Recyclable Catalyst Technology for Cross-Coupling Reactions at Manufacturing Scale

Chemical processes catalysed with Palladium (Pd) compounds, and based on Nobel-prize winning methods, have become essential for the production of life-enhancing pharmaceuticals & chemicals. These processes underpin global manufacturing worth more than £10billion each year for pharmaceuticals alone. However, the components of the Pd-catalyst must be recovered from the reaction products through further expensive and energy-intensive processing. This project will develop a new 'Catch & Release' technology which can catch the catalyst whilst reaction products are removed, and then release it in a fully-functional active form to catalyse the next reaction. New reaction components are introduced allowing another production cycle to begin. This novel semi-continuous process will be applied initially in the pharmaceutical & agrochemical industries and then developed for other process industries, such as the emerging plastic electronics sector.