New Transition Metal Catalysts for Transfer Dehydrogenation Reactions with Oxygen: Efficient Alkene Synthesis from Alkanes

化学系支持北卡罗来纳大学教堂山分校的Thomas Lyons成为美国化学竞争力研究员。Lyons博士将开发新的含过渡金属的催化剂，用于烷烃的转移脱氢，使用分子氧作为氢受体。他将与伊士曼化学公司的科学家合作，在过程化学环境中开发这种方法。为了扩大参与范围，PI将与莫尔黑德天文馆和科学中心以及LearnNC的同事合作，开发说明催化剂在化学中的作用的高中课程材料。在这个项目中服务的许多学生将来自经济困难的社区。像莱昂斯博士那样的研究旨在为纯化合物的合成找到更好的途径。这些化学物质最终用于消费品和药品。里昂博士正在开发的特殊方法是“绿色”的，因为它们使用对环境无害的试剂（氧气），产生相对无害的废物（水）。此外，开发的工艺应该比目前工业中使用的高温方法使用更少的能源。希望是开发出更可持续的方法来生产现代社会所依赖的化合物。里昂博士所追求的扩大参与的努力旨在让北卡罗来纳州（及其他地区）经济状况不佳的学生接触到重要化学现象的真实例子，目的是增加这些群体中有才华的学生在技术劳动力中的参与度。

The Division of Chemistry supports Thomas Lyons of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill as an American Competitiveness in Chemistry Fellow. Dr. Lyons will develop new transition metal-containing catalysts for transfer dehydrogenation of alkanes, using molecular oxygen as a hydrogen acceptor. He will collaborate with scientists at Eastman Chemical to develop the methodology in a process-chemistry environment. For his plan for broadening participation, the PI will work with colleagues at the Morehead Planetarium and Science Center and LearnNC to develop high-school curriculum materials that illustrate the role of catalysts in chemistry. Many of the students served in this project will come from economically disadvantaged communities.Research like that of Dr. Lyons is aimed at developing better routes for the synthesis of pure chemical compounds. These chemicals are ultimately used in consumer products as well as in pharmaceuticals. The particular methods that Dr. Lyon is developing are "green" in that they use environmentally benign reagents (oxygen) and produce relatively benign waste (water). In addition, the processes developed should use significantly less energy than current high-temperature methods used in industry today. The hope is to develop more sustainable ways to produce the chemical compounds that modern society depends upon. The efforts at broadening participation being pursued by Dr. Lyon are aimed at giving economically disadvantaged students in North Carolina (and beyond) exposure to real-world examples of important chemical phenomena with the goal of increasing the participation of talented students from these groups in the technological workforce.