During the duration of this MSCA fellowship, significant progress has been made in two key areas of research within the field of single-atom catalysis. The first area focuses on the development of a Ni single atom catalyst for the C-O coupling of carboxylic acids and alkyl halides, an important reaction to make greener pharmaceuticals and agrochemicals. In the past, researchers tried using combinations of light-absorbing materials and transition metals for this reaction. However, this approach had drawbacks. It relied on scarce and expensive materials like iridium complexes, and the reaction was not easily scalable or economically viable, due to challenges in downstream processing of the catalyst.
During this MSCA fellowship, we have successfully devised a new catalytic method that allows for the efficient coupling of simple organic building blocks to produce esters. What sets this system apart is that it exclusively employs readily available, earth-abundant components. Moreover, the process exhibits short reaction times, facilitates easy recovery (thanks to the heterogeneous nature of the catalyst), and demonstrates high catalyst stability. These appealing features make our method highly attractive for industrial applications, particularly for the greener manufacturing of fine chemicals and pharmaceuticals. The results were published in Nature Synthesis. Another area of significant progress during this MSCA fellowship involved the fabrication of single-atom electrocatalysts. Our focus was on designing ‘action-specified electrodes’ to enhance the catalytic activity and selectivity for specific organic transformations. Typically, in electrochemical organic synthesis, commercial electrodes like platinum and reticulated vitreous carbon are used. To improve the selectivity, the reactions often require the addition of various homogeneous complexes and additives. Unfortunately, this complicates the scalability of the electrocatalytic method and hampers downstream processing. Therefore, we created a composite material of carbon nanotubes and nickel SACs within a standalone electrode film. The film was characterized and used for generating pharmaceuticals through electricity-driven processes.
Disseminating the project results has been an overall central aspect of this two-year fellowship, and the engagement with the community has been essential to share the progress of our work, and gain insights and advice from other scientists in related disciplines. Besides the direct dissemination of results at scientific conferences and seminars for the general public, we also modified part of Prof. Gianvito Vilé’s course for M.Sc. Chemical Engineering students enrolled at Politecnico di Milano, titled ‘Flow Chemistry’. In 2021, this was altered in order to feature fundamental concepts related to flow photocatalysis and flow electrocatalysis. These lectures served as a means to promote and teach novel and progressive lines of research, along with providing the fundamental concepts required to begin a chemistry/chemical engineering PhD within this sustainable field. Finally, we have used our personal social media tools, along with Politecnico di Milano’s media reach, to promote our work and results to a wider audience, primarily via posts and updates on platforms such as LinkedIn and Twitter.
