Aaron D. Sadow
Organometallic Chemistry and Asymmetric Catalysis
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Research Interests
Chirality, which is defined by the nonsuperimposablity of an object and its mirror image, is central to the chemistry of our three dimensional world. Biological molecules such as DNA and amino acids, pharmaceuticals such as L-DOPA, and many inorganic complexes are a few general examples of areas in which the asymmetry of a molecule or material is critical to its particular function. Thus, chirality will be a central theme in our investigations, and we intend to develop new organometallic catalyses involving this concept.
The research efforts of my group are directed toward the synthesis of new chiral ligands for the preparation of asymmetric organometallic compounds. Our targeted chiral species are structurally or electronically related to known achiral compounds that have been shown to be effective in organometallic chemistry, especially as reactive complexes and useful in catalytic transformations. Thus, these ligands have been designed to incorporate features amenable to both asymmetric catalysis and classical organometallic chemistry. One of our proposed ligands is the anionic tridentate tris(oxazoline)borate. This ligand contains the popular and effective chiral oxazoline motif that has been shown to give effective stereochemical selectivity for a range of ligands in a large host of asymmetric catalyses. Furthermore, our ligand is isoelectronic with the ubiquitous cyclopentadienide ligand (Cp) and tris(pyrazolyl)borate (Tp) ligands. As a monoanionic tridentate C3-symmetric ancillary ligand, its geometry creates an asymmetric pocket for a reactive metal center to promote interesting transformations and catalyses. Thus, we expect that complexes containing this ligand will afford asymmetric variants of the prominent chemistries developed with Cp, Tp and their derivatives as well as new transformations.
Using this ligand class, we will synthesize complexes of the lanthanide and transition-metal series and attempt to develop new catalytic asymmetric transformations. In particular, we are focusing on catalytic chemistries based on C-H activation and insertion steps. Our work will include traditional preparative organometallic chemistry, detailed mechanistic investigations, development of new methods in asymmetric catalyses, and the application of these reactions toward important problems in science.
