Project description
Improved catalysts for industrial and pharmaceutical chemistry
Catalysts are essential for producing around 90 % of all chemicals, from medicines to plastics. Ruthenium-based catalysts hold great promise, offering efficient ways to create fuels and pharmaceuticals. However, their use has been limited by the lack of stable, easy-to-use precatalysts. The ERC-funded RuMaster project introduces RuAqua, a novel ruthenium complex that is highly stable in air and moisture and enables fast generation of new catalysts. The implementation of RuAqua is expected to make ruthenium catalysis more accessible and versatile, and boost innovation across the chemical industry and help replace usage of more expensive precious metals like rhodium and palladium. The project will scale up the production of RuAqua and test it in a range of industrial processes.
Objective
Catalysts play a crucial role in the chemical industry, with the production of approximately 90% of all chemicals dependant on catalysts at some stage in the manufacturing process. Ruthenium catalysis holds great potential in