Catalytic synthesis of specialty chemicals from sustainable resources

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Green synthesis of commodity, specialty, and pharmaceutical chemicals from renewable feedstocks is one of the Grand Challenges of 21st century. The proposed work will develop new catalytic strategies combining the broad spectrum of knowledge from chemistry, chemical engineering, and materials engineering. We will adapt a multidisciplinary approach, integrating material discovery and characterizations, chemical kinetic tuning, reaction engineering, and chemical process optimization to manipulate the fate of the oxygenates, derived from lignocellulosic biomass abundant from Canada's forest and agricultural sectors, as they undergo catalytic transformation in the condensed phase to value-added chemicals, pharmaceuticals, and polymer precursors. We will accomplish our pursuit by establishing the catalytic events at the level of atoms and electrons, understanding the connection of these events to the thermochemical properties of the reactants, the reaction media, and the catalyst complexes/surfaces and then applying the knowledge in order to manipulate the reaction pathways for a series of cascade reactions. These cascade reactions occur in separate media (protic/aprotic solvent) and require different local site and coordination environments, but our goal is to tune the reactivities such that they occur concomitantly and efficiently at the molecular length scales and in one pot. Incorporating in this research program is a comprehensive professional training program, which places strong emphasis to technical and leadership trainings of the highly qualified personnel (HQP). The HQP will acquire diverse skill sets and industrial and global perspective, through direct interactions with our industrial partners and collaborators and exposure to world class instrumentation. The personnel with these skill sets are much needed in Canadian energy and chemical industries to ensure that Canada remains competitive at the global stage.