Dr Jason L Dutton
Senior Lecturer and Deputy Head, Chemistry
College of Science, Health and Engineering
School of Molecular Sciences
Department of Chemistry and Physics
Room 617, LIMS1, Melbourne (Bundoora)
Research centres
La Trobe Institute for Molecular Science
Qualifications
PhD (The University of Western Ontario); NSERC PDF (The University of Calgary)
Role
Academic
Membership of professional associations
Member of the RACI, Treasurer of the Carbon Division
Area of study
Chemistry
Brief profile
Dr Dutton obtained his PhD in 2010 under Prof. Paul J. Ragogna at The University of Western Ontario in London, Ontario, Canada. His research focused on the Lewis acidic coordination chemistry of selenium and tellurium. He then moved onto a postdoctoral fellowship under Prof. Warren E. Piers at The University of Calgary supported by an NSERC PDF, researching mechanistic aspects of dihydrogen activation by boron containing species. In July 2011 Dr. Dutton took up a position as a Lecturer at La Trobe University. He was awarded a 3-year ARC DECRA in 2013 and promoted to Senior Lecturer in November 2014.
Research interests
Inorganic chemistry
- High oxidation state late transition metals
- Lewis acidic iodine chemistry
Organic, Pharmaceutical and Medicinal Chemistry
- Carbon as a Lewis acid
Teaching units
CHE1APL - Electrochemistry Unit
CHE2 - Elements Topic
CHE3 - Heterocyclic Chemistry Topic
CHE4 - Advanced Main Group Chemistry
Recent publications
For a complete list of publications see Google Scholar or ResearcherID.
Dutton JJL and Frenking G (2016) New Avenues in s-block chemistry – Beryllium(0) complexes, Angew Chem Int Ed., 55: 13380-82.
Yruegas S, Huang K, Wilson DJD, Dutton JL and Martin CD (2016) Probing the reactivity of pentaphenyl borole with N-H, O-H, P-H and S-H bonds, Dalton Trans., 45: 9902-11.
Pell TP, Wilson DJD, Skelton BW, Dutton JL and Barnard PJ (2016) Heterobimetallic N-heterocyclic carbene complexes: a synthetic, spectroscopic and theoretical study, Inorg Chem., 55: 6882-91.
Barnard JH, Yruegas S, Couchman SA, Wilson DJD, Dutton JL and Martin CD (2016) Reactivity of a phosphaalkyne with pentaaryl boroles, Organometallics, 35: 929-31.
Corbo R, Ryan GF, Haghighatbin MA, Hogan CF, Wilson DJD, Hulett MD, Barnard PJ and Dutton JL (2016) Access to the parent tetrakis Au(III)-pyridine trication, facile formation of rare Au(III)-terminal hydroxides and preliminary studies of biological properties, Inorg Chem., 55: 2830-39.
Huang K, Couchman SA, Wilson DJD, Dutton JL and Martin CD (2015) Reactions of imines, nitriles, and isocyanides with pentaphenylborole: coordination, ring expansion, C-H bond activation, and hydrogen migration reactions, Inorg Chem., 54(18): 8957-68.
Shaw AJM, Wilson DJD and Dutton JL (2015) A 2,2'-bipyridine coordination complex of [ICl2]+, Dalton Trans., 44: 15083-87.
Field-Theodore TE, Wilson DJD and Dutton JL (2015) Computational predictions of the beryllium analogue of borole. Cp+ and the fluorenyl cation: highly stabilized, non-Lewis acidic antiaromatic ring systems, Inorg Chem., 54(16): 8035-41.
Aprile A, Iversen KJ, Wilson DJD and Dutton JL (2015) Te(II)/Te(IV) mediated C-N bond formation on 2,5-diphenyltellurophene and a reassignment of the product from the reaction of PhI(OAc)2 with 2 TMS-OTf, Inorg Chem., 54(10): 4934-39.
Iversen KL, Wilson DJD and Dutton JL (2015) Effect of the electronic structure of NHC rings on the C-N bond activation of NHCs, Dalton Trans., 44: 3318-25.
Iversen KL, Couchman SA, Wilson DJD and Dutton JL (2015) Modern organometallic and coordination chemistry of beryllium, Coord Chem Rev., 297-98: 40-48.
Georgiou DC, Stringer BD, Holzmann N, Hogan CF, Barnard PJ, Wilson DHD, Frenking G and Dutton JL (2015) The fate of ligand stabilized dicarbon, Chem Eur J., 21(8): 3377-86.
Iversen KJ, Wilson DJD and Dutton JL (2014) A computational study on a strategy for isolating a stable cyclopentadienyl cation, Chem Eur J., 20(43): 14132-38.
Couchman SA, Thompson TK, Wilson DJD, Dutton JL and Martin CD (2014) Investigating the ring expansion reaction of pentaphenylborole and an azide, Chem Commun., 50: 11724-26.
Corbo R, Pell TP, Stringer BD, Hogan CF, Barnard PJ, Wilson DJD and Dutton JL (2014) Facile formation of homoleptic gold trications via simultaneous oxidation and ligand delivery from [PhI(pyridine)2]2+, J Am Chem Soc., 136(35): 12415-21.
Iversen KL, Wilson DJD and Dutton JL (2014) Activation of the C-N bond of N-heterocyclic carbenes by inorganic elements, Dalton Trans., 43: 12820-23.
Couchman S, Wilson DJD and Dutton JL (2014) Is the perfluorinated trityl cation worth a revisit? A theoretical study on the Lewis acidities and stabilities of highly halogenated trityl derivatives, Eur J Org Chem., 2014(18): 3902-08.
