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.