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SUMMARY:Form Matters: Catalysis with &quot\;Butterflies&quot\; - Professor
  Hansjorg Grutzmacher\, ETH Zurich
DTSTART:20110217T140000Z
DTEND:20110217T153000Z
UID:TALK23953@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:Sian Bunnage
DESCRIPTION:Fossil resources (petroleum\, natural gas\, coal) which are wi
 dely 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 whi
 ch CO2 is reduced to hydrocarbons via photosynthesis and subsequent biolog
 ical and slow geochemical processes. From this oxygen-poor feedstock\, car
 bonyl compounds (aldehydes\, ketones\, carboxylic acids and their derivati
 ves) are mostly produced via oxygenation (oxidation) or carbonylation reac
 tions. 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 othe
 r polyalcohols) are the main components. New catalysts and catalytic syste
 ms are needed to convert this biomass into fine-chemicals.\nOur own resear
 ch efforts focus on dehydrogenative coupling reactions (DHC) which is an a
 tom economic and efficient way to obtain carbonic acids\, ester\, and amid
 es 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 efficie
 nt catalysts. We will discuss our efforts to develop robust catalytic syst
 ems which allow performing the DHC of substrates from renewable feedstock 
 with a high turn over frequency and high chemoselectivity.
LOCATION:Unilever Lecture Theatre\, Department of Chemistry
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