N.O. chelated complexes of metals of low toxicity. Catalyst development for green chemistry

我们的研究兴趣在有机金属和有机化学领域架起了桥梁。Schafer团队开发了一类新的络合物，这种络合物易于修饰和快速组装，并利用廉价和低毒的早期过渡金属。这些配合物使用容易组装的N，O配位配体，如酰胺酸盐和尿酸酯，来实现以前未知或未被探索的用于催化的配位化合物。100%原子经济催化合成方法是绿色化学转化的基石，因为它们绝对不会产生副产品，并最大限度地减少合成有用化学结构的能源消耗。我们的新催化剂系列在选择性碳-氮和碳-碳键形成反应中表现出显著的反应性，这些反应是精细化工、石化、制药和农化工业的重要转化。正在进行的催化剂开发活动使用基本结构和成键分析，以及对正在开发的新反应的机理研究。对反应如何进行的详细了解为改进催化剂的性能提供了有价值的见解。最后，该小组使用新开发的催化剂系统来合成含杂原子的小分子和杂环，以说明使用有效的催化方法比传统合成方法可以实现的潜在优势。这些新催化系统的开发朝着最大限度减少废物和最大限度提高能源效率的方向发展，从而为工业上相关的化学转化产生可持续的方法。

Our research interests bridge the areas of organometallic and organic chemistry. The Schafer group has developed a new class of complexes that are easily modified and rapidly assembled and that take advantage of inexpensive and low toxicity early transition metals. These complexes use easily assembled N,O chelating ligands, such as amidates and ureates, to realize previously unknown or underexplored coordination compounds for applications in catalysis. 100% Atom economic catalytic synthetic methods are the corner-stone of Green Chemical transformations as they generate absolutely no by-products and minimize energy consumption in the synthesis of useful chemical structures. Our new family of catalysts show remarkable reactivity in selective carbon-nitrogen and carbon-carbon bond forming reactions, important transformations for the fine chemical, petrochemical, pharmaceutical and agrochemical industries. On-going catalyst development activities use fundamental structure and bonding analyses, along with mechanistic investigations of the new reactions under development. A detailed understanding of how the reaction proceeds provides valuable insight for catalyst modification for improved performance. Finally, the group employs newly developed catalyst systems for the synthesis of heteroatom-containing small molecules and heterocycles to illustrate the potential advantages that can be realized in using efficient catalytic approaches over traditional synthetic methods. The development of these new catalytic systems builds toward the minimization of waste and the maximization of energy efficiency to result in sustainable methods for industrially relevant chemical transformations.