SusChEM: IUPAC: Green and Sustainable Catalysts for Synthesis of Organic Building Blocks

该项目由美国国家科学基金会化学部化学催化计划资助，由芝加哥伊利诺伊大学的Vladimir Gevorgyan教授主持，研究用丰富而廉价的铁和铜络合物(均相催化剂)取代稀有和昂贵的钯、铑和铱催化剂。该研究团队开发了涉及纳米多孔金属骨架(非均相催化)的新方法，并利用低催化剂负载量、低催化剂浸出和高催化剂回收能力开发了极具价值的合成方法。该研究项目包括开发铁催化的Heck偶联和Wacker氧化方法，以取代使用昂贵和有毒的钯催化剂的经典方法。这项研究还包括研究氧化铁催化的碳(C)-氢(H)/C-H偶联反应生成复杂的多环分子。铜催化剂用于不同的C-H官能化反应以及稠合内酯的脱氢羧化反应。该项目是与大连大连理工大学的Yoshinori Yamamoto教授、德国德累斯顿的德累斯顿工业大学的Hans-Joachim Knölker教授和中国教授合作完成的。这三个小组结合了各自不同的专业领域，提供了新颖和可持续的催化方法，为合成、药物化学和材料科学提供了更直接、更环保的有价值的合成子的途径。这项工作的更广泛影响还包括对研究生的领导能力培训以及思想和专业知识的国际交流。

This project, funded by the Chemical Catalysis Program of NSF Division of Chemistry, to Professor Vladimir Gevorgyan of the University of Illinois at Chicago examines the replacement of rare and expensive palladium, rhodium, and iridium catalysts with abundant and cheap iron and copper complexes (homogeneous catalysts). The research team develops new methodologies involving nanoporous metal skeletons (heterogeneous catalysis) and develops highly valuable synthetic methodologies by taking advantage of low catalyst loadings, low catalyst leaching, and high catalyst recyclability. The research project includes the development of iron-catalyzed Heck-type coupling and Wacker oxidation methodologies, as replacements for classical methods employing expensive and toxic palladium catalysts. The research also includes examination of oxidative iron-catalyzed carbon (C)-hydrogen (H)/C-H coupling reactions toward complex polycyclic molecules. Copper catalysts are studied for diverse C-H functionalizations as well as the dehydrogenative carboxylations of fused lactones. This project is performed in collaboration with Professor Yoshinori Yamamoto of the Dalian University of Technology in Dalian, China and Professor Hans-Joachim Knölker of the Technical University of Dresden, in Dresden, Germany. Together, these three groups combine their separate areas of expertise to provide novel and sustainable catalytic methods for more straightforward and environmentally-benign pathways toward valuable synthons for synthetic and medicinal chemistry and material science. The broader impacts of this work also include leadership training for graduate students and an international exchange of ideas and expertise.