New high performance transition metal catalysts for sustainable reductive processing of chemical feedstocks

我们都熟悉汽车后部的催化转换器，它将氮氧化物和一氧化碳等污染气体转化为对我们的空气更有益的化学物质。我的工作将集中在一个类似的原理上，我将研究金属铱，看看我是否可以用它来引入二氧化碳，或者确切地说，二氧化碳中的碳原子，到分子中的氮原子上。二氧化碳目前是一种容易获得的废物，作为一个社会，我们热衷于从大气中清除二氧化碳，因为它会增强温室效应，所以这个项目将使我们能够探索新的方法来做到这一点。此外，含有氮原子的分子，尤其是我所描述的那种带有碳原子的分子，在现代药物和其他化学物质中非常常见，比如对当今社会至关重要的肥料。这项工作的特别之处在于，到目前为止，还没有其他学术小组能够利用金属铱和温和的反应条件甲基化氮原子。如果能够这样做，将为大量化合物提供新的途径，其中一些可能对工业有用。这项工作的一个关键部分不仅是使这种与二氧化碳的反应尽可能好，而且还要研究反应是如何发生的，它的机制。这将包括实验和计算工作，通过理解机理，它将使我们更容易知道什么反应应该是合理的，以及如何在未来潜在地改进催化剂。铱被认为是“贵金属集团”的一部分，与黄金、白银和铂金一样。事实上，铱比这些金属中的任何一种都要贵得多，在过去的几年里，它的价格一直在波动。幸运的是，对于这种类型的工作，反应需要非常非常少量的铱，在实验室规模下，这意味着仅仅一克铱就可以持续数月。尽管如此，与许多其他金属（如铁、钴、镍等）相比，铱是一种更有限、更昂贵的资源，最终尝试使用更便宜、更容易获得的金属来推进这项工作将是非常可取的。该项目属于ESPRC催化研究领域。(1)这个词用来描述把一个带有三个氢原子的碳原子加到别的东西上。(2)在/接近室温和压力下进行的反应。

We are all familiar with the catalytic convertors in the back of cars, turning polluting gases like nitrogen oxides and carbon monoxide into chemicals that are better for our air. My work will focus on a similar principle, I will be looking at the metal iridium to see if I can use it to introduce carbon dioxide, or specifically the carbon atom in carbon dioxide, onto nitrogen atoms in molecules. Carbon dioxide is currently a readily available waste product that as a society we are keen to remove from our atmosphere due to its enhancement of the greenhouse effect, and so this project would allow us to explore new ways of doing this. Also, molecules with nitrogen atoms in them, especially ones with carbon attached to them in the way I have described, are very common in modern drugs and other chemicals, such as fertilisers, that are of vital importance to society today.What is special about this work is, thus far, no other academic group has been able to methylate(1) nitrogen atoms using iridium metal and mild reaction conditions(2) yet. Being able to do it this way would provide new routes to a huge variety of chemical compounds, some of which could be useful to industry. A key part of this work will not only be making this reaction with carbon dioxide as good as possible, but also investigating how the reaction happens, its mechanism. This will include both experimental and computational work and by understanding the mechanism it will make it easier to know what reactions should be plausible and how to potentially improve the catalyst in the future.Iridium is considered to be a part of the 'Precious Metal Group', alongside the likes of gold, silver and platinum. In fact, iridium is much more expensive than any of these metals, and over the last few years has been subject to volatile prices. Luckily, for this type of work very, very small amounts of iridium are needed for the reaction, and at a lab scale this means just a gram of iridium can last many months. Despite this, iridium is a much more finite and expensive resource than a lot of other metals, like iron, cobalt, nickel etc. and it would be highly desirable to eventually try to progress this work to using a cheaper, more readily available metal.This project falls with the ESPRC Catalysis Research Area.(1)The word used to describe adding a carbon atom-with three hydrogen atoms on it-onto something else.(2) Reactions done at/close to room temperature and pressure.