Oral Presentation Royal Australian Chemical Institute National Congress 2026

Enabling carbon in a constrained world. (140787)

Anthony F Hill 1
  1. Australian Natinal University, Canberra, ACT, Australia

The simplest organometallic ligand would be a single atom of carbon (a carbido) constrained by one, two or many metal centers.1 Though considered exotic curiosities, they are nevertheless invoked as reactive intermediates on the surface of heterogenous metal (Fischer-Tropsch) catalysts, they occur in nature (the nitrogenase FeMo-cofactor) and serve an essentially structural interstitial role in higher nuclearity metal carbido clusters. Accordingly, attention has focused on their typically serendipitous syntheses, with comparatively little attention having been paid to their reactivity and subsequent functionalization.

This talk will discuss the synthesis and in particular the reactivity of terminal and bimetallic carbido complexes directed towards the isolation of new types of ligands.

Four foci have emerged recently, viz

  • The synthesis of novel ‘C1’ based ligands via inclusion of main group elements.2
  • The strategic construction of homo- and hetero- bimetallic µ-carbido complexes and their delineation into four distinct bonding classes.3
  • The construction of bimetallic complexes bridged by odd-numbered carbon chains (MC3M’ and MC5M’) and bis(carbyne-terminated) carbon wires LnMC-(CC)x–CMLn (x = 0,1,2,3,4).4
  • Decoration of classical chromophores with up to four carbyne units.5
  1. A. Reinholdt, J. Bendix, Chem. Rev. 2022, 122, 830.
  2. (a) R. A. Manzano, A. F. Hill Chem. Sci., 2023, 14, 3776-3781. (b) B. J. Frogley, A. F. Hill Angew. Chem., Int. Ed., 2019, 58, 15349.
  3. (a) L. K. Burt, A. F. Hill, Angew. Chem., Int. Ed., 2025, 64, e202424699. (b) H. J. Barnett, A. F. Hill, Angew. Chem., Int. Ed., 2020, 59, 4274
  4. (a) A. F. Hill, R. A. Manzano Angew. Chem., Int. Ed., 2019, 58, 15354. (b) A. F. Hill, R. A. Manzano Angew. Chem., Int. Ed., 2019, 58, 7357. (c) B. J. Frogley, A. F. Hill, Angew. Chem., Int. Ed., 2019, 58, 8044.
  5. (a) B. J. Frogley, A. F. Hill Chem. Commun., 2019, 55, 1240. (b) B. J. Frogley, A. F. Hill, A. Seitz Chem. Commun., 2020, 56, 3265.