Catalytic synthesis of specialty chemicals from sustainable resources

从可再生原料中绿色合成商品、特种和医药化学品是21世纪的重大挑战之一。这项工作将结合化学、化学工程和材料工程的广泛知识，开发新的催化策略。我们将采用多学科方法，整合材料发现和表征、化学动力学调整、反应工程和化学过程优化，以控制含氧化合物的命运，这些含氧化合物来自加拿大森林和农业部门丰富的木质纤维素生物质，因为它们在凝聚相中经历催化转化为增值化学品、药品和聚合物前体。我们将通过建立原子和电子水平的催化事件，了解这些事件与反应物、反应介质和催化剂配合物/表面的热化学性质之间的联系，然后应用这些知识来操纵一系列级联反应的反应途径，从而实现我们的追求。这些级联反应发生在不同的介质中（质子/非质子溶剂），需要不同的局部地点和协调环境，但我们的目标是调整反应，使它们在分子长度尺度和一个锅中同时有效地发生。在本研究计划中纳入了一个全面的专业培训计划，该计划非常重视高素质人才（HQP）的技术和领导培训。HQP将通过与我们的工业合作伙伴和合作者的直接互动以及接触世界一流的仪器，获得多样化的技能和工业和全球视野。加拿大能源和化学工业非常需要具备这些技能的人员，以确保加拿大在全球舞台上保持竞争力。

Green synthesis of commodity, specialty, and pharmaceutical chemicals from renewable feedstocks is one of the Grand Challenges of 21st century. The proposed work will develop new catalytic strategies combining the broad spectrum of knowledge from chemistry, chemical engineering, and materials engineering. We will adapt a multidisciplinary approach, integrating material discovery and characterizations, chemical kinetic tuning, reaction engineering, and chemical process optimization to manipulate the fate of the oxygenates, derived from lignocellulosic biomass abundant from Canada's forest and agricultural sectors, as they undergo catalytic transformation in the condensed phase to value-added chemicals, pharmaceuticals, and polymer precursors. We will accomplish our pursuit by establishing the catalytic events at the level of atoms and electrons, understanding the connection of these events to the thermochemical properties of the reactants, the reaction media, and the catalyst complexes/surfaces and then applying the knowledge in order to manipulate the reaction pathways for a series of cascade reactions. These cascade reactions occur in separate media (protic/aprotic solvent) and require different local site and coordination environments, but our goal is to tune the reactivities such that they occur concomitantly and efficiently at the molecular length scales and in one pot. Incorporating in this research program is a comprehensive professional training program, which places strong emphasis to technical and leadership trainings of the highly qualified personnel (HQP). The HQP will acquire diverse skill sets and industrial and global perspective, through direct interactions with our industrial partners and collaborators and exposure to world class instrumentation. The personnel with these skill sets are much needed in Canadian energy and chemical industries to ensure that Canada remains competitive at the global stage.