Grant: Discovery Grants Program - Individual

The chemistry of phosphorus plays an important role in many different fields. A few of the many industrial applications of phosphorus compounds are fertilizers, pesticides, fire retardants, and detergents. Phosphorus compounds also form a critical part of the energy cycle of cells, among many other biological functions. This proposal involves the development of new techniques for synthesizing compounds of phosphorus. Many important synthetic techniques in organic chemistry involve transition metal complexes. Since the chemistry of phosphorus often resembles that of carbon, techniques involving metal complexes may also be useful for forming phosphorus compounds. We will be developing new techniques for the synthesis of organophosphorus compounds, using transition metal complexes. Metal complexes are useful for stabilizing phosphorus in unusual environments that make it particularly reactive, and thus useful for synthesis. We are interested in phosphido complexes, which have metal phosphorus single bonds, phosphinidenes, which have metal-phosphorus double bonds, and phosphides, which have metal-phosphorus triple bonds. One application of our phosphorus compounds is synthesis of ligands for phosphine-based catalysts. Phosphine catalysts are important in many industries, including the pharmaceutical industry. Other potential applications of our transition-metal phosphorus chemistry include the formation of the building blocks used to make phosphorus-containing polymers, and the formation of new biologically active molecules containing phosphorus.