Dr. Tyler St Denis, PhD

Transition metal silicides are an important class of materials with commercial applications in material science, renewable energy, and the synthesis of commodity chemicals. Despite these broad applications, little is known about the molecular mechanisms by which these interesting materials function. This proposal seeks to make precise synthetic models of these systems so that they may be studied and so that the interesting flavors of reactivity imbued by the metal-silicon bond may be explored. Emphasis will be placed on devising new ways of synthesizing compounds with this unique chemical structure and exploring their reactivity in the development of new chemical transformations and catalyses.