CAREER: Rational Design of Green Catalysts for Chemical Oxidations

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The Chemical Catalysis Program supports Professor Elon A. Ison at North Carolina State University who will develop new methodologies using transition metal catalysis to accomplish the clean and efficient oxidation of hydrocarbons. The proposed work will rationally design new catalytic systems for use in the conversion of hydrocarbon feed stocks into valuable materials via chemical oxidation. Traditionally, oxidations are performed with strong stoichiometric oxidants, including salts of Mn(VII), Cr(VI), Os(VIII), and chlorine-based oxoanions. These reagents, in addition to their significant costs, lead to environmental contaminants. The solution to the critical problem of selective oxidation is the development of transition metal catalysts that can mediate reactions that result in desired oxidized products and minimize undesirable by-products. In nature, enzymes are employed as catalysts for aerobic oxidations and are characterized as oxidases and oxygenases depending on their catalytic mechanisms. Oxidases catalyze the oxidation of substrates by employing dioxygen as a hydrogen acceptor, while oxygenases oxidize substrates by oxygen atom transfer. Oxygen atom-transfer oxidation reactions, that is, oxygenase mimics, are well-known and are among the most successful methods in asymmetric catalysis. These processes highlight the two main strategies that will be employed in this research program that will design systems for the catalytic oxidation of organic substrates. Processes that do not involve oxygen atom transfer in substrate oxidation (?oxidase? systems), will utilize oxygen as a terminal oxidant, and processes that involve the transfer of an oxygen atom to a substrate (?oxygenase? systems), will utilize nitrous oxide as an oxidant.Broader impacts will involve the development of new courses and labs on the undergraduate and graduate levels in the area of catalysis and green chemistry. Additionally, a new graduate seminar series called ?Inorganic Research Seminar Series?, and an annual symposium entitled ?Inorganic Catalysis and Energy (ICE)? aimed at establishing collaborations among the inorganic groups at North Carolina State University and the research institutions within the Research Triangle area will be developed. Broadening participation will include the mentorship, development, and recruitment of a new generation of scientists (high-school, undergraduate, graduate students, and postdoctoral associates) from diverse backgrounds to explore careers in STEM fields that utilize catalysis as a technology.