Matthew Whited

New Mechanisms for Cooperative (and Uncooperative) Reactions: Stoichiometric and Catalytic Processes Featuring Metal-Silicon Bonds

Compared with ubiquitous metal-carbon bonds, transition metal-silicon linkages have received much less attention.  Beyond their critical role in catalytic hydrosilylation, late-metal silyl and silylene complexes offer intriguing possibilities for cooperative reactivity due the complementary electronic properties of the metal/silicon units and the ease with which Si accommodates coordination numbers beyond four.  This presentation will demonstrate several new mechanisms for small-molecule transformation engendered by metal-silicon bonds, including distinct redox-cooperative reductions of CO₂ and ethylene at a cobalt silylene.