Richard Broene

Affiliation: Chemistry
Charles Weston Pickard Professor of Chemistry, Chair of Chemistry Department
Professor Broene's research interests focus on the use of transition and lanthanide-series metals to accomplish asymmetric organic syntheses, dimerizations as well as the rational, metal-facilitated synthesis of ligands for chiral catalysts.

There are several projects currently underway in his research labs. The first investigates the ability of tethered bis-indenyl ligands to serve as proto-C2 symmetric ligands for lanthanide metals, forming metallocene complexes. The work in this area showed that the two-carbon tether was too short to allow the preferred formation of the racemic form of the complex, favoring instead the meso form. This is in part due to the large ionic radius of these f-electron elements. We use both traditional organic chemistry and zirconocene-mediated reactions for the synthesis of these ligands.

A second area investigates the use of conformationally constrained ligands to provide more favorable orientations for cobalt catalyzed dimerization of alpha olefins. We have synthesized useful quantities of quinoline substituted Cp* ligands and are investigating if they favor 2,1 insertion over 1,2 insertion reactions. Additionally we have synthesized phosphabenzene and are exploring its coordination chemistry to Co.

Education

  • PhD, Organic Chemistry, University of California, Los Angeles, 1990
  • BS, Chemistry, Hope College, 1985