Group 2: Elements of 21st Century Catalysis

催化是化学转化的加速过程，是实现传统（化石）和替代（例如生物质和二氧化碳）化学原料转化的环境友好和经济过程的关键。催化剂通过减少反应进行所需的能量而发挥作用，因此将在世界能源的未来中发挥关键作用。许多最有用的可溶性和固体催化剂包含贵金属，例如铑、钯、铂和钌。这些金属价格昂贵，供应有限。因此，需要开发非贵金属催化剂作为替代品。本项目提案寻求资金，用于对环境友好和无毒的第2族络合物在均相催化中的应用这一新兴领域进行联合合成/计算研究。使用在申请人自己的实验室中已经开发的化学作为起点，我们将寻求开发可用的和容易合成的烷基和氢化物试剂的范围。串联的实验和理论研究将被用来询问这些表面上简单但研究不足的衍生物的反应化学的因素，并将这些知识应用于更雄心勃勃的催化方案的发展。为此，我们将挑战世纪初最紧迫的化学科学挑战之一，即以最低的能源和环境影响成本对大宗资源进行低能耗转化。

Catalysis, the acceleration of chemical transformation, is the key to realising environmentally friendly and economical processes for the conversion of both conventional (fossil) and alternative (e.g. biomass and carbon dioxide) chemical feedstocks. Catalysts act by reducing the energy required for a reaction to proceed and will, thus, occupy a key role in the world's energy future. Many of the most useful soluble and solid catalysts incorporate precious metals such as rhodium, palladium, platinum and ruthenium. These metals are expensive and their supply is limited. There is, therefore, a need for the development of non-precious-metal catalysts as replacements. This project proposal seeks funding for a joint synthetic/computational study of the emerging area of the application of environmentally benign and non-toxic Group 2 complexes in homogeneous catalysis. Using chemistry that has been developed in the applicants' own laboratories as a starting point, we shall seek to develop the range of available and easily synthesised alkyl and hydride reagents. Tandem experimental and theoretical studies will be employed to interrogate the factors which dictate the reaction chemistry of these superficially simple but understudied derivatives and will apply this knowledge to the development of ever more ambitious catalytic schemes. To this end we shall challenge one of the most pressing chemical scientific challenges of the early 21st Century, viz the low energy transformation of bulk resources with minimum cost in terms of energy and environmental impact.