One of the most important advances in inorganic chemistry over the last 45 years was the discovery of stable multiply bonded species of the heavier main group elements. Detailed studies of these unsaturated species has profoundly influenced our understanding of structure and bonding and the diverse reactivity of these compounds has provided facile entry into a number of previously unknown functional molecules. Despite the rich fundamental chemistry of these compounds, the field was waning until Power’s truly paradigm-shifting paper in Nature in 2010 entitled “Main Group Chemistry as Transition Metals.”1 With his sharp insight, he revitalized the broad interest of the chemistry community in the power of main group elements in catalysis and small molecule activations. In this lecture, I will discuss some of our contributions to the field, particularly in the activation of ammonia by disilenes and digermenes.

Power of power

ACS Spring 2022

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