Catalysis on Main Group Centres

Catalysis on main group (MG) centres is emerging as an important alternative to the established mainstream catalysts, which are typically based on late transition metals (TM). The major advantages of MG catalysts over TMs include greater availability, lower cost, and lower toxicity, which make them of prime interest as sustainable future technologies for a range of high value-added chemical industries.
While oxidative cycling (oxidative addition/reductive elimination sequence) is common to redox catalytic mechanisms, it is not normally possible in main group chemistry as the large separation of frontier orbitals and limited oxidative flexibility blocks such reactivity. We have recently developed systems, possessing a special peri-region microenvironment, which enable redox cycling on Group 15 centres. In this project these motifs will be developed and tested in catalytic carbon-heteroatom coupling reactions.


The student will be trained in synthetic main group chemistry with focus on catalysis.