Russ Hughes received his B.Sc. degree in 1967 from UMIST in England. After obtaining his Ph.D. degree in Organometallic Chemistry in 1972 from the University of Toronto, he carried out postdoctoral research at the University of Bristol (England) and McGill University (Montreal), before joining the Dartmouth faculty in 1976. He continues his research interests in synthetic and mechanistic Organometallic Chemistry of the transition metals, with special emphasis on fluorinated ligands. He has been a Fellow of the Alfred P. Sloan, and Alexander von Humboldt Foundations, and was awarded a D.Sc. by the University of Manchester in 1990. He has chaired the Organometallic Subdivision of the American Chemical Society and the Gordon Research Conference on Organometallic Chemistry, and is a member of the Inorganic, Organic, and Fluorine Divisions of the American Chemical Society.

Selected Publications

Research Group Web Site

Russell.Hughes@dartmouth.edu

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Research Interests

Transition metal organometallic complexes are important synthetic and catalytic reagents in many chemical transformations of organic molecules. Professor Hughes's interests lie in the areas of synthetic and mechanistic organometallic chemistry. Synthesis and study of model complexes related to catalytically important systems are always prime objectives.

Particular interest is focused on the mechanisms and stereochemistries of metal promoted reactions involving the activation of aliphatic carbon-fluorine bonds. New research directions include developing synthetic approaches to conversion of CF to CH bonds, and new routes to environmentally friendly hydrofluorocarbons as substitutes for chlorofluorocarbons. The effect of perfluorinated organic ligands on the chemistry of organometallic complexes is also of considerable ongoing interest.

Extensive use is made of inert atmosphere techniques for synthesis; compound characterization relies heavily on high field multinuclear NMR spectroscopy, together with IR and mass spectroscopy, and X-ray crystallography, in collaboration with Arnie Rheingold at the University of California at San Diego.

• Hui Huang, Russell P. Hughes, Clark R. Landis, and Arnold L. Rheingold, "The Simplest Binary Fluorocarbon as a Ligand.  Synthetic, Spectroscopic, Crystallographic, and Computational Studies of a Molybdenum Complex of Terminally Ligated Carbon Monofluoride (Fluoromethylidyne)," J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2006, 128, 7454-7455.
• Russell P. Hughes, Roman B. Larichev, Lev. N. Zakharov, and Arnold L. Rheingold, "Carbon-Fluorine Bond Activation Coupled with Alkynyl Migration to give Fluorinated Allenyl Complexes of Iridium." Organometallics, 2006, 25, 3943-3947.
• Cheryl J. Bourgeois, Russell P. Hughes, Jian Yuan, Antonio G. DiPasquale, and Arnold L. Rheingold, "α- and β-Fluorine Elimination Reactions Induced by Reduction of Iridium-Fluoroalkyl Complexes.  Selective Formation of Fluoroalkylidene and Hydrofluoroalkene Ligands," Organometallics 2006, 25, 2908-2910.
• Russell P. Hughes, Roman B. Laritchev, Jian Yuan, James A. Golen, Adam N. Rucker and Arnold L. Rheingold, "A Simple Route to Difluorocarbene and Perfluoroalkylidene Complexes of Iridium," J. Am. Chem. Soc., 2005, 127, 15020-15021.
• Shaun A. Garratt, Russell P. Hughes, Ivan Kovacik, Antony J. Ward, Stefan Willemsen and Donghui Zhang, "Carbon-Fluorine Bond Activation Coupled with Carbon-Hydrogen Bond Formation a to Iridium:  Kinetics, Mechanism, and Diastereoselectivity," J. Am. Chem. Soc., 2005, 127, 15585-15594.
• Russell P. Hughes, Roman B. Laritchev, Lev. N. Zakharov, and Arnold L. Rheingold, "Carbon-Fluorine Bond Activation Coupled with Carbon-Carbon Bond Formation at Iridium. Confirmation of Complete Kinetic Diastereoselectivity at the New Carbon Stereocenter by Intramolecular Trapping Using Vinyl as the Migrating Group." J. Am. Chem. Soc., 2005, 127, 6325-6334.
• Russell P. Hughes, Donghui Zhang, Antony J. Ward, Lev N. Zakharov, and Arnold L. Rheingold, "Conformational Analysis And Assignments of Relative Stereocenter Configurations in Fluoroalkyl-Iridium Complexes Using ¹⁹F{¹H} HOESY Experiments. Comparison with Solid State X-ray Structural Results." J. Am. Chem. Soc., 2004, 126, 6169-6178.
• Russell P. Hughes, Roman B. Laritchev. Lev N. Zakharov, and Arnold L. Rheingold, "Reductive Activation of Carbon-Fluorine Bonds in Fluoroalkyl Ligands: an Unexpected Route to the Only Known Tetrafluorobutatriene Transition Metal Complex, Ir(η⁵-C₅Me₅)(PMe₃)(2,3-η²-CF₂=C=C=CF₂)," J. Am. Chem. Soc., 2004, 126, 2308-2309.
• Russell P. Hughes, Monique A. Meyer, Mark D. Tawa, Antony J. Ward, Alex Williamson, Arnold L. Rheingold, and Lev N. Zakharov, "Does α-Fluorination Affect the Structural trans-Influence and Kinetic trans-Effect of an Alkyl Ligand? Molecular Structures of Pd(TMEDA)(CH₃)(R_F) and a Kinetic Study of the trans to cis Isomerization of Pt(TMEDA)(CH₃)₂I(R_F) [R_F = CF₂CF₃, CFHCF₃, CH₂CF₃]," Inorg.Chem., 2003, 43, 747.