Group 2: Elements of 21st Century Catalysis

催化是化学转化的加速，是实现传统(化石)和替代(如生物质和二氧化碳)化学原料转化的环境友好和经济的工艺的关键。催化剂的作用是减少反应进行所需的能量，因此将在世界能源未来中占据关键地位。许多最有用的可溶和固体催化剂都含有贵金属，如Rh、Pd、Plu和Ru。这些金属价格昂贵，供应有限。因此，有必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。以申请者自己实验室开发的化学为起点，我们将寻求开发一系列可用的和易于合成的烷基和氢化物试剂。实验和理论研究将被用来询问决定这些表面上简单但未被研究的衍生物的反应化学的因素，并将这些知识应用于开发更雄心勃勃的催化方案。为此，我们将挑战21世纪初最紧迫的化学科学挑战之一，即以最小的能源和环境影响成本实现大宗资源的低能源转换。

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.