes will behave as insulated nanowires, and are an exciting prospect for the development of nanotechnological devices. The shorter silver and gold complexes are expected to have significant antitumour propertie ....Quantum-chemical design of stereoregular polyphosphines for nanowires. In this project we will be designing and producing stereoregular polyphosphines that can self-assemble gold and silver complexes that mimic the molecular architectures of DNA and certain proteins. The longer gold complexes will behave as insulated nanowires, and are an exciting prospect for the development of nanotechnological devices. The shorter silver and gold complexes are expected to have significant antitumour properties. This project, which will use a unique theoretical-experimental approach to design the stereoregular polyphosphines, will enhance Australia's international scientific reputation, and will contribute to technological advancement in the national priority areas of nanotechnology and biotechnology.Read moreRead less
Borametallacycles: confluence of metallacycle and boracycle chemistries. Metallacycles are cyclic structures constructed from a transition metal and the first row elements, such as carbon, nitrogen and oxygen. They underpin numerous technological applications in catalysis and materials chemistry. Borametallacycles which include the missing element boron will be explored with a view to developing new materials with novel properties.
Linkage Infrastructure, Equipment And Facilities - Grant ID: LE0346515
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$507,000.00
Summary
Fluorescence Detector for the Australian National Beamline Facility. X-ray absorption spectroscopy (XAS) is an extremely important synchrotron radiation tool for determining the local structure around an X-ray absorbing atom. This has many applications in the study of materials, minerals, metal complexes, and metalloproteins and can often be used to obtain information that is not available by other techniques, because structural information can be obtained in the solid or solution state and in ....Fluorescence Detector for the Australian National Beamline Facility. X-ray absorption spectroscopy (XAS) is an extremely important synchrotron radiation tool for determining the local structure around an X-ray absorbing atom. This has many applications in the study of materials, minerals, metal complexes, and metalloproteins and can often be used to obtain information that is not available by other techniques, because structural information can be obtained in the solid or solution state and in mixtures. The current proposal is aimed at introducing new technology into the Australian National Beamline Facility that will greatly improve the quality and quantity of experiments that can be performed and extend studies into dilute solutions and protein samples.Read moreRead less
Utilising nature's complexity - understanding fundamental organometallic binding modes of furans and coordination of bioderived furans. The earth's decreasing reserves of fossil fuels has prompted an intense push to utilise the renewable bioresources to replace the many products and fuels derived from petroleum. One of the promising developments is the production of so-called Furanics, useful molecules produced easily from carbohydrates found in waste materials from the sugar, corn and forestry ....Utilising nature's complexity - understanding fundamental organometallic binding modes of furans and coordination of bioderived furans. The earth's decreasing reserves of fossil fuels has prompted an intense push to utilise the renewable bioresources to replace the many products and fuels derived from petroleum. One of the promising developments is the production of so-called Furanics, useful molecules produced easily from carbohydrates found in waste materials from the sugar, corn and forestry industries. Given Australia's wealth of agricultural resources, discovering the full power of these potentially useful furanic compounds should be a major priority. This research aims to link Australia's biomass potential with the plastics, pharmaceutical, fine and agrichemical industries.Read moreRead less
Boryl Pincers and Beyond: Taming Borometallic Chemistry. Industrial applications of coordination complexes in catalysis reduce energy input and environmental impact but almost exclusively involve classical donors such as nitrogen, oxygen, sulfur and phosphorus. Boron, whilst prevalent and environmentally benign, is under-utilised in such applications, in part due to the high reactivity of the metal boron bond.
This research will seek to tame and then exploit the unique features of boron within p ....Boryl Pincers and Beyond: Taming Borometallic Chemistry. Industrial applications of coordination complexes in catalysis reduce energy input and environmental impact but almost exclusively involve classical donors such as nitrogen, oxygen, sulfur and phosphorus. Boron, whilst prevalent and environmentally benign, is under-utilised in such applications, in part due to the high reactivity of the metal boron bond.
This research will seek to tame and then exploit the unique features of boron within pincer ligand frameworks in metal coordination complexes, with particular attention focusing on, but not limited to catalytic alkyne metathesis.Read moreRead less
A new route to linear alpha olefins - catalytic isomerisation of internal olefins. Linear alpha olefins are an extremely important class of chemical building blocks used for everyday consumer products, such as plastics, detergents and lubricants. This research aims to develop a new platform technology for the production of these materials from low cost precursors.
Metallaboratranes: Soft Scorpionates and Masked Metal Bases. All molecular metal compounds involve a metal surrounded by a group of electron donors (?ligands?). The design and manipulation of these ligand sets and their interactions with metals (?coordination chemistry?) underpins ALL applications of metals, be they in biological, pharmaceutical, materials or industrial applications. This proposal addresses the diametric opposite - the role-reversal wherein a metal centre acts as an electron don ....Metallaboratranes: Soft Scorpionates and Masked Metal Bases. All molecular metal compounds involve a metal surrounded by a group of electron donors (?ligands?). The design and manipulation of these ligand sets and their interactions with metals (?coordination chemistry?) underpins ALL applications of metals, be they in biological, pharmaceutical, materials or industrial applications. This proposal addresses the diametric opposite - the role-reversal wherein a metal centre acts as an electron donor to a ligand. This rare situation has only recently been firmly established in this research group, but promises to be part of a wider new coordination chemistry, the limits of which will be pursued in the proposed work.Read moreRead less
Bimetallic carbidos: hard-wiring a single atom of carbon. This project aims to explore the design, synthesis, characterisation and applications of novel materials in which metals are bridged by a single carbon atom. Materials based on metals (M) separated by a single oxygen atom (O) underpin all manner of technologies from the pigments of antiquity to modern electronics. Electronic/magnetic communication across MOM bridges is thus extremely well understood. Materials with two metals bridged by o ....Bimetallic carbidos: hard-wiring a single atom of carbon. This project aims to explore the design, synthesis, characterisation and applications of novel materials in which metals are bridged by a single carbon atom. Materials based on metals (M) separated by a single oxygen atom (O) underpin all manner of technologies from the pigments of antiquity to modern electronics. Electronic/magnetic communication across MOM bridges is thus extremely well understood. Materials with two metals bridged by one carbon atom (MCM) are in contrast, rare and poorly understood. Developing synthetic routes to such materials will make it possible to map the diversity of chemical and electronic features against theoretical models in search of new materials with unique reactivities and properties for commercial exploitation.Read moreRead less
Discovery Early Career Researcher Award - Grant ID: DE200100421
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$427,116.00
Summary
A New Breed of Metallosupramolecular Assembly. Self-assembly is the ready formation of complex structures from simple components. Nature uses this to generate its most impressive molecular machinery to carry out complex tasks. Metallosupramolecular chemists combine simple components (metal ions and organic ligands) to create synthetic variants to fulfil similar roles. Current methods have limitations, and this project aims to create a new structural type: large and controllably variable metallo- ....A New Breed of Metallosupramolecular Assembly. Self-assembly is the ready formation of complex structures from simple components. Nature uses this to generate its most impressive molecular machinery to carry out complex tasks. Metallosupramolecular chemists combine simple components (metal ions and organic ligands) to create synthetic variants to fulfil similar roles. Current methods have limitations, and this project aims to create a new structural type: large and controllably variable metallo-foldamers (structures consisting of metal ions and ligands that coil like DNA). As well as benefiting fundamental knowledge, these molecules will be functional. They are expected to improve performance with enhanced outcomes in photophysical, photochemical, catalytic, and sensing applications.Read moreRead less