Catalyst study and development in enantioselective transformations and electrode reactions in fuel cells

我们的主要目标是开发高效、绿色和新型的催化剂来合成药物、杀虫剂，并在燃料电池中产生能量。我们通过研究催化剂的工作原理，并利用这些信息来指导制备更好的催化剂和反应，从而最大限度地提高催化剂的反应性、寿命和可重用性。我们制备了活性和定义明确的溶解催化剂，不溶催化剂已经并入聚合物中，我们还定制了纳米颗粒作为燃料电池的催化剂。从这些研究中，我们开发了一种系统，可以在非常温和的条件下将酯加氢生成醇。该反应的工业版本需要大量易燃的固体氢化物试剂，这些试剂处理起来很危险，而且会产生废物。药物是复杂的分子。制备它们最有效的方法是用最少的步骤使简单的起始材料变得复杂。例如，我们开发了一种新的反应，单氢化亚胺的去对称化。这个反应使在一个反应中得到的有用的分子复杂性增加了五倍。我们还构建了固体、催化剂-有机骨架，这是迄今为止可重复使用最多的手性催化剂。我们的目标是用这些系统制备连续流动反应器和无溶剂反应，从而以连续的方式生产产品分子，而不需要溶剂或废物。 我们还使用磁共振成像来研究燃料电池中的水和醇，以优化它们的性能和寿命。我们准备了量身定做的纳米催化剂，并在原型燃料电池中进行了测试。

Our primary objective is to develop efficient, green, and new catalysis to synthesize pharmaceuticals, insecticides, and to produce energy in fuel cells. We maximize the reactivity, lifetime, and reusability of our catalysts by studying how they work, and using this information to guide the preparation of better catalysts and reactions. We prepare active and well-defined dissolved catalysts, insoluble catalysts that have been incorporated into a polymer, and we tailor nanoparticles to act as catalysts in fuel cells. From these studies, we have developed a system that hydrogenates esters to make alcohols under remarkably mild conditions. The industrial version of this reaction requires large amounts of flammable solid hydride reagents that are dangerous to handle and that create waste. Pharmaceuticals are complex molecules. The most efficient way to prepare them is to make simple starting materials complex in the fewest number of steps. For example, we developed a new reaction, the desymmetrization of imides by monohydrogenation. This reaction multiplies the useful molecular complexity that was obtained in one reaction by five. We also construct solid, catalyst-organic frameworks that are the most reusable chiral catalysts to date. We aim to prepare continuous flow reactors and solvent-free reactions with these systems, thereby producing product molecules in a continuous manner without solvent or waste. We also use magnetic resonance imaging to study water and alcohols in fuel cells to optimize their performance and lifetime. And we prepare tailored nanoparticle catalysts and test them in prototype fuel cells.