New Pincer Complex Catalysts for Carbon and Hydrocarbon Upgrading

催化是化工制造业的基石，全球20-30%的GDP依赖于催化过程。该部门对未来的发展也将非常重要，提供从可持续增长所需的材料到药物和疫苗的化学中间体的一切。本项目将制作新地球丰富的早期过渡金属催化剂（金属= 4-6族），将含碳分子（气态烷烃、烯烃、CO、CO2）转化为增值材料。催化剂将由“PCP”型钳形配体支撑，这种配体允许仔细调整金属中心的电子和空间性质。这将反过来导致反应性配合物的优化，并导致催化碳升级。随着反应性的概念验证，建立的结构-活性关系将得到发展，从而进一步优化催化剂。钳形框架也将扩展到其他地球丰富元素，如s块和p块金属。

Catalysis forms the cornerstone of chemical manufacturing, with 20-30% of the world's GDP relying on catalytic process. This sector will also be hugely important for future development, providing everything from the materials we need for sustainable growth to chemical intermediates for medicines and vaccines. In this project new earth abundant early transition metal catalysts (metal = group 4-6) will be made to convert carbon containing molecules (gaseous alkanes, alkenes, CO, CO2) to value added materials. The catalysts will be supported by 'PCP'-type pincer ligands which allow for the careful tuning of the metal centre's electronic and steric properties. This will in turn lead to the optimisation of the reactivity complexes and lead to the carbon upgrading being performed catalytically. With proof-of-concept reactivity established structure-activity relationships will be developed, leading to further catalyst optimisation. The pincer framework will also be extended to other earth abundant elements such as s-block and p-block metals.