James Louis Dye

Research deals with the species formed when alkali metals interact with solvents or complexants. He found in 1970 that crown ethers and cryptands greatly enhance the solubility of alkali metals in amine and ether solvents. THis led to the synthesis of the first alkalide, Na+ (cryptand [2.2.2])Na- and shattered the 100-year old dogma that compounds of the alkali metals can only contain cations. The Dye group has made more than 40 compounds that contain the anions, Na-, K-, Rb-, or Cs-. A second major accomplishment was the synthesis of crystalline electrides, salts in which the anion is a trapped electron.