Grant: Discovery Grants Program - Individual

Most chemical reactions are performed in a solvent however, some solvents can cause detrimental effects in the workplace and in the environment at large. This is primarily due to their volatility, toxicity, and flammability. Nevertheless, the products created in these solvents are valuable, and include pharmaceuticals and value added materials for electronics applications. It is important to identify new reaction media for these transformations and many new alternative solvents are available in which to perform the required chemistry. We plan to investigate the chemistry of basic organometallic materials in non-volatile solvents in a detailed and focused fashion. These new solvents include ionic and polymeric materials, and we view them as ideal reaction media for working with highly reactive reagents since they are non volatile and fire resistant. In many cases, especially for polymeric materials such as polyethylene glycols, the solvents are readily biodegradable. It is anticipated that new chemistry for organometallic reagents will be identified and new environmentally friendlier chemical processes will be developed.