Project description
New iron-catalysed cross-coupling approach
The production of many essential chemicals relies on palladium catalysts for cross-coupling reactions. Rising costs and decreasing availability of palladium make it critical to develop sustainable alternatives using more abundant metals, such as iron. However, iron-catalysed cross-couplings have been underutilised because of their limited scope and the need for solid reductants or harsh conditions. The ERC-funded ExCEL project aims to revolutionise iron-catalysed cross-couplings by leveraging the innate ability of iron complexes to harness light for catalysis. By exploiting the charge-transfer excited states of iron complexes, the project seeks to enable unprecedented transformations under mild conditions without the use of strong organometallic reductants. Overall, this approach will facilitate the discovery of new synthetic transformations.
Objective
The manufacture of many high-value chemicals that sustain our daily lives depends on the ability of palladium catalysts to link together (cross-coupling) complex structural motifs. Yet, in view of the rapid increase of the price of palladium and its progressive depletion, it is crucial to invent alternative and more sustainable systems based on Earth-abundant metals to ensure the viability in the long term of these strategic processes that provide us with materials, agrochemicals or medicines. Iron is considered the most benign of transition metals because it is endless, inexpensive and biocompatible. However, despite its early discovery, iron-catalyzed cross-couplings have been underutilized owing to their narrower scope and the need for strong organometallic reductants or harsh conditions, which hampers their applicability in complex targets and densely-functionalized substrates. This proposal introduces a fundamentally new approach to overcome the issues that restrain the development of iron-catalyzed cross-couplings, exploiting the innate ability of iron complexes to harvest light and repurposing it to “activate” catalysis. Capitalizing on novel modes of reactivity accessed upon visible-light irradiation, this research programme offers a strategy to access key catalytically active iron species under mild conditions without the use of strong organometallic reductants, enabling unprecedented transformations with extended scope. ExCEL recruits charge-transfer excited states of iron complexes, providing access to Fe(I)/Fe(III) and Fe(0)/Fe(II) catalytic manifolds to achieve C–C and C–heteroatom bond formation as well as multicomponent reactions that are currently out of the reach of state-of-art iron catalysis. Overall, this proposal aims to introduce a new paradigm to upgrade and unleash the full potential of iron catalysis in organic synthesis, and will pave the way for the discovery of exciting new synthetic transformations.
Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
- natural sciences chemical sciences inorganic chemistry transition metals
- natural sciences chemical sciences catalysis
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Keywords
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Programme(s)
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
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HORIZON.1.1 - European Research Council (ERC)
MAIN PROGRAMME
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Topic(s)
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Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Funding Scheme
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
HORIZON-ERC - HORIZON ERC Grants
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Call for proposal
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
(opens in new window) ERC-2023-STG
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Net EU financial contribution. The sum of money that the participant receives, deducted by the EU contribution to its linked third party. It considers the distribution of the EU financial contribution between direct beneficiaries of the project and other types of participants, like third-party participants.
30003 Murcia
Spain
The total costs incurred by this organisation to participate in the project, including direct and indirect costs. This amount is a subset of the overall project budget.