Metal mimicry through ligand effects

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Homogeneous catalysis is often the cleanest and most energy-efficient way to manufacture fine chemicals and even pharmaceuticals. Catalysts usually contain a metal, and every metal has its specific area of application. Unfortunately, the metals that best catalyze several important reactions (e.g. C-C coupling, hydrogenation) are the platinum metals, which are rare and expensive. The second component of a catalyst is a ligand, which is generally used to "fine-tune" a catalyst. In the proposed project, we aim to use ligands to make far greater changes to metal properties, in the hope of finding replacements for platinum-metal catalysts based on the less expensive and less toxic metals iron, cobalt and nickel.