Catalytic Dehydrocoupling of Group 13-Group 15 Lewis Acid - Base Adducts: Mechanistic Studies & Synthetic Applications

The ability to manipulate atoms of the element carbon in molecular and polymer structures is very well-developed. As a result organic (carbon-based) molecules and polymers are well-known as a remarkably useful materials with an everexpanding range of applications. In contrast, the synthetic methods available to create molecular and polymeric structures based on other elements in the periodic table (i.e. inorganic elements) are often rather haphazard and are of very limited scope.The proposed research aims to allow us to further understand, develop, and exploit recent discoveries in our research group concerning metal-catalyzed dehydrocoupling (hydrogen elimination) routes to bonds between atoms of elements such as boron and nitrogen or phosphorus.Specifically, the aims of the proposed research are the following: to achieve much needed understanding of how the catalytic reactions work to extend the scope of the potentially versatile method to other combinations of inorganic elements to make other types of bonds to prepare of new polymers with phosphorus-boron backbones with potential applications as low temperature, flameretardant, or oxidatively-stable materials or as precursors to high performance ceramics products to develop new synthetic applications in organic chemistry to provide an improved method to prepare tube structures based on boron nitride which have potential applications in displays as field emitters