Low oxidation state magnesium complexes: multitalented reagents for sustainable chemical synthesis

The chemistry of stable low oxidation state s-block compounds was initiated at Monash in 2007. In addition to being of major fundamental importance, applications of these highly reactive systems have rapidly developed. To cement Australia's international lead in this emerging and competitive field, this project aims to develop a new generation of magnesium(I) (and related) compounds, and to install them as sought after reagents for sustainable synthetic methodologies. For the first time, environmentally benign s-block compounds will be utilised for the low energy stoichiometric and catalytic transformation of abundant, often inert gaseous small molecules (H2, N2, CO2, CO etc.) to value added products important to industry and academia.