Putting Low Coordination into Practice by the Exploration of Metal-sigma-Interactions: Fundamentals, New Catalysts and Catalysis for New Materials

化学键的操作，以最有效的能源和资源的方式提供具有内在价值的材料和化学品是化学的核心。催化是这一努力的基石，直接为英国的化学工业做出贡献（据估计，约75%的化学品在制造过程中需要催化剂），这是一个创造英国GDP约21%的制造业。基于过渡金属的系统在催化中发挥着核心作用，通常为无法通过其他方式制备的分子提供机械上不同的路线。由此产生的分子可以具有非常高的价值/低的体积，例如在复杂的药物合成路线中的中间体;或较低的相对价值/高的体积，例如来自化石资源衍生的烃的聚烯烃。因此，设计、构建和实施新的催化剂，提供化学制造能力的逐步变化，同时提高对化学键如何被操纵的基本理解，对于可持续制造、能源和资源安全以及医疗保健至关重要。该奖学金将允许催化发现，开发和应用的两个高度互补的链的研究，这利用了韦勒集团令人兴奋的新兴成果。该奖学金的科学目标是开发和利用现实世界中的应用，与合成，表征和利用金属σ络合物相关的基础和催化化学。它既具有基础性又具有应用性，视野广阔，将为有机金属化学和主族材料化学开辟新的领域。直到最近，这些具有挑战性的目标都是不合理的，但申请人实验室的突破为该领域的这些重大未来发展奠定了基础。该计划将推动在反应性有机金属化合物的合成中可以实现的限制，它们在催化中的应用，用于制造新的，令人兴奋的，类型的聚合物材料，以及化石资源衍生的化学原料（烷烃）的有效利用和精细化学品合成催化剂（C-H活化）。

The manipulation of chemical bonds to provide materials and chemicals of intrinsic value in the most energy and resource efficient way is at the heart of Chemistry. Catalysis is a cornerstone of this endeavour, contributing directly to the chemical industry in the UK (it is estimated that ~ 75% of all chemicals require catalysts in their manufacture), a manufacturing sector that generates ~21% of UK GDP. Transition metal-based systems play a central role in catalysis, often offering mechanistically distinct routes to molecules that could not be made by other means. The molecules thus produced may be of very high value/low volume, e.g. an intermediate in sophisticated synthetic route to a pharmaceutical; or lower relative value/high volume, e.g. polyolefins from fossil-resource derived hydrocarbons. The design, construction and implementation of new catalysts that offer step-changes in chemical manufacturing capability, in concert with improving the fundamental understanding of how chemical bonds can be manipulated, is thus central to: sustainable manufacturing, energy and resource security, and healthcare. This Fellowship will allow for the study of two highly complementary strands of catalysis discovery, development and application, that capitalise on exciting emerging results from the Weller group. The scientific aim of the Fellowship is to develop, and harness in real-world applications, the fundamental and catalytic chemistry associated with the synthesis, characterisation and utilisation of metal sigma-complexes. It is both fundamental and applied in scope, broad in its vision, and will allow for the opening up of new areas in organometallic chemistry and main-group materials chemistry. Such challenging goals would have been unreasonable until very recently, but the breakthroughs in the applicant's laboratories set the scene for these significant future developments in the field. The programme will push back the limits of what can be achieved in the synthesis of reactive organometallic compounds, their use in catalysis for the manufacture of new, and exciting, types of polymeric materials and the efficient utilisation of fossil-resource derived chemical feedstocks (alkanes) and catalysts for fine chemicals synthesis (C-H activation).