Main Group Chemistry Laboratories (MgC)
http://www.staff.ncl.ac.uk/k.j.izod/Dr Keith Izod
Research in the MgC labs covers a wide range of main group and lanthanide metal coordination and organometallic chemistry. This principally involves fundamental studies into the structure, bonding and reactions of complexes having novel coordination environments by virtue of their unusual metal-ligand contacts, coordinative unsaturation or metal oxidation state. We make particular use of sterically demanding ligands and ligands with peripheral donor functionality, which frequently allow the isolation of otherwise inaccessible compounds (many of which exhibit unique reactions and reactivities). Sterically demanding ligands allow the synthesis of highly coordinatively unsaturated metal centres, whilst additional functionality frequently enhances the stability of complexes and leads to unusual ligand binding modes.
The diagram shows the LUMO of meso-[(Me3Si){Prn2P(BH3)}CCH2]2Sn showing the interaction between the B-H orbital and the vacant 5p orbital on tin.
These strategies have led to several key advances in lanthanide and main group chemistry, such as (i) the isolation of the first σ-bonded Sm(II) organometallic compound, (ii) the synthesis of the first complexes in which a hard heavier alkali metal cation is complexed by a formal tertiary phosphine centre, (iii) the development of the Schlenk dimerisation reaction for the synthesis of novel P-donor ligands, (iv) the synthesis of numerous alkyl and phosphide derivatives of the alkaline earth and lanthanide metals, including two of the first heavier group 2 alkyls and a unique Yb(II) heterocubane complex, and (v) the development of a new paradigm for the stabilisation of heavier group 14 carbene analogues.
Links to brief descriptions of selected research topics are given below; more detailed information on the activities of the MgC labs, including a full publication list, may be obtained from our group website.