Inorganic chemistry is a discipline that spans areas ranging from materials chemistry to organic synthesis and on to biochemistry. The Inorganic Division at the University of North Carolina ranks among the top ten nationally and has been a major strength of the Chemistry Department for many decades. Organometallic chemistry is a particularly prominent research area with ongoing activities involving the synthesis and development of metal-centered polymer catalysts, the design of chiral cavities for enantio-selective molecular imprinting, and the exploitation of transition metal redox chemistry for applications in biotechnology.
Other research activities include the design of novel materials using multi-nuclear transition metal complexes as building blocks. Graduate students in the Inorganic Division are exposed to an exciting research environment, and a breadth of synthetic methods and characterization techniques, which together provide an excellent foundation for future careers in industry and academia.
Brookhart Group
Mechanistic Investigations of the (a-Diimine)Ni(II)- and Pd(II)-Catalyzed Polymerization of Olefins
New Catalytic Transformations Based on C-H Bond Activation by Rh Complexes
Gagne Group
Development of Highly Selective Noble Metal Catalysts using Molecular Imprinting
Lin Group
Nanoscale Functional Materials, Homogeneous Catalysis, and New Contrast Agents for Medical Imaging
Crystal Engineering of Polar and Chiral Materials for Nonlinear Optics, Separations, and Heterogeneous Catalysis
Schauer Group
Development of Synthetic Methods for Rational Design of New Materials via Transition Metal Cluster Chemistry
Templeton Group
Organometallic Transformations of Tungstene Carbenes and Carbynes
Thorp Group
DNA Sequence Analysis via Electrocatalytic Guanine Oxidation
Electrochemical Studies of Liquid DNA
Single-Site, Catalytic Water Oxidation on Oxide Surfaces. Zuofeng Chen, Javier J. Concepcion, Jonah W. Jurss and Thomas J. Meyer. J. Am. Chem. Soc., 2009, 131 (43), pp 15580–15581.
Dinuclear Gold−Silver Resting States May Explain Silver Effects in Gold(I)-Catalysis. Dieter Weber and Michel R. Gagné. Org. Lett., 2009, 11 (21), pp 4962–4965.
Synthesis of Interlocked 56-Membered Rings by Dynamic Self-Templating. Mee-Kyung Chung, Peter S. White, Stephen J. Lee, Michel R. Gagné. Angewandte Chemie, Volume 48, Issue 46, Pages 8683-8686.
Postsynthetic Modifications of Iron-Carboxylate Nanoscale Metal−Organic Frameworks for Imaging and Drug Delivery. Kathryn M. L. Taylor-Pashow, Joseph Della Rocca, Zhigang Xie, Sylvie Tran and Wenbin Lin. J. Am. Chem. Soc., 2009, 131 (40), pp 14261–14263.
Mechanistic Surprises in the Gold(I)-Catalyzed Intramolecular Hydroarylation of Allenes. Dieter Weber, Michael A. Tarselli, Michel R. Gagné. Angewandte Chemie, Volume 48 Issue 31, Pages 5733 - 5736.
γ-Agostic Species as Key Intermediates in the Vinyl Addition Polymerization of Norbornene with Cationic (allyl)Pd Catalysts: Synthesis and Mechanistic Insights. Marc D. Walter, Rebecca A. Moorhouse, Stephanie A. Urbin, Peter S. White and Maurice Brookhart. J. Am. Chem. Soc., 2009, 131 (25), pp 9055–9069.
Investigations of Iridium-Mediated Reversible C−H Bond Cleavage: Characterization of a 16-Electron Iridium(III) Methyl Hydride Complex. Wesley H. Bernskoetter, Susan Kloek Hanson, Sara K. Buzak, Zoe Davis, Peter S. White, Rodney Swartz, Karen I. Goldberg and Maurice Brookhart. J. Am. Chem. Soc., 2009, 131 (24), pp 8603–8613.
Efficient, long-range energy migration in RuII polypyridyl derivatized polystyrenes in rigid media. Antennae for artificial photosynthesis. Cavan N. Fleming, M. Kyle Brennaman, John M. Papanikolas and Thomas J. Meyer. Dalton Trans., (20), 3903 - 3910, 2009.
Unusual Interlocking and Interpenetration Lead to Highly Porous and Robust Metal-Organic Frameworks. Liqing Ma, Wenbin Lin. Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2009, 48, 1 – 5.
Highly Porous and Robust 4,8-Connected Metal−Organic Frameworks for Hydrogen Storage. Liqing Ma, David J. Mihalcik and Wenbin Lin. J. Am. Chem. Soc., 2009, 131 (13), pp 4610–4612.