Selective catalytic isomerization and hydrogenation of polyunsaturated molecules

化工制造业是加拿大经济的重要组成部分。精细化学品制备的改进方法的发展提供了竞争优势，同时增加了可持续性。本研究项目的目标是开发新的化学工艺，并了解如何通过过渡金属催化将小分子原料转化为高价值产品。该提案直接延续了巴斯夫/NSERC在2020-2021年支持的成功合作。本项目旨在寻找通过异构化将原料含烯烃分子转化为新产品的方法。金属基催化剂将用于将低价值的前体重新排列成高价值的目标。由于目标分子具有适度的化学稳定性，因此将开发量身定制的催化剂和反应条件，以在使用低负荷金属催化剂的情况下提供高化学收率和纯度的产品。该项目的一个相关目标涉及多不饱和底物中一个烯烃单元的选择性加氢。对潜在机制和催化剂行为的理解也将为伙伴组织提供可推广的概念，这些概念可应用于改进其他结构相关目标的合成。

Chemical manufacturing is an important part of Canada's economy. The development of improved methods for the preparation of fine chemicals provides a competitive advantage while increasing sustainability. The goal of this research project is to develop new chemical processes and to understand to how small molecule feedstocks can be converted into high value products by transition metal catalysis. This proposal directly continues a successful collaboration supported by BASF/NSERC in 2020-2021. This project seeks to find methods to convert feedstock alkene-containing molecules into new products by isomerization. Metal-based catalysts will be used to rearrange low-value precursors into higher value targets. As the target molecules are of modest chemical stability, tailored catalysts and reaction conditions will be developmed to deliver products in high chemical yield and purity while using low loadings of metal catalyst. A related objective of the project involves the selective hydrogenation of one alkene unit in polyunsaturated substrates. An understanding of the underlying mechanisms and catalyst behaviour will also provide the partner organization with generalizable concepts that can be applied to the improved synthesis of other structurally related targets.