The activation and functionalization of abundant small molecules into usable commodity chemicals is an overarching goal for industrial catalysis. These resources are utilized within the biological arena by highly specialized enzymes, which cooperatively control substrate binding and activation with participation from reactive residues and cofactors within the protein. Our group has been targeting synthetic metal-ligand systems that feature appended Lewis acidic and basic functionality (Lewis Acid/Base Triads; LABTs), designed to cooperatively engage small molecules and promote small molecule activation at a given metal center. We have recently expanded efforts from terpyridine-based systems, toward highly modular LABTs that are amenable to facile synthetic modification using highly robust azide alkyne Huisgen cycloaddition methodology. The late-stage coupling strategy allows precise control of the appended Lewis groups with minimal required synthetic modifications. This presentation will describe key aspects of ligand design, as well as efforts to develop reliable methods for subsequent metalation and reactivity studies.

Toward a �clickable� Lewis acid/base triad

246th National Meeting (2013)

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