A Forty Year Odyssey in Metallo–Organic Chemistry

In this invited Perspective, I provide a personal account highlighting several of my group's research contributions in metallo–organic chemistry over the past 40 years. Our early work focused primarily in stoichiometric structure/reactivity of transition metal–organic compounds and their use in organic synthesis. More recent efforts have centered on the discovery and development of new metal-catalyzed organic reactions via reactive metal–organic intermediates. The major research findings that are described here include (1) propargyl-cobalt complexes as electrophilic agents for C–C and C–Nu coupling; (2) the activation of carbon dioxide by metal complexes; (3) metal-promoted C–H nitrogenation reactions; (4) oxo–metal catalyzed deoxygenation reactions; and (5) catalyst discovery via dynamic templating with substrate- and transition-state analogues.