B.S. (1977) Roanoke College
M.S. (1978) Northwestern University
Ph.D. (1982) Northwestern University
Inorganic and Organometallic Chemistry. Clusters of the heavy main group elements and transition metals. Chemistry of metal alkoxides, carboxylates and their conversion to metal oxides. Chemical Education, the Chemistry of Art and Curriculum Development.
Email: whitmire@rice.edu
Phone: (713) 348-5650
Office: Dell Butcher Hall, 351
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Kenton Whitmire
Professor of Chemistry
Professor Kenton H. Whitmire, a native of Virginia, attended Roanoke College in Salem, VA where he earned his B.S. degree in Chemistry in 1977. In 1976 he spent the summer in the Undergraduate Research Program at the University of North Carolina working with Bill Hatfield and Maurice Brookhart. He was covaledictorian of his graduating class and was honored by the Blue Ridge Section of the American Chemical Society with the James Lewis Howe Award for his academic achievements. In the summer before starting graduate work at Northwestern University, he worked at Tennessee Eastman Company in Kingsport, Tennessee. At Northwestern, he worked with Professor Duward F. Shriver on the reduction of carbon monoxide bound to metal cluster complexes. Masters and PhD degrees were awarded for this work in 1978 and 1982, respectively.
Upon completion of the PhD thesis in 1981, he moved to Cambridge, England to work with Professor Jack Lewis with the support of a NATO postdoctoral fellowship. He arrived at Rice in the summer of 1982 and began his program in experimental inorganic and organometallic chemistry. In 1987 and again in 1989-90, he worked at the University of Göttingen, Germany, as the guest of Professor Herbert Roesky with a Alexander von Humboldt Research Fellowship. He has collaborated with Professor Jean-Yves Saillard and Dr. Jean-Francois Halet at the Université de Rennes, France. He was a visiting professor a the Université de Rennes in 1990 and again in 2000 and at the Korea University in 2007.
He was promoted to Associate Professor in 1988, awarded tenure in 1990 and promoted to full Professor in 1994.
He served as an Associate Editor for the American Chemical Society journal Organometallics from 1996 through 2007. He was Chair of the Department of Chemistry from 1999 through 2007 and has also served as Chair for the Greater Houston Section of the American Chemical Society.
Research Statement
The Whitmire research group has a range of interests in synthetic, structural and mechanistic inorganic and organometallic chemistry. A long term effort has been aimed at understanding how the incorporation of p-block elements into transition metal clusters affects their structure, bonding and reactivity patterns. These studies bear on catalysis and materials chemistry applications. The group is attempting to create larger nuclearity species that will bridge the gap between molecular compounds and nanoparticles. An outgrowth of this work is study of conversion of these clusters into important magnetic materials.
Homometallic and heterometallic alkoxo-, carboxylato- and oxo-complexes of the heavy main group elements are also being actively examined. These compounds find application in sol-gel processing of oxide materials. A subarea of this field is the production of high oxidation state, alkoxide and/or oxide stabilized compounds that may find use in stoichiometric or catalytic oxidations. As with the case of the metal cluster compounds, larger discrete molecular oxide compounds are targeted for applications in nanoscience and nanotechnology applications. Some of these complexes also have biological activity.
Selected Publications
C. Hofmann, I. Rusakova, T. Ould-Ely, D. Prieto-Centurión, K. B. Hartman, A. T. Kelly, A. Lüttge, and K. H. Whitmire "Shape control of new FexO-Fe3O4 and FeMny----Mn2O4 nanostructures." Adv. Func. Mater., 18 (2008): 1661-1667.
A. T. Kelly, I. Rusakova, T. Ould-Ely, C. Hofmann, A. Luettge, K. H. Whitmire "Iron Phosphide Nanostructures Produced for a Single-Source Organometallic Precursor: Nanorods, Bundles, Crosses, and Spherulites." Nano Lett., 7 (2007): 2920-2925.
I. Rusakova, T. Ould-Ely, C. Hofmann, D. Prieto-Centurion, C. S. Levin, N. J. Halas, A. Luette, K. H. Whitmire "Nanoparticle Shape Conservation in the Conversion of MnO Nanocrosses into Mn3O4." Chem. Mater., 19 (2007): 1369-1375.
V. Stavila, J. C. Fettinger, K. H. Whitmire "Synthesis and Characterization of New Phenylbis(salicylato)bismuth(III) Complexes." Organometallics, 26 (2007): 3321-3328.
V. Stavila, R. L. Davidovich, A. Gulea, K. H. Whitmire "Bismuth(III) complexes with animopolycarboxylate and polyaminopolycarboxylate ligands: Chemistry and structure." Coord. Chem. Rev., 250 (2006): 2782-2810.
T. Ould-Ely, D. Prieto-Centurion, A. Kumar, W Guo, W. V. Knowles, S. Asokan, M. S. Wong, I. Rusakova, A. Luettge, K. H. Whitmire "Manganese(II) Oxide Nanohexapods: Insight into Controlling the Form of Nanocrystals." Chem. Mater., 18 (2006): 1821-1829.
K. H. Whitmire, A. T. Kelly, C. Hofmann "Mononuclear Iron Carbonyls without Hydrocarbon Ligands." Comprehensive Organometallic Chemistry III, 6 (2006): 1-76.
T. Ould-Ely, J. H. Thurston and K. H. Whitmire "T. Ould-Ely, J. H. Thurston and Kenton H. Whitmire, "Heterobimetallic Bismuth-Transition Metal Coordination Complexes as Single-Source Molecular Precursors for the Formation of Advanced Oxide Materials." Comptes Rend. Chim., 8 (2005): 1906-1921.
T. Ould-Ely, J. H. Thurston, A. Kumar, M. Respaud, W. Guo, C. Weidenthaler and K. H. Whitmire "Wet-Chemistry Synthesis of Nickel-Bismuth Bimetallic Nanoparticles and Nanowires." Chem. Mater., 17 (2005): 4750-4754.
Presentations
"Iron phosphide nanomaterials from molecular precursors." American Chemical Society National Meeting, New Orleans, Louisiana. (April 10, 2008) With A. Kelly, I. Rusakova.
"Solvothermal synthesis of lead sulfide nanostructures from single-source precursors." American Chemical Society National Meeting, New Orleans, Louisiana. (April 10, 2008) With T. Mandal and V. Stavila.
"New iron oxide and iron-manganese oxide shaped nanoparticles: Synthesis, characterization, growth studies, oxidation, and derivatization." American Chemical Society National Meeting, New Orleans, Louisiana. (April 6, 2008) With C. Hofmann, I. Rusakova, C. S. Levin, T. Ould-Ely, D. Prieto-Centurion, K. Hartman, A. Kelly, A. Luttge, and N. J. Halas.
"Organometallic and Coordination Chemistry of the Heavy Main Group Elements: Lessons for Materials and Biological Applications." University of Monash, Melbourne, Australia. (October 2, 2007)
"Organometallic and Coordination Chemistry of the Heavy Main Group Elements: Lessons for Materials and Biological Applications." University of Canberra, Canberra, Australia. (October 2, 2007)
Editorial Positions
Associate Editor, American Chemical Society, Organometallics, (2007).
Theses
Cristina Hofmann, PhD. "Synthesis and Characterization of homo- and hetero-metallic coordination compounds and oxide nanostructures." (2008).(Thesis or Dissertation Director)
Awards
The Outstanding Associate for 2003, Jones College. (2003).
Named An Outstanding Associate of Jones College, . (2002).
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