Key Research Interests

Research in the Braunschweig group covers a wide range of organometallic and main-group element chemistry. Motivation for our work arises from a fundamental interest in novel molecular species, and much emphasis lies with the elucidation of their detailed electronic structure and reactivity patterns, thereby disclosing potential applications in organic synthesis, catalysis, and materials science. Sophisticated synthetic protocols as well as state-of-the-art analytical and computational methods are applied to meet these goals. Significant achievements over the past decades have been made in independent, highly topical and competitive areas of research, such as: (i) the synthesis and reactivity of reactive low-valent main-group compounds (e.g. transition metal borylene complexes and metal-free borylenes, diborenes, diborynes, beryllium(0) and beryllium(I) compounds, alumenes and dialumenes), (ii) small-molecule activation (e.g. N₂, CO₂, CO) by low-valent boron species, (iii) the synthesis of novel and photophysically-active boron, beryllium and aluminum heterocycles (e.g. boroles, alumoles, berylloles, azaborinines, diborabenzenes), (iv) the study of highly reactive small boron-containing molecules (e.g. tetrahalodiboranes, hexahalodiborates), and (v) the synthesis of boron-chain compounds and boron-containing polymers.