Thilagar Pakkirisamy, Krishnan Venkatasubbaiah, and Frieder Jäkle. Rutgers The State University Newark, Newark, NJ
The development of sensor systems for ionic and neutral molecules is a promising field of research in Lewis acid chemistry. We have been interested, for some time, in developing appropriate synthetic routes for ferrocene based bifunctional Lewis acids. Our initial discovery of the diboracycle (η5-C5H5Fe)2[μ–C10H6(BPh)2] has spurred us to investigate the electronic communication between the two ferrocenyl moieties by changing the aryl substituents on boron center. In this presentation, we will discuss the synthesis and characterization of a series of diboradiferrocenes with different aryl substituents on boron center. In addition the binding behavior of (η5-C5H5Fe)2[μ–C10H6(BPh)2] toward different pyridine derivatives as the Lewis base has been investigated.