Late Transition Metal Hydroxide in Homogeneous Catalysis

The development of catalytic methods leading to little or no waste is an area of crucial importance in terms of energy and materials economy. The present proposal presents strategies to assemble complex molecular architectures or value-added compounds using simply synthesized organometallic complexes. The proposal adopts a two-prong approach. On the one side the design and synthesis of organometallic catalysts are proposed and on the other, some of the catalysts already synthesized by our group and the novel ones proposed will be tested in important greener chemical transformations. The catalytic activity of these well-defined complexes range from C-H bond functionalisation using CO2 to fluorine sources. The aims of the proposal are to develop and understand useful synthetic tools and methods, readily transferable to synthetic chemists, permitting facile protocols enabling the synthesis of complex molecular assemblies using plentiful under-utilised resources such as CO2 and C-H bonds.

1. Who will benefit from this research?
Areas benefiting from the proposed work will include industry, health and medicine and because of the general impact of these last two areas, the public at large will be affected. More specifically, the areas of inorganic and organometallic chemistry and homogeneous catalysis will be impacted. The pharmaceutical industry, materials companies and fine and bulk chemical industries should be impacted. The breadth of impact is quite wide. Any area dealing with molecular assemblies will be interested in the novel tools/methodology developed in the proposal.
Personnel performing the proposed research will also be affected as they will be trained in diverse fields ranging from synthetic organic/inorganic to homogeneous catalysis, these very general skill set will make them very attractive to industry and academia.

2. How will they benefit from this research? (impact on UK health, wealth and culture)

The main objectives of this proposal are to synthesise very versatile tools and methods to enable the fabrication of high-value compounds. The catalysts targeted are unknown or just recently discovered. The existing synthetic methodology leading to these is in need of improvement and a simplified synthesis would have a significant impact on the economics of the synthesis and therefore of the final catalysts. The catalytic tools proposed for study enable a reduction of number of synthetic steps and therefore a reduction in waste generation and limit negative environmental impact. For these reasons, shorter reaction sequences leading to organic compounds are extremely attractive and potentially quite valuable. The user-friendliness of the developed technology centering about C-H activation should also make the method very attractive for the radio-labelling of pharmaceutical compounds. This simpler method would have economic and environmental impact on the way the chemistry is presently being conducted. The use of CO2 represents a very high impact area beneficial to numerous UK industries (Pharma and medicinal). The described metal complexes are all planned for commercialisation. This will have an economic impact on the UK wealth.
Numerous industrial partners are already in place for such applications ( pharmaceutical, radio-labelling and catalyst synthesis).
The design of novel straightforward synthetic route leading to value-added compounds and materials is fundamental to the development of health, science and technology. The tools described in this proposal will serve this purpose and could have impact on the economy and competitiveness of UK businesses.