Program Review of the Inorganic Chemistry Division.

The Inorganic Chemistry Division of the CSC proudly showed its feathers at the 83rd Canadian Society for Chemistry Conference and Exhibition May 27-31, 2000.

The scientific program of the Division of Inorganic Chemistry at CSC2000 was the largest divisional program at the meeting, consisting

of 234 presentations in 7 symposia, 4 general sessions, and a poster session. Topics spanned a wide range of subjects in modern inorganic chemistry, including various aspecets of organometallic, coordination, and bioinorganic chemistry touching on material science, medicine, and catalysis. Contributions from Europe, Japan, the U.S. and Canada made for a very high quality program whose highlights included award addresses by Tom Ziegler, FCIC (Award for Pure or Applied Inorganic Chemistry) and Mike McGlinehey, FCIC (Alcan Award).

In addition to the papers delivered by many stars from various fields, the quality of presentations given by young scientists was particularly noteworthy. The poster session was especially stimulating, as more than 60 graduate students and postdocs presented their latest results. The Division presented three awards for poster contributions by graduate students to Fred Fontaine (Montreal), Silja Makinen, ACIC (Calgary) and Lisa Knight, MCIC (Calgary). The panel of judges commented on the difficulty of identifying award winners, given the generally high quality of the science and presentations in the session. The Division also awarded four travel grants to M. Shaver (UBC), P. O'Connor, MCIC (Victoria), C. Smaglinski, MCIC (York) and J. Gagnon (Sherbrooke). Awards were presented at the Division Mixer, held on the Monday of the conference at the University of Calgary. The mixer was highly successful, attracting more than 200 Inorganic Division members and guests. Special thanks are due to the sponsors of the mix er, which included Nova Chemicals and Vacuum Atmospheres Inc., along with several of the Universities involved in organizing the scientific program. We also acknolledge gratefully the financial support provided to the scientific program by Nova Chemicals, the Petroleum Research Fund, and Netzsch Thermal Analysis. The following are overviews of some of the symposia.

Aspects of Nitrogen Fixation (Organizer: Mike Fryzuk, FCIC, UBC)

A one-day symposium featured ian international group of invited speakers and a number of contributed papers all dealing with the activation of dinitrogen by transition metal and lanthanide complexes. Speakers from Canada (S. Gambarotta, FCIC, and S.A. Johnson), the United Staes (R.R. Schrock, D. Coucouvanis, S. Brown), Germany (F. Tuczek, D. Sellmann), England (G. Clentsmith) and Japan (M. Hidai) presented new studies that are related to one of the long- standing problems in chemistry, that of activating and functionalizing molecular nitrogen. There were many posters related to this symposium as well. The area of dinitrogen chemistry has its roots in Canada with the very famous discovery of the first dinitrogen complex by Allen Senoff in 1965. By the large number of attendees of this symposium and the amount of new and exciting chemistry, it is clear that this subject is undergoing a renaissance.

C-X Bond Activation (Organizer: Sandro Gambarotta, FCIC, University of Ottawa)

The topic of C-X bond activation was selected to cover the main aspects of molecular activation as promoted by transition and non-transition metals. Denitrogenation, desulfurization, deoxygenation, C-H bond activation, C-C bond cleavage reactions, and even some aspects of olefin polymerization and metathesis were all covered by the presentations. Progress in cleaving C-C bonds of alkane and depolymerizing polyolefins by metal complexes grafted on silica surfaces was presented by J.M. Basset (Lyon). Different aspects of the broad field of C-H bond activation in homogeneous media were covered by R.G. Bergman (Berkeley), van Koten (Utrecht) and D.W. Stephan, FCIC (Windsor). Recent developments and spectroscopic investigations in C-H and C-C bond activation were also presented by R. H. Crabtree (Yale). An intersting variation was presented by D. Tilley (Berkeley) with advances in the activation and further transformation of C-Si, Si-H and Sn-H bonds. B. Hessen (Groningen) presented unique cases of C-O bond cleava ge and deoxygenation reactions while P.T. Wolezanski (Cornell) discussed some of the thermodynamics of this chemistry. The work of M. Chisholm (Indiana), S. Gambarotta, FCIC (Ottawa), D. Richeson, MCIC (Ottawa), and C. Jablonski, FCIC (Memorial) touched on different aspects of C-N bond cleavage, while reactions related to desulfurization processes were presented by K. Tastumi (Nagoya). Finally, aspeccts of the chemistry of C-X bond acctivation related to metathesis and organic transformation promoted by d- and f-block metals were all covered by the work of J. Okuda (Mainz), R.R. Schrock (MIT), I.P. Rothwell (Purdue), M. Cowie, MCIC (Alberta) and D.B. Grotjahn (San Diego).

