Aluminium and Gallium Bis(carbene) Analogues

• Applicant: Professor Dr. Robert Kretschmer
• Subject Area: Inorganic Molecular Chemistry - Synthesis and Characterisation
• Term: since 2016
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 315588071

The aim of the research project is the synthesis of bis(carbene) analogues of the group 13 elements. While the funding of the first application allowed us to synthesise the corresponding indium and thallium compounds, the respective aluminium and gallium species are now to be made accessible. In preliminary work, salt metathesis has been identified as a suitable method and is now to be used for the synthesis of a number of low-valent dinuclear aluminium and gallium compounds. Subsequently, intra- and intermolecular metal-metal interactions of the synthesized compounds will be investigated spectroscopically and by single-crystal X-ray diffraction analysis. The metal-metal bonding will be analyzed supported by theoretical studies. The reactivity of the bis(carbene) analogues of aluminium and gallium towards saturated and unsaturated substrates such as amines, olefins, silanes, H2, CO and CO2 is main research objective. It can be assumed that small molecules are activated in previously unknown ways due to cooperative effects, which apart from (earth) alkali metals and the chemistry of frustrated Lewis pairs are by and large unknown for main-group element compounds and can only be insufficiently explained with the traditional concepts of coordination chemistry.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants