Coordination Chemistry and Ligand Design

Coordination chemistry is a discipline of chemistry that examines the structure and bonding of organic scaffolding with metals.  This realm of chemistry has been spurred on by the ability of the organic ligand to control the coordination environment around the metal, which can lead to unusual geometries around the metal. More importantly, the ligand characteristics (electron density and steric profile) are largely responsible for the metal's reactivity in both stoichiometric and catalytic reactions and can also influence regio-/stereo selectivity. 

We are interested in the design and preparation of multitopic, polydentate ligands possessing multiple attachment points that can bind to metals in various modes. We envision these ligands to bind in a multifaceted means to a single metal or have the capacity to coordinate two metals. It is envisioned that if the ligand can bind to two different metal moieties, the conglomerate complex could have dual functions, wherein either metal could work in tandem to speed up the reaction or act as a conveyor belt where one metal performs one function and the other metal further modifies the substrate.