Development and application of nickel catalysts for sustainable chemistry

化工制造及相关行业在加拿大人的生活中无处不在。药品、衣服、日用品和食品都依赖于基本的化学过程，将原始材料转化为这些非常有价值的基本必需品。在过去的一个世纪里，有机化学家开发了许多化学“工具”来实现这些转变。然而，越来越清楚的是，必须开发替代的“绿色”化学工艺，以应对21世纪地球面临的环境挑战。*苏菲·卢梭教授团队的研究涉及开发可持续替代目前化学制造行业所用反应的方法。考虑到这一目标，她的团队将研究将可再生化学原料转化为附加值产品的过程，并将产生的废物降至最低。更具体地说，她的团队将开发新的镍催化剂，能够将生物质中发现的碳氧键转化为碳碳键或碳氮键。这些反应将提供替代工具，以获取与制药和农化工业以及材料科学和纳米技术有关的高价值产品。她的成果不仅将为加拿大人带来重要的环境效益，而且还有可能以更负担得起的药品、食品和日常商品的形式提供经济效益。

Chemical manufacturing and related industries are omnipresent in the lives of Canadians. Medicines, clothes, everyday objects, and food all rely on basic chemical processes to convert crude material into these highly valuable basic necessities. Over the last century, organic chemists have developed numerous chemical “tools” to enable these transformations. It is however becoming increasingly clear that alternative “green” chemical processes must be developed to address the environmental challenges facing our planet in the 21st century. ***Research in Prof. Sophie Rousseaux's group involves the development of sustainable alternatives to current reactions employed in the chemical manufacturing industry. With this aim in mind, her group will investigate processes for the conversion of renewable chemical feedstocks into value-added products with minimal waste production. More specifically, her group will develop new nickel catalysts capable of transforming carbon-oxygen bonds found in biomass into carbon-carbon or carbon-nitrogen bonds. These reactions will provide alternative tools to access high-value products relevant to the pharmaceutical and agrochemical industries as well as to materials science and nanotechnology. Not only will her results lead to important environmental benefits for Canadians, but they also have the potential to provide economic benefits in the form of more affordable medicines, food and everyday commodity items for example.