CARBON-BASED LEWIS ACID
CARBOCATION CONTAINING AMBIPHILIC LIGAND
The incorporation of Lewis acid moieties within ligands, so-called ambiphilic ligands, has recently been shown to possess unusual coordination properties and to have a strong impact on metal reactivity, inducing unique chemical behavior. So far, Lewis acid-assisted reactivity has been limited mostly to stoichiometric transformations and only a handful of ligand systems exist. The goal of this project is to synthesize complexes containing transition metal – carbocation Z-type interactions. The nature of this novel transition metal – Lewis acid (TM – LA) interaction will be studied and used to perform stoichiometric and catalytic transformations
CARBON BASED FRUSTRATED LEWIS PAIR
Frustrated Lewis pairs (FLPs) arise from the combination of Lewis acids (LAs) and bases (LBs) with un-neutralized reactivity due to the steric repulsion between these units. Common bases for FLPs found in the literature include a wide range of phosphines, amines, pyridines, N-heterocyclic carbenes (NHCs), or carbodiphosphoranes, which show compatibility with various solvents and functional groups during transformations. In contrast, the LA counterparts in FLPs are less versatile and mostly limited to perfluorinated alkyl/aryl boranes and alanes. As a result, the development of versatile and stable LAs for FLP chemistry is still highly desirable.