Functional Extended Solids: Natural and Unnatural Approaches (Organizer: G. Shimizu, MCIC, Calgary)

This symposium was held jointly between the Inorganic and Materials Divisions. The presentations encompassesd a variet of approaches to generating functional solid state architectures with applications such as thermoelectrics, catalysis, separations and magnetism. The topics ranged from purely inorganic (A. Mar, MCIC, Alberta and M. Kanatzidis, Michigan State) to coordination networks (V. Sanchez, ACIC and R. Thomspson, FCIC from UBC; D. Soldatov, MCIC and J. Ripmeester, MCIC of the NRC; D. Tilley, Berkeley; Y. Aoyama, Kyushu; O. Yaghi, Michigan; M. Zaworotko, S. Florida), and even hydrogen-bonding (J. Wuest, Montreal). The presentations made for some lively discussions.

Advanced Catalysis in Polyolefins and Related [alpha]-Olefins (Organizers: Q. Wong and X. Gao, Nova Chemicals)

Nova Chemicals Corporation was the sole sponsor of this 1.5 day long symposium which was co-organized by the Inorganic Chemistry and Macromolecular Divisions. The program consisted of 8 invited and 7 contributed papers given by speakers representing academic and industrial organizations in Canada, the U.S. and Europe. The main topics included olefin polymerization, molecular modelling, novel cocatalysts and catalyst structures, as well as mechanistic studies. This symposium will no doubt stimulate more intense research in these areas and foster collaboration between industry and academia.

Inorganic Chemistry of Mineral Surfaces (Organizer: Mike Bancroft, FCIC, UWO)

The speakers of this one-day symposium reviewed the very latest techniques for examining reactions at mineral surfaces, both directly and in solutin. These techniques included synchroton radiation based X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and X-ray absorption fine structure (XAFS), as well as NMR, AFM and LEED. S. Chambers gave an overview on the absorption andreduction of chromate using classical XPS and LEED as well as synchrotron-based EXAFS AND XPS. Stewart McIntyre showed the importance of chemometric techniques for imporving the resolution of classical XPS in important oxidation studies of Al and its oxides. Mike Bancroft, FCIC, gave an overview of the potential of the Canadian Light Source for surface studies, while Wayne Nesbitt and Rudiger Szargan showed the great advantage of synchrotron XPS for increasing the spectral resolution and the surface sensitivity in studies of sulphide and arsenosulphide surfaces at the monolayer level. Grant Henderson showed his latest experimental and theoretical stu dies which enable atomic AFM studies on non-conducctor mineral surfaces. Tom Swaddle, FCIC, and Bill Casey presented their latest NMR and theoreticl studies on silicate exchange kinetics in aluminosilicates in aqueous solution.

Medicinal Coordination Chemistry (Organizer: Bernhard Kraatz, MCIC, Saskatchewan)

The first two-day symposium on Medicinal Coordination Chemistry was hosted jointly by the Biological/Medicinal and Inorganic Chemistry divisions. Chris Orvig, FCIC (UBC) started off the symposium with an elegant overview to Medicinal Coordination Chemistry and the Bioinorganic Periodic Table. His talk gave special attention to metallo-therapeutics such as vanadium, gold and platinum complexes. The symposium covered topics ranging from bismuth chelates (N. Burford, MCIC, Dalhousie) to NO metallo-enzyme models (Murray, Queen's) and platinum carbolylate macrocycles and their anticancer potential (R. Haines, MCIC, UPEI). In two invited presentations, vanadium drugs and their interactions with proteins were highlighted: Gail Willsky's (Buffalo) presentation in particular focused on clinical studies of vanadium drugs, whereas Alan Tracey, MCIC (Simon Fraser) presented results of in vitro studies of the interaction with Human Serum Albumin (HSA). Both of these talks presented strong evidence for the presence and inv olvement of a polyoxovanadate under physiological conditions. Understanding specific metal-protein interactions has been one of the key issues of this symposium and was central in Frank Shaw's (EDU) talk on the applications of gold complexes and the pivotal role of auranofin as anti-arthritic drug. This thme was continued in contributed lectures by Tessier (UQAM), Riddoch, ACIC (McMaster) and Quagrane (Saskatchewan), who presented examples of metal coordination to amino acids or peptides. Doug Grotjahn's (San Diego State) contribution looked at metal coordination from the angle of bioconjugation of Ru to aromatic amino acid sidechain, offering a mild labelling method for proteins. DNA-platinum bioconjugates and their application to construct potential micro-devices were introduced by Bernhard Lippert (Dortmund) in a stimulating presentation. A series of elegant macromolecular systems were presented based on DNA-Pt coordination. The symposium closed with an invited lecture by Jon Dilworth (Oxford) detailing ex citing recent advances in mustard derivatives as site selectrive cancer therepeutics.

On behalf of the division, thanks are expressed to the symposium organizers for the time and energy spent in putting together a memorable program, as well as for providing an overview of the symposium proceedings.

See you at the 2001 CSC conference in Montreal!

Davit Zargarian, is the secretary of the Division of Inorganic Chemistry of the CSC.