Susquehanna Valley Local Section

September 2005 Meeting

The three hundred fifty-eighth meeting of the Section will be held on Wednesday, September 14, 2005 at Bloomsburg University in Room 408 of the Kehr Union Building.

Social Hour: will begin at 5:30 p.m.
Dinner: The dinner will begin at 6:00 p.m.
Meeting and Presentation: will begin at 7:30 p.m.

Dinner: The dinner will buffet style with grilled chicken breasts, london broil with mushroom demi-glaze, pasta prima vera, tossed salad, potatoes, green beans, fruit salad, and chocolate mocha torte. The cost will be $19.95 per person. Please RSVP to Sharlene Pollock (570-389-5159) or spollock@bloomu.edu by noon on Monday, Sept. 12^th, 2005.

See directions below.

Nitrogen Fixation with Soluble Transition Metal Complexes

The synthesis of ammonia from its constituent elements, N₂ and H₂, is challenge that has confronted chemists for the past century. With continued population growth, regional water shortages and increased soil erosion, demands for synthetic ammonia will continue to increase. My talk will present recent work from our laboratory focused on the chemistry of low-valent group 4 metallocene complexes. Three questions have motivated these studies:

How do you make a metal-nitrogen complex?
How can new nitrogen-element bonds be assembled?
Can the functionalized nitrogen fragment be released from the metal in a catalytically compatible method?

Our results demonstrate that the answers to these questions lie in the choice of cyclopentadienyl substituents. Seemingly modest changes in the steric and electronic environments about the metal center have profound impact on N₂ coordination and reduction. This understanding of "ancillary" ligand effects has resulted in the first hydrogenation of N₂ to ammonia under mild conditions in solution. The origin of this unusual reactivity and its kinetics and mechanistic distinction from biological and industrial catalysts will be highlighted.

Paul J. Chirik was born just outside of Philadelphia in 1973. He received his B. S. in Chemistry from Virginia Tech in 1995. As an undergraduate, Chirik began his career in organometallic chemistry working with Professor Joseph Merola on water soluble iridium hydrogenation catalysts. From there Chirik moved on to Caltech and received his Ph. D. with John Bercaw studying fundamental transformations relevant to metal-catalyzed olefin polymerization. For his Ph. D. work, Chirik received the 2000 Hebert Newby McCoy Award for his dissertation. Chirik also carried out postdoctoral research with Christopher Cummins at MIT and working on problems in molybdenum and titanium coordination chemistry. Chirik started his independent career at Cornell University in 2001 and his research interests are focused on using transition metals to solve long-standing problems in chemical synthesis. During his time at Cornell, Chirik has been awarded an NSF CAREER Award, been named a Cottrell Scholar by the Research Corporation and is also recipient of a David and Lucille Packard Scholarship in Science and Engineering. Chirik also received the 2005 Stephen and Margery Russell Distinguished Teaching Award for his efforts in General Chemistry.

Directions:
East of Bloomsburg: Use I-80 west to Exit 236A south.
West of Bloomsburg: Use I-80 east to Exit 236 south.
South of Bloomsburg:
From Central Pennsylvania, take Routes 11 and 15 north to the Town of Bloomsburg. Heading north on Main Street, you'll see Carver Hall directly ahead, and you'll arrive on the western end of the campus
From southeast Pennsylvania, take Northeast Extension of the Pennsylvania Turnpike (I-476) to I-80 west (Pocono Exit) to Exit 236A south.
North of Bloomsburg:
From the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre area, take I-81 south to I-80 west to Exit 236A south.
From the Williamsport area, take I-180 south to I-80 east to Exit 236.

From Exit 236 on I-80, take Route 487 south and follow signs to campus, approximately one mile. You'll arrive on the eastern end of campus. The first sign on the left will be at Buckingham Maintenance Center; the second sign on the left will lead up a steep entry and onto campus facing Centennial Hall.

Parking
Attendees can park anywhere on campus after 5:00 p.m., except in the metered parking on Second St. (meters are active until 2 a.m.). It is suggested that attendees may find it convenient to park in the parking garage on the corner of Penn St. and Second St.

Links to Maps etc.
View a campus map and get more travel information.

If you need more information or would like to submit information,
E-mail our Local Section Webmaster at mencer@wilkes.edu.
E-mail the National ACS Webmaster

Last update: Sunday, September 11, 2005 at 10:16:13 PM.