Thesis Defence: Aryl Selenides as Functional Ligands for Boranes and Borylenes along with the Isolation and Reactivity of Monoatomic Boron(0)
March 31 at 12:00 pm - 4:00 pm
William Kennedy, supervised by Dr. Conor Pranckevicius, will defend their thesis titled “Aryl Selenides as Functional Ligands for Boranes and Borylenes along with the Isolation and Reactivity of Monoatomic Boron(0)” in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science in Chemistry.
An abstract for William Kennedy’s thesis is included below.
Defences are open to all members of the campus community as well as the general public. Registration is not required for in-person defences.
Abstract
Reductions of phenylselenide-boranes have led to a rare example of a selenoborane radical and the first isolated examples of selenoborylenes. Selenoborylenes were synthesized from the reduction of tris(phenylselenide)borane-carbene adducts, indicating for the first time that PhSe is a reducible moiety at boron. Fundamental transformations of these species have been explored.
The first stable example of a single zerovalent Group 13 atom bound only by neutral ligands has here been fully characterized by spectroscopic methods and its structure determined by single crystal X-ray diffraction. A two-coordinate boron(0) radical complex can readily be isolated from a facile reduction reaction and is stabilized by π-accepting cyclic (alkyl)(amino)carbene ligands. Reactivity studies have demonstrated its reversible reduction as well as oxidation in the presence of nucleophilic salts to form stable boron(I) complexes.
