Catalysis and synthesis

The challenge to discover novel and efficient ways to construct chemical bonds has catalysis and synthesis at its heart. Catalysis underpins efficient industrial processes that minimise energy, waste and harmful by-products, and has revolutionised the way the products we depend on as a society are made. It significant impacts healthcare (pharmaceuticals, imaging), food security (herbicides, pesticides), as well as energy conversion and harvesting (materials, catalysts). New synthetic methods and their intregration into catalytic cycles will be crucial to the development of new processes, such as biomass/CO₂ utilisation, plastic recycling and renewable polymers, that will drive the move to a circular economy that will allow us to meet Net Zero targets.

Research in this theme covers all aspects of catalysis and synthesis across a broad range of scales. Interests range from the construction of single chemical bonds for the preparation of specific molecules, through to the manipulation of nanoparticles and supramolecular compounds, and the preparation of multi-layered materials. The Catalysis and Synthesis Theme at EaStCHEM aims range from making bonds and materials in entirely new ways to making larger scale processes more efficient. Much of this activity relies upon an in-depth understanding of how molecules behave, so we also study the physical, spectroscopic, and chemical properties of molecules/materials as well as understanding reaction mechanisms and kinetics, supported by advanced computational modelling.

Catalysis and synthesis as a route to developing new molecules and materials is central to many fields. The range of applications of the products and processes we develop is broad, so the Catalysis and Synthesis Theme impacts directly upon other research themes in many ways, such as making molecules to understand disease (the chemistry biology interface), using catalysis to generate valuable chemicals/materials in more sustainable ways (energy, environmental, and sustainable chemistry) or understanding reactivity in terms of underlying electronic structure (structural chemistry and chemical dynamics).

At EaStCHEM, particular research strengths in Catalysis and Synthesis are in the areas of:

biocatalysis, and photo/electro catalysis
computational modelling of catalytic reactivity
heterogeneous catalysis
main group chemistry and catalysis
natural product synthesis involving greener catalysis
organometallics and metal-based catalysis
photocatalysis
reaction mechanism to understand and develop catalytic processes
supramolecular chemistry and autocatalysis/system chemistry.

Find out more about the expertise of School staff in this area:
- All-cis 1,2,3,4,5,6-Hexafluorocyclohexane is a Facially Polarized Cyclohexane
  N. S. Keddie, A. M. Z. Slawin, T. Lebl, D. Philp, and D. O'Hagan, Nature Chem., 2015, 7, 483–488
- Two Synthetic Replicators Compete To Process a Dynamic Reagent Pool
  T. Kosikova and D. Philp, J. Am. Chem. Soc., 2019, 141, 3059–3072
- Tandem Pd and Isothiourea Relay Catalysis: Enantioselective Synthesis of α-Amino Acid Derivatives via Allylic Amination and [2,3]-Sigmatropic Rearrangement
  S. S. M. Spoehrle, T. H. West, J. E. Taylor, A. M. Z. Slawin, and A. D. Smith, J. Am. Chem. Soc., 2017, 139, 11895–11902
- High iso-Aldehyde Selectivity in the Hydroformylation of Short‐Chain Alkenes
  L. Iu, J. A. Fuentes, M. E. Janka, K. J. Fontenot, and M. L. Clarke, Angew. Chem. Int. Ed., 2019, 58, 2120–2124
- Anion Stabilised Hypercloso-hexaalane Al₆H₆S. J. Bonyhady, D. Collis, N. Holzmann, A. J. Edwards, R. O. Piltz, G. Frenking, A. Stasch, and C. Jones, Nat. Commun., 2018, 9, 3079
- Living GenoChemetics: Hyphenating Synthetic Biology and Synthetic Chemistry in vivo
  S. V. Sharma, T. Xiaoxue, C. Pubill-Ulldemolins, C. Cartmell, E. Bogosyan, E. J. Rackham, E. Morelli, R. Hamed, and R. J. M. Goss, Nat. Commun., 2017, 8, 229
- Catalytic Enantioselective [2,3]-Rearrangements of Allylic Ammonium Ylides: A Mechanistic and Computational Study
  T. H. West, D. M. Walden, J. E. Taylor, A. C. Brueckner, R. C. Johnston, P. Ha-Yeon Cheong, G. C. Lloyd-Jones, and A. D. Smith, J. Am. Chem. Soc., 2017, 139, 366–4375
- Selective and Catalytic Carbon Dioxide and Heteroallene Activation Mediated by Cerium N-Heterocyclic Carbene Complexes
  P. L. Arnold, R. W. F. Kerr, C. Weetman, S. R. Docherty, J. Rieb, F. L. Cruickshank, K. Wang, C. Jandl, M. W. McMullon, A. Pöthig, F. E. Kühn and A. D. Smith, Chem. Sci., 2018, 9, 8035–8045
- Chemoselective Brown Oxidation of Aryl Organoboron Systems Enabled by Boronic Acid-selective Phase Transfer
  J. J. Molloy, T. A. Clohessy, C. Irving, N. A. Anderson, G. C. Lloyd-Jones, and A. J. B. Watson, Chem. Sci., 2017, 8, 1551–1559
- Using the Pimeloyl-CoA Synthetase Adenylation Fold to Synthesize Fatty Acid Thioesters
  M. Wang, L. Moynié, P. J. Harrison, V. Kelly, A. Piper, J. H. Naismith, and D. J. Campopiano, Nat. Chem. Biol., 2017, 13, 660–667

Catalysis and synthesis

Research staff

Selected research highlights from St Andrews in the catalysis and synthesis theme

Selected collaborative research highlights across EaStCHEM in the catalysis and synthesis theme