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

化学的核心是操纵化学键，以最节约能源和资源的方式提供具有内在价值的材料和化学品。催化是这一努力的基石，它直接促进了英国化学工业的发展（据估计，75%的化学品在生产过程中需要催化剂），而英国化学工业占英国GDP的21%。过渡金属基系统在催化中发挥着核心作用，通常提供了通过其他方式无法获得的分子的机械独特途径。由此产生的分子可能具有非常高的价值/低的体积，例如，在合成药物的复杂路线中的中间体；或相对价值较低/产量较高，例如，从化石资源衍生的碳氢化合物中提取聚烯烃。新催化剂的设计、构建和实施，提供了化学制造能力的阶梯式变化，同时提高了对化学键如何被操纵的基本理解，因此对可持续制造、能源和资源安全以及医疗保健至关重要。该奖学金将允许对催化发现、开发和应用两个高度互补的领域进行研究，这些领域将利用韦勒团队令人兴奋的新成果。该奖学金的科学目标是发展与金属西格玛配合物的合成、表征和利用相关的基础化学和催化化学，并在实际应用中加以利用。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，这样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。该计划将推动反应性有机金属化合物的合成，它们在催化制造新的，令人兴奋的，聚合物材料类型和有效利用化石资源衍生的化学原料（烷烃）和精细化学品合成催化剂（C-H活化）方面可以实现的限制。

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).