Discovering Design Criteria in Early Transition Metal Catalysis

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With the support of the Chemical Catalysis Program in the Division of Chemistry, Professor Aaron Odom of Michigan State University is studying the development of new approaches to catalyst optimization. In 2008, the North American Catalysis Society estimated that catalysis contributes greater than 35% of the global GDP through improvements in fuels, energy, emissions, polymers, natural and biomodified enzymes, pharmaceutical production, and food. These categories account for over 10 trillion dollars of the annual world economy. While methods for optimization of low oxidation state transition metal catalysts have been studied for over 50 years, similar methods for optimizing high oxidation state transition metal systems have seen little development. As a result, high oxidation state catalysts are often optimized inefficiently and unsystematically by screening many different compounds. The Odom group is developing methods to address this gap and design improved routes to the optimization of high oxidation state earth abundant catalyst systems that are often used industrially. These activities will providing professional training for a diverse group of graduate and undergraduate students at Michigan State University. Also as part of this project, Professor Odom and his graduate students also will organize outreach activities to local K-12 students and home-schooled children.The Odom research group has developed a method for parameterizing ancillary ligand donor ability for high oxidation state metals. Using an electronic parameter, designated Ligand Donor Parameter or LDP, in conjunction with a parameter for the size of the ligand, a mathematical model for how the reaction behaves with changes in catalyst structure can be determined. This model can then be used to anticipate how new complexes will behave and discover new information about how catalysts work. Professor Odom and his research team are currently advancing this system through the investigation of more complicated catalytic systems such as a three-component coupling and studying ligands that incorporate neutral as well as anionic donors in olefin oligomerization. In a third research direction, the Odom group is also working towards expanding this predictive ligand structure-function strategy toward f-element catalysts. These efforts are expected to provide new hypothesis-driven routes to catalyst optimization and improved understanding of ligand acceleration effects in high oxidation state transition metal catalysts.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.