Corbo R, Georgiou D, Wilson DJD and Dutton JL (2014) Reactions of [PhI(pyridine)]2+ with model Pd/Pt (II/IV) redox couples, Inorg Chem., 53(3): 1690-98.
Aprile A, Corbo R, Tan KV, Wilson DJD and Dutton JL (2014) The first bismuth-NHC complexes, Dalton Trans., 43: 764-68.
Iversen KL, Wilson DJD and Dutton JL (2013) Comparison of the mechanism of borane, silane, and beryllium hydride ring insertion into the n-heterocyclic carbene c-n bonds: a computational study, Organometallics, 32(21): 6209-17.
Wilson DJD and Dutton JL (2013) Recent advances in the field of main group "allotropes" stabilized by neutral ligands, Chem Eur J., 19(41): 13626-37.
Couchman SA, Holzmann N, Frenking G, Wilson DJD and Dutton JL (2013) Beryllium chemistry the safe way: a theoretical evaluation of low-oxidation state beryllium compounds, Dalton Trans., 42: 11375-84.
Iversen KL, Wilson DJD and Dutton JL (2013) A theoretical study on the ring expansion of NHCs by silanes, Dalton Trans., 42: 11035-38.
Georgiou DC, Butler P, Browne EC, Wilson DJD and Dutton JL (2013) On the bonding in bis-pyridine iodonium cations, Aust J Chem., 66(10): 1179-88.
Tan KV, Dutton JL, Skelton BW, Wilson DJD and Barnard PJ (2013) Nickel(II) and palladium(II) complexes with chelating N- heterocyclic carbene amidate ligands: interplay between normal and abnormal coordination modes, Organometallics, 32(6): 1913-23.
Chu T, Piers WE, Dutton JL and Parvez M (2013) Synthesis and reactivity of a terminal scandium imido complex, Organometallics, 32(5): 1159-65.
Pell TP, Couchman SA, Ibrahim S, Wilson DJD, Smith BJ, Barnard PJ and Dutton JL (2012) The diverse reactions of PhI(OTf)2 with common 2-electron ligands: Complex formation, oxidation and oxidative coupling, Inorg Chem., 51(23): 13034-40.
Dube JW, Hanninen MM, Dutton JL, Tuononen HM and Ragogna PJ (2012) Homoleptic pnictogen-chalcogen coordination complexes, Inorg Chem., 51(16): 8897-903.
Couchmann SA, Wilson DJD and Dutton JL (2012) Are N-heterocyclic carbenes "better" ligands than phosphines for main group chemistry? A theoretical case study of L-E-E-L compounds, Inorg Chem., 51(14): 7657-68.
Fukazawa A, Dutton JL, Fan C, Mercier LG, Houghton AY, Wu Q, Piers WE and Parvez M (2012) Reaction of pentaarylboroles with carbon monoxide: an isolable organoboron carbonyl complex, Chem Sci., 3: 1814-18.
Dutton JL and Wilson DJD (2012) Lewis base stabilized dicarbon: predictions from theory, Angew Chem Int Ed., 51(6): 1477-80.
Ulmer TJ, Trepanier S, Dutton JL, McDonald R, Ferguson MJ and Cowie M (2011) Facile carbon-carbon bond formation and multiple carbon-hydrogen bond activations promoted by methylene-bridged iridium/ruthenium complexes, Organometallics, 30(21): 5882-93.
Gott AL, Piers WE, Dutton JL, McDonald R and Parvez M (2011) Dimerization of ethylene by palladium complexes containing bidentate trifluoroborate-functionalized phosphine ligands, Organometallics, 30(16): 4236-39.
Marwitz AJV, Dutton JL, Mercier LG and Piers WE (2011) A chemically competent alternate pathway for the heterolytic activation of dihydrogen by tBu3P and B(C6F5)3, J Am Chem Soc., 133: 10026-29.
Dutton JL and Ragogna PJ (2011) Recent developments in the synthesis and isolation of p-block centered polycations, Coord Chem Rev., 255(11-12): 1414-25.
Research projects
Lewis base stabilized dicarbon as a bifunctional ligand
Ligand stabilized element(0) compounds are currently a topic of major interest, as these represent soluble “allotropes” of p-block elements. Examples are known for C as C1, and Si, Ge, P and As as E2. In all cases an L-E-E-L (or L-C-L for C) framework is built using N-heterocyclic carbenes as the stabilizing ligand. We have identified that a L-C-C-L type compound (representing a stable C2 allotrope of carbon) should have unique properties as an extremely strong two-electron ligand for a variety of Lewis acidic species. The current project is synthesizing and isolating these stabilized C2 compounds and then using them as bridging ligands to build extended metal complexes.
Iodine polycations as modular oxidizing agents for transition metals
In this project we are synthesizing ligand stabilized iodine polycations such as 1L and 2L. The formal oxidation state of iodine in these molecules is +3, which means they will be susceptible to reduction, and will therefore be powerful oxidizing agents. Reactions with transition metals will oxidize the metal while at the same time delivering the ligands to the newly electron deficient, polycationic metal centre. The weakly bound ligands on the metals can then be replaced by other groups. The metals complexes targeted will be high-oxidation state species which are implicated or proposed in catalytic cycles as intermediates. This off-cycle method of generating these complexes will give insight into their actual existence in catalytic processes.
Synthesis of a per-fluoronated analogue of the trityl cation
The trityl cation ([Ph3C+]) is widely used as a hydride and methyl group abstraction reagent to generate cationic metal and non-metal compounds. Calculations show that the perfluoronated analogue ([(C6F5)3C]+) is a significantly better hydride and methyl abstractor, which will allow for reactions with species inert with respect to trityl. Paired with modern weakly coordinating anion techniques, using the [B12Cl12] dianion, we will be able to generate highly exotic metal and p-block cations for study.