This LO is part of the 2024 series for national ACS award winners.  This particular LO focuses on a collaborative paper from the winner of the 2024 ACS Award for Research at an Undergraduate Institution, sponsored by Research Corporation (Rachel Narehood Austin). The award was given "for contributions to our understanding of the bioinorganic chemistry of alkane oxidation and metal binding to neurologically important metallothionein and for the development of heterogeneous catalysts." This literature discus

This literature discussion was created on invitation as part of a broad collection of learning objects celebrating Spring 2024 ACS award winners conducting research in Inorganic Chemistry. This learning object is in celebration of Prof. Christopher J.

This literature Discussion LO was created for the 2024 ACS Inorganic Chemistry Award Winners Collection.  Professor Louise A.

This literature discussion LO was created for the ACS National Award Winners 2024 collection. Dr. Herbert Roesky was the recipient of the 2024 Frederic Stanley Kipping Award in Silicon Chemistry. This LO is based on the article "Lewis Base Stabilized Dichlorosilylene" published in Angewandte Chemie 2009, 121, 5793-5796.

I regularly give an oral exam instead of a written exam in my junior and senior level organometallics seminar course. The course focuses on the primary literature, discussion of advanced topics, and asking questions. A written exam would not evaluate the students' abilities on the important skill development they learned in the class. Besides, I am better able to gauge when a student has no idea about a certain topic, or just needs a little nudge in order for them to demonstrate that they actually understand 95% of it.

The Tonks group has helped to revitalize interest in early metal, especially titanium, organometallic chemistry in recent years. Often his group uses Ti complexes for multi-component coupling, increasingly with masked low-valent Ti(II) as an important intermediate. This paper is more fundamental, exploring a ligand based on ortho-terphenoxide since the meta- and para- derivatives were already known. Along the way, they report some interesting NMR and structural information, and finish with some hydroamination catalysis. 

When I saw this paper come out, I thought it would make a great teaching paper. It has synthesis, characterization, reaction mechanisms, computational chemistry and it directly impacts catalysis by a thorough examination of the reductive elimination reaction. What are the factors governing the rate of C-C RE? Can geometry (sterics) control reactivity or is it only based on the hybridization (sp²/sp³) of the carbon atom in question (electronics)?