Organotransition metal chemistry and catalysis

有机过渡金属化学近年来得到了巨大的发展，除了在有机合成、催化和材料科学等领域的大量应用外，还报道了许多新化合物。我们在最近的资助周期中的研究涉及多种主题，如合成以前从未见过的新化合物，催化烯烃聚合以获得具有潜在非常有用特性的新材料，以及与皇后癌症研究实验室的科学家合作，利用有机金属化合物作为抗癌药物。在接下来的几年里，我们的研究将再次涉及以前从未制备过的化合物的合成，以及研究它们作为有趣的新催化剂的潜在应用。我们还将发现新的催化剂，以实现新的有机合成，我们将利用低温核磁共振光谱检测在重要的催化反应的活性中间体。 虽然我们的大部分研究，如新化合物的合成，在本质上是基本的，因为它涉及到获得以前不知道的结构和键合模式的理解，我们的催化研究有更广泛的潜在应用。例如，我们计划的一个关键方面涉及为许多反应开发新的和更有效的催化剂系统，这些反应导致形成新的碳-碳，碳-氮和碳-氧键。2010年诺贝尔化学奖授予的这类反应对加拿大制药业极其重要。我们研究的其他方面可能与塑料行业非常相关，因为我们的研究一方面涉及更好地了解在制造非常重要的塑料聚乙烯和聚丙烯时所涉及的机制，另一方面设计新的方法使聚乙烯，聚丙烯和聚苯乙烯（泡沫聚苯乙烯）生物降解。后一项努力的成功将对环境产生重大影响。

Organotransition metal chemistry has under gone enormous growth in recent years, with many new compounds being reported in addition to numerous applications to a variety of fields such as organic synthesis, catalysis and materials science. Our research in the recent funding cycle has involved topics as diverse as the synthesis of new compounds which have never previously seen the light of day, catalytic alkene polymerization to give new materials with potentially very useful properties and, in collaboration with scientists in the Cancer Reseach Labs at Queen's, utilization of organometallic compounds as anti-cancer drugs. In the next few years, our research will again involve the synthesis of compounds never previously prepared, as well as studies of their potential applications as interesting new catalysts. We shall also discover new catalysts for effecting novel organic syntheses, and we shall utilize low temperature nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy to detect reactive intermediates in important catalytic reactions. While much of our research, such as the synthesis of new compounds, is fundamental in nature as it involves gaining an understanding of structures and bonding modes not previously known, our catalysis research has much broader potential applications. For instance, one key aspect of our program involves the development of new and more effective catalyst systems for a number of reactions which result in the formation of new carbon-carbon, carbon-nitrogen and carbon-oxygen bonds. This class of reactions, for which the 2010 Nobel Prize in Chemistry was awarded, is extremely important to the Canadian pharmaceutical industry. Other aspects of our research are potentially very relevant to the plastics industry as our research involves on the one hand gaining a better understanding of the mechanisms involved when during the manufacture of the tremendously important plastics polyethylene and polypropylene, on the other hand devising new approaches to making polyethylene, polypropylene and polystyrene (styrofoam) biodegradable. Success in the latter endeavour will have major environmental implications.