Environmentally Benign Catalytic Reactions Based on Iron

01.02.2016 - 30.04.2019
Research funding project
In view of concerns regarding economy, environment and sustainable energy, there is a constant need for the discovery of new catalytic reactions. A process we are interested in is the catalytic hydrogenation of polar multiple bonds via molecular hydrogen. This plays a significant role in modern synthetic organic chemistry and is excellently performed by many transition metal hydride complexes containing noble metals such as ruthenium, rhodium, or iridium. The limited availability of precious metals, their high price, and their toxicity diminish their attractiveness in the long run and more economical and environmentally friendly alternatives have to be found which are in line with green chemistry guidelines. In this respect, the preparation of well-defined iron-based hydride catalysts of comparable or even higher activity is desirable. Iron is the most abundant transition metal in the earth crust, and ubiquitously available. The main objective of this program is the discovery of novel catalytic reactions based on our findings with iron hydride complexes with new PNP and CNC pincer ligand combinations and architectures with and without the possibility of metal-ligand cooperation (based on dearomatization/aromatization processes of the pyridine backbone). Secondly, CO as a co-ligand is present in all iron PNP pincer systems. Replacing CO by stronger ligands with less or no ¿-accepting tendencies will make hydride complexes more basic and thus facilitate reactions particularly in the second coordination sphere. We plan to build on these concepts for the development of reactions catalyzed by iron compounds. This project is expected to generate fundamental understanding of new concepts in bond activation and may lead to efficient iron catalysis of reactions formerly restricted to noble metals and result in the development of new, environmentally benign catalytic processes.

People

Project leader

Institute

Grant funds

  • FWF - Österr. Wissenschaftsfonds (National) Stand-Alone Project Austrian Science Fund (FWF) Call identifier P 28866

Research focus

  • Sustainable Production and Technologies: 100%

Keywords

GermanEnglish
Metallkatalysemetal catalysis
WasserstoffHydrogen
Carbonylverbindungencarbonyl compounds

Publications