New high performance transition metal catalysts for sustainable reductive processing of chemical feedstocks

我们都熟悉汽车后座的催化转化器，将氮氧化物和一氧化碳等污染气体转化为对我们的空气更好的化学物质。我的工作将集中在类似的原理上，我将研究金属Ir，看看是否可以用它来将二氧化碳，特别是二氧化碳中的碳原子，引入到分子中的氮原子上。二氧化碳目前是一种容易获得的废物，作为一个社会，我们热衷于从我们的大气中消除二氧化碳，因为它增强了温室效应，因此这个项目将使我们能够探索做到这一点的新方法。此外，含氮原子的分子，特别是那些以我所描述的方式连接碳原子的分子，在现代药物和其他化学品中非常常见，例如化肥，这是当今社会至关重要的。这项工作的特殊之处是，到目前为止，还没有其他学术小组能够使用金属铱和温和的反应条件来甲基化氮原子。能够以这种方式做到这一点，将为获得种类繁多的化合物提供新的途径，其中一些可能对工业有用。这项工作的一个关键部分不仅是尽可能地使这一反应与二氧化碳发生反应，而且还将调查该反应是如何发生的，其机理。这将包括实验和计算工作，通过了解机理，将更容易知道哪些反应应该是可行的，以及未来如何潜在地改进催化剂。Ir被认为是“贵金属集团”的一部分，与金、银和铂一样。事实上，铱的价格比这些金属中的任何一种都贵得多，而且在过去几年里一直受到价格波动的影响。幸运的是，对于这种类型的工作，反应需要非常、非常少量的Ir，在实验室规模上，这意味着只要一克Ir就可以持续几个月。尽管如此，与铁、钴、镍等许多其他金属相比，铱是一种更有限、更昂贵的资源，最终尝试将这项工作进展到使用更便宜、更容易获得的金属是非常可取的。这个项目属于ESPRC催化研究领域。(1)这个词用于描述在其他东西上添加一个碳原子--上面有三个氢原子。(2)在室温和压力下进行的反应。

We are all familiar with the catalytic convertors in the back of cars, turning polluting gases like nitrogen oxides and carbon monoxide into chemicals that are better for our air. My work will focus on a similar principle, I will be looking at the metal iridium to see if I can use it to introduce carbon dioxide, or specifically the carbon atom in carbon dioxide, onto nitrogen atoms in molecules. Carbon dioxide is currently a readily available waste product that as a society we are keen to remove from our atmosphere due to its enhancement of the greenhouse effect, and so this project would allow us to explore new ways of doing this. Also, molecules with nitrogen atoms in them, especially ones with carbon attached to them in the way I have described, are very common in modern drugs and other chemicals, such as fertilisers, that are of vital importance to society today.What is special about this work is, thus far, no other academic group has been able to methylate(1) nitrogen atoms using iridium metal and mild reaction conditions(2) yet. Being able to do it this way would provide new routes to a huge variety of chemical compounds, some of which could be useful to industry. A key part of this work will not only be making this reaction with carbon dioxide as good as possible, but also investigating how the reaction happens, its mechanism. This will include both experimental and computational work and by understanding the mechanism it will make it easier to know what reactions should be plausible and how to potentially improve the catalyst in the future.Iridium is considered to be a part of the 'Precious Metal Group', alongside the likes of gold, silver and platinum. In fact, iridium is much more expensive than any of these metals, and over the last few years has been subject to volatile prices. Luckily, for this type of work very, very small amounts of iridium are needed for the reaction, and at a lab scale this means just a gram of iridium can last many months. Despite this, iridium is a much more finite and expensive resource than a lot of other metals, like iron, cobalt, nickel etc. and it would be highly desirable to eventually try to progress this work to using a cheaper, more readily available metal.This project falls with the ESPRC Catalysis Research Area.(1)The word used to describe adding a carbon atom-with three hydrogen atoms on it-onto something else.(2) Reactions done at/close to room temperature and pressure.