Form Matters: Catalysis with "Butterflies"

Add to your list(s) Download to your calendar using vCal

• Professor Hansjorg Grutzmacher, ETH Zurich
• Thursday 17 February 2011, 14:00-15:30
• Unilever Lecture Theatre, Department of Chemistry.

If you have a question about this talk, please contact Sian Bunnage.

Fossil resources (petroleum, natural gas, coal) which are widely used for the production of basic organic chemicals are at the end of the process n CO2 n H2O hn ® (CHOH)n n O2 ® (CH2)n 1/n O2 in which CO2 is reduced to hydrocarbons via photosynthesis and subsequent biological and slow geochemical processes. From this oxygen-poor feedstock, carbonyl compounds (aldehydes, ketones, carboxylic acids and their derivatives) are mostly produced via oxygenation (oxidation) or carbonylation reactions. For both reaction types a wide range of rather efficient catalysts has been developed. Fossil resources need to be replaced by renewable ones ideally neutral in carbondioxide consumption/production. Plant biomass is a rapidly renewable feedstock and uses sun light as energy source for its formation. Compounds with relatively high oxygen content (sugars and other polyalcohols) are the main components. New catalysts and catalytic systems are needed to convert this biomass into fine-chemicals. Our own research efforts focus on dehydrogenative coupling reactions (DHC) which is an atom economic and efficient way to obtain carbonic acids, ester, and amides from alcohols according to: R1-CH2-OH R2-XH 2 A ® R1-CO-XR2 + 2 “H2” (X = O, NH). Transition metal complexes with olefins as steering ligands and amido functions as cooperating ligands are remarkable efficient catalysts. We will discuss our efforts to develop robust catalytic systems which allow performing the DHC of substrates from renewable feedstock with a high turn over frequency and high chemoselectivity.

This talk is part of the Inorganic Chemistry series.

This talk is included in these lists:

• All Talks (aka the CURE list)
• Cambridge Energy Seminars
• Department of Chemistry
• Featured lists
• Inorganic Chemistry
• Lennard-Jones Centre external
• Materials Chemistry Research Interest Group
• NanoDTC Energy Materials Talks
• School of Physical Sciences
• Synthetic Chemistry Research Interest Group
• Unilever Lecture Theatre, Department of Chemistry
• history

Note that ex-directory lists are not shown.