New Technologies for Sustainable Chemistry: An Organometallic Future in Clean Energy

我们正处于“能源危机”之中-随着化石燃料消耗率的增加，大气中的二氧化碳继续达到前所未有的水平，引起人们对气候变化和海洋酸化的关切。为了确保子孙后代的福祉，我们必须努力减少温室气体排放，投资替代能源，并发现上级/更有效的特种化学品合成路线，如用于健康的药物，提高作物产量的农用化学品，以及先进的化学品，如用于显示技术的有机发光聚合物。在Drover集团，我们相信清洁能源有一个“有机金属的未来”，利用化学合成和金属基反应来实现这些目标。在这种情况下，我的小组的利益包括广泛相关的概念，使用具有结构和/或键合特性的新结构的催化，可以利用自然启发的创意设计元素的新反应的发展。我们将开发功能分子：配体，过渡金属和主族化合物，以促进资源的公平利用，特别是关于全球氢，碳，氮和氧循环。我们的动机源于希望通过a）发明利用温室气体作为原料的新方法来改变人类与地球的相互作用-寻求识别用于将CO2（废物/温室气体）选择性还原为CH 3OH的新铁催化剂：合适的汽油替代品和平台化学品; B）通过H2操纵设计用于清洁能源的新催化剂-氢燃料电池正成为越来越重要的绿色能源，我们的方法将提供新的氢燃料电池技术，从廉价的基于地球上丰富的金属的催化剂;和c）提供用于合成含氟特种化学品、药物和大宗消费品的新途径-所有药物分子的20-25%含有至少一个C-F键，该提议通过将碳氟（C-F）官能团精确插入有机底物中提供了用于烷烃异构化的新催化方案。我的研究计划提供了一种机制，用于招募具有广泛种族，性别和地理分布的多元化同事团队，提高加拿大在能源，可持续性和催化方面的科学包容性和卓越声誉。此外，这些原创方法将代表对行业有吸引力的投资，并将鼓励部门和国际合作（加拿大，美国，英国，中国及其他地区）。

We are in the midst of an `energy crisis' - with increasing rates of fossil fuel consumption, atmospheric CO2 continues to reach unprecedented levels, causing concern regarding climate change and ocean acidification. To ensure the well-being of future generations, it is imperative that we work to curtail greenhouse gas emissions, invest in alternative energy sources, and discover superior/more efficient routes for the synthesis of speciality chemicals such as pharmaceuticals for health, agrochemicals to enhance crop yield, and advanced chemicals such as those found in organic light emitting polymers for display technologies. In the Drover group, we believe there is an `organometallic future' to clean energy, employing chemical synthesis and metal-based reactivity to target these goals. In this vein, my group's interests comprise concepts broadly related to catalysis using novel constructs having structure and/or bonding properties that can be leveraged for the development of new reactions with creative design elements inspired by nature. We will develop functional molecules: ligands, transition metal, and main group compounds that promote the equitable use of resources, specifically with regard to global hydrogen, carbon, nitrogen, and oxygen cycles. Our motivation is sourced from a desire to revise how mankind interacts with the planet by a) inventing new methods to utilize greenhouse gases as feedstocks - seeking to identify new iron catalysts for the selective reduction of CO2, a waste/greenhouse gas, to CH3OH: a suitable gasoline substitute and platform chemical; b) designing new catalysts for clean energy through H2 manipulation - hydrogen fuel cells are becoming increasingly important green energy sources and our approach will deliver new H2 fuel cell technology developed from cheap catalysts based on earth abundant metals; and c) providing new routes for the synthesis of fluorine-containing specialty chemicals, pharmaceuticals, and bulk consumer products - with 20-25% of all drug molecules containing at least one C-F bond, this proposal offers a new catalytic protocol for alkane fluorination via the precise insertion of carbon fluorine (C-F) functionality into organic substrates. My research program provides a mechanism for the recruitment of a diverse team of co-workers with broad ethnic, gender, and geographic distribution, enhancing Canada's reputation for scientific inclusivity and excellence in energy, sustainability, and catalysis. In addition, these original approaches shall represent attractive investments for industry and will encourage departmental and international collaboration (Canada, U.S., U.K., China and beyond).