School of Chemistry Colloquium: Professor Manfred Scheer (University of Regensburg) Polypnictogen Ligand Complexes -- Synthetic Tools for Transformations

Polyphosphorus units are an important class of compound and isolobal to carbon-based
relatives. Because of the lone pairs at the phosphorus atoms, the five-fold symmetric cyclo-P5 ring of the pentaphosphaferrocenes [CpRFe(η5-P5)] enables the use of these complexes in unique supramolecular aggregations with Lewis acidic transition metal moieties to form unprecedented giant spherical molecules. The talk will show versatile ways of the reactivity of this interesting class of compounds regarding their redox behavior as well as their ability to be converted by both nucleophiles and electrophiles. Concerning the redox properties, novel insights into E-E bond formation and breaking are presented. The frontier orbitals of polypnictogen ligand complexes show clearly the ability to be converted by both nucleophiles and electrophiles. Therefore, novel ways of access to substitution reactions and subsequent quenching result in unique pathways for the selective formation e.g. of asymmetric phosphines.

School of Chemistry Colloquium open to final year undergraduate project students, MSc students, PhD students, post-doctoral researchers and academic staff.

Professor Manfred Scheer (University of Regensburg)