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

操纵化学键以最具能源和资源效率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，直接促进了英国的化学工业(据估计，约75%的化学品在制造过程中需要催化剂)，该制造业创造了英国GDP的约21%。基于过渡金属的体系在催化中发挥着核心作用，通常提供了机械上不同的路线，这些分子是其他方法无法获得的。这样产生的分子可能价值很高/体积很小，例如，在复杂的合成路线中是药物的中间体；或者是相对价值较低/体积较大的分子，例如来自化石资源衍生碳氢化合物的聚烯烃。因此，设计、建造和实施新的催化剂，使化学制造能力发生阶段性变化，同时提高对如何操纵化学键的基本理解，是可持续制造、能源和资源安全以及医疗保健的核心。这项研究将允许研究两个高度互补的催化发现、开发和应用链，这两个链利用了Weller小组令人振奋的新成果。该研究会的科学目标是开发和利用与合成、表征和利用金属西格玛络合物相关的基础化学和催化化学，并将其用于实际应用。它既是基础的，也是应用的，视野广阔，将允许在有机金属化学和主族材料化学中开辟新的领域。直到最近，这种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未来的重大发展奠定了基础。该方案将推动在合成活性有机金属化合物、将其用于催化制造新型和令人兴奋的聚合材料以及有效利用化石资源衍生的化学原料(烷烃)和用于精细化学品合成的催化剂(C-H活化)方面所能实现的限制。

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).