Main-Group Catalysis and Sustainable Chemistry

化学品是我们社会所依赖的所有产品的核心组成部分(例如，用于健康的药品、用于食品的农用化学品、用于微芯片的先进材料、用于化妆品的染料，仅举几例)。不幸的是，化学品生产是一个能源密集型和污染高的过程，消耗了全球石油和天然气供应的约10%，占全球排放量的约15%。我们面临的挑战需要一种更可持续的方法来创建这些构建块，而化学家在提供解决方案方面具有独特的地位。卡普托博士的研究计划将通过双管齐下的方式解决这个问题。首先是开发更环保的催化剂来创造这些所需的材料--催化剂是一种降低化学反应障碍的分子，允许它们使用更少的能量进行。不幸的是，许多工业催化剂都是以贵金属为基础的，贵金属稀有、昂贵且不可持续。卡普托博士的研究将开发利用地球上丰富的主族元素的替代品。最近的发现发现，这些不含金属的替代品在几个关键反应中几乎与它们的贵金属替代品一样有效，包括不饱和底物的氢化。他的研究还试图了解使这些主基催化剂有效的根本原因，并利用这些数据创建更好的体系。第二种方法着眼于从可再生原料中开发附加值分子，而不是普遍使用的石油原料。该计划将把合成化学方法应用于特定的天然产品，以开发第一款长效个人产品，最初的目标是超长时间的防晒。这些都有可能给个人护理领域带来革命性的变化，并无疑将导致重大的知识产权保护和商业化。

Chemicals make up the core building blocks for all products that our society relies on (for example, pharmaceuticals for health, agrochemicals for food, advanced materials for microchips, dyes for cosmetics, just to name a few). Unfortunately, the production of chemicals is an energy intensive and polluting process, consuming ~10% of global oil and gas supplies and accounting for ~15% of global emissions. The challenges we face demand a significantly more sustainable approach towards creating these building blocks, and chemists are uniquely positioned to provide solutions. Dr. Caputo's research program will tackle this problem through a two-pronged approach. The first is developing greener catalysts to create these desired materials - a catalyst is a molecule that lowers the barriers to a chemical reaction, allowing them to proceed using less energy. Unfortunately, many industrial catalysts are based off precious metals, which are rare, expensive, and unsustainable. Dr. Caputo's research will develop alternatives using earth abundant main-group elements. Recent discoveries have found these metal-free alternatives are nearly as effective as their precious metal counterparts for several key reactions, including the hydrogenation of unsaturated substrates. His research also seeks to understand the fundamental reasons what makes these main-group catalysts effective and use this data to create superior systems. The second approach looks to develop value added molecules from renewable feedstocks, as opposed to the ubiquitously used petroleum feedstocks. This program will apply synthetic chemistry approaches towards specific natural products to develop a first of its kind long lasting personal products, initially targeting ultra long-lasting sun protection. These have the potential to revolutionize the personal care space and would undoubtedly result in significant IP protection and commercialization.