Research Interests of Dr. Andrew Hughes

Amine functionalised cyclopentadiene ligands

We have developed the synthesis of a number of cyclopentadienyl ligands bearing alkyl-chains terminated by secondary amine functions. These ligands coordinate to early transition metals in a 5 electron h5 fashion for the C5H4R fragment together with a 3 electron R2NM metal amide and show a reactivity contrasting with their 10 electron biscyclopentadienyl analogues. We have been surveying the reactions of these amine-functionalised ligands, with an aim of understanding the relationship between amide and cyclopentadienyl ligands, the figures shows a structural result from this work. We have also chosen to study the coordination chemistry of these amine functionalised ligands with late transition metals, with an emphasis on using our bifunctional ligands to bridge two metal centres, typically with the cyclopentadienyl function attached to Fe and the amine attached to other metals. Future studies are likely to involve alkylated cyclopentadienes bearing amine and alcohol functions, with application to group 3 and 4 metal coordination chemistry. The catalytic applications of these complexes are also under investigation.




Andrew K. Hughes, Auke Meetsma and Jan H. Teuben, Organometallics,1993, 12, 1936.
Andrew K. Hughes, Sarah M. B. Marsh, Judith A. K. Howard and Peter S. Ford, J. Organomet. Chem., 1997, 527, 195.
Andrew K. Hughes and Andrew J. Kingsley, J. Chem. Soc., Dalton Trans.,1997, 4139.

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This page last modified 16th May 2001, by Andrew Hughes