Mass spectrometry-led catalyst discovery

质谱主导的催化剂发现

• 批准号: 293230-2009
• 负责人: McIndoe, Scott
• 金额: $ 3.64万
• 依托单位: University of Victoria
• 依托单位国家: 加拿大
• 项目类别: Discovery Grants Program - Individual
• 财政年份: 2012
• 资助国家: 加拿大
• 起止时间: 2012-01-01 至 2013-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nserc-crsng.gc.ca/ase-oro/Details-Detailles_eng.asp?id=514721
• 关键词: Mass; spectrometry; led; catalyst; discovery

Catalysts speed up reactions. In doing so, they play a crucial role in making chemical processes faster, cleaner and more energy-efficient. Indeed, without catalysts, many chemical transformations are simply not possible. Despite their enormous importance, studying catalysts is difficult. Their very nature implies that they are highly reactive and present at very low concentration; capturing and studying such transient species is challenging. The ideal technique to use is one that is fast, extremely sensitive, and capable of dealing with complex mixtures. In electrospray ionization mass spectrometry (ESI-MS), just such a technique exists, but applying it to catalytic problems is not easy. We are leading innovators in this field, developing new methodology and original approaches to make ESI-MS a leading catalyst discovery tool for chemists. We design and synthesize ligands that render otherwise invisible catalysts highly prominent - turning the task of finding the proverbial needle in a haystack into a trivial matter by effectively making only the needles visible. We take our toolkit and apply it imaginatively to problems in catalyst characterization that have proved intractable to other spectroscopic techniques. In doing so, we find out fundamental information on the identity of the intermediates, resting states and decomposition products. These data allow us to pursue new improved catalysts for a wide range of commercially-relevant processes, from the synthesis of fine chemicals, plastics and even biodiesel.

催化剂加速了反应。在这样做的过程中，它们在使化学过程更快、更清洁、更节能方面发挥了关键作用。事实上，如果没有催化剂，许多化学转化是不可能的。尽管催化剂非常重要，但研究催化剂是困难的。它们本身的性质意味着它们是高度活性的，并且以非常低的浓度存在；捕捉和研究这种瞬变物种是具有挑战性的。使用的理想技术是一种快速、极其灵敏并能够处理复杂混合物的技术。在电喷雾电离质谱仪(ESI-MS)中，就存在这样一种技术，但将其应用于催化问题并不容易。我们是该领域的领先创新者，开发新的方法和原创的方法，使ESI-MS成为化学家的领先催化剂发现工具。我们设计和合成了使原本看不见的催化剂变得非常突出的配体-通过有效地仅使针可见，将在大海捞针的任务变成了微不足道的事情。我们带着我们的工具包，富有想象力地将其应用于催化剂表征中的问题，这些问题被证明是其他光谱技术难以解决的。在这样做的过程中，我们找到了关于中间体、静止状态和分解产物的身份的基本信息。这些数据使我们能够为广泛的商业相关过程寻找新的改进的催化剂，从合成精细化学品、塑料甚至生物柴油。