Organometallic compounds with metal-carbon multiple bonds

Fig. 8.3 Warren R. Roper (born in 1938) studied chemistry at the University of Canterbury in Christchurch, New Zealand, and completed his Ph.D. in 1963 under the supervision of Cuthbert J. Wilkins. He then undertook postdoctoral research with James P. Collman at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in the US, and returned to New Zealand as Lecturer in Chemistry at the University of Auckland in 1966. In 1984, he was appointed Professor of Chemistry at the University of Auckland and became Research Professor of Chemistry at the same institution in 1999. His research interests are widespread with the emphasis on synthetic and structural inorganic and organometallic chemistry. Special topics have been low oxidation state platinum group metal complexes, oxidative addition reactions, migratory insertion reactions, metal-carbon multiple bonds, metallabenzenoids and more recently compounds with bonds between platinum group metals and the main group elements boron, silicon, and tin. His achievements were recognized by the Royal Society of Chemistry through the Organometallic Chemistry Award and the Centenary Lectureship. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of New Zealand and of the Royal Society London, and was awarded the degree Doctor of Science (honoris causa) by the University of Canterbury in 1999 (photo by courtesy from W. R. R.)...

The use of bulky monodentate m-terphenyl ligands in the stabilisation of d-block organometallic compounds is surveyed. Importantly, these ligands have facilitated the isolation of hitherto unknown species containing low-coordinate centres and metal-metal multiple bonds. This review reports on these advances with emphasis on the synthesis, structural characterisation and, where possible, reactivity studies of complexes featuring metal-carbon bonds between m-terphenyl ligands and the transition metals. 

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