Metal mimicry through ligand effects

均相催化通常是制造精细化学品甚至药品的最清洁、最节能的方法。催化剂通常含有一种金属，每种金属都有其特定的应用领域。不幸的是，最能催化几个重要反应的金属（如C-C偶联、氢化）是铂金属，这种金属既稀有又昂贵。催化剂的第二种成分是配体，通常用于“微调”催化剂。在提议的项目中，我们的目标是使用配体对金属性质进行更大的改变，希望找到基于更便宜、毒性更小的金属铁、钴和镍的铂金属催化剂的替代品。

Homogeneous catalysis is often the cleanest and most energy-efficient way to manufacture fine chemicals and even pharmaceuticals. Catalysts usually contain a metal, and every metal has its specific area of application. Unfortunately, the metals that best catalyze several important reactions (e.g. C-C coupling, hydrogenation) are the platinum metals, which are rare and expensive. The second component of a catalyst is a ligand, which is generally used to "fine-tune" a catalyst. In the proposed project, we aim to use ligands to make far greater changes to metal properties, in the hope of finding replacements for platinum-metal catalysts based on the less expensive and less toxic metals iron, cobalt and nickel.