Editor's Page pubs.acs.org/Organometallics
OrganometallicsA Foundation for Catalysis Research esearch in the field of organometallic chemistry builds upon a rich tradition to address expanding opportunities in reactivity across the periodic table. This field has grown from early contributions focusing on CO complexes through the decades of cyclopentadienyl rings, advances enabled by Nheterocyclic carbenes, to new paradigms in ligand design and breakthroughs in stoichiometric transformations. Applications disclosed in our journal impact innovations in diverse sectors such as health, energy, polymers, functional materials, and catalysis. The common thread to such broadly applicable contributions is our foundational interest in understanding, modifying, and exploiting structure and reactivity at metal centers with a broad range of reagents that include carbon. Importantly, the ensemble of these fundamental areas of focus can be pulled together to realize new advances in catalysis. Catalysis is of course only one field of application of organometallic chemistry, but notably research in the field enables the transformation of matter with improved energy efficiency and reduced waste generation and reaches toward using reagents and substrates that are abundant and require minimal prefunctionalization prior to use. These desirable and visionary goals ensure that catalysis is critical for manufacturing and also point toward the opportunity to further expand the application of organometallic chemistry and catalysis in the assembly of new and, as yet, unknown materials and molecules. Important to fundamental organometallic chemistry, catalysis assembles a series of elementary reactions to realize product formation while re-forming the necessary reactive intermediates. The field of catalysis research leverages our understanding of fundamental reactivity at metal centers and challenges us to develop new or improved ways of realizing targeted transformations. To push forward frontiers in catalysis research, expertise is required in fields ranging from strategic manipulation of electronic structure of organometallic/ inorganic complexes to small-molecule activation, physical organic chemistry, computational chemistry, polymer chemistry, materials science, and organic synthesis. As such, advances in catalysis research rely upon key insights provided by organometallic chemists with different, but complementary, approaches. Some reviewers suggest that manuscripts focusing on catalysis research are better suited to our sister journal, ACS Catalysis. One reason for this misconception may be the notion that catalytically active species must be rigorously characterized for consideration at Organometallics. Even more demanding may be the perceived requirement to fully appreciate the mechanistic details of the reactions involved. While such manuscripts are often featured in our issues, these features are not required by our journal and indeed a broad range of transformations that invoke M−C/M−H bonds as likely intermediates are welcome and encouraged. Furthermore, chemistry in our journal can reach beyond the established parameters traditionally viewed as being appropriate for Organometallics. To paraphrase our Author Guidelines, “manuscripts of interest to our readership that may include metal
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alkoxides, thiolates, amides, and phosphides, metal complexes containing organo-group 15 and 16 ligands, and metal nitrosyls, organophosphorus, organoselenium, and organosulfur chemistry will be considered if there is a close relationship between the subject matter and the principles and practice of organometallic chemistry”. Thus, a varied array of investigations relevant to catalysis research is featured in our journal and we actively encourage groundbreaking submissions from authors that are challenging and expanding our traditionally accepted boundaries. Diverse approaches in catalysis research are being disclosed in Organometallics. Some recent contributions include highthroughput screening approaches toward catalyst discovery (Tolman and co-workers, Organometallics, 2016, 35, 2391), heterogeneous catalysis with surface organometallic chemistry (Basset and co-workers, Organometallics, 2017, 36, 1550), and “metal-free” catalysis with main-group elements (Ingleson and co-workers, Organometallics, 2017, 36, 1623). Mechanistic insight is not a prerequisite, as ill-understood transformations can provide inspiration for further catalyst development efforts. Furthermore, not to be overlooked, is the importance of understanding how catalysts decompose and establishing fundamental reactivity profiles that avoid such undesired side reactions. In summary, all contributions that provide insight and motivation for understanding reactivity at the metal center will be of interest to our readership. Sometimes catalysis inspires stoichiometric/mechanistic organometallic investigations to build a deep understanding. Other times, established stoichiometric reactions can be assembled to realize new catalytic transformations. The journal Organometallics can sit at the intersection of these orthogonal approaches and challenge its readership to creatively unleash the power of our understanding from across the periodic table to build foundational insight and advance the field of catalysis.
Laurel L. Schafer, Associate Editor - Organometallics
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Department of Chemistry, The University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada V6T 1Z1
AUTHOR INFORMATION
ORCID
Laurel L. Schafer: 0000-0003-0354-2377 Notes
Views expressed in this editorial are those of the author and not necessarily the views of the ACS.
Published: June 12, 2017 2053
DOI: 10.1021/acs.organomet.7b00390 Organometallics 2017, 36, 2053−2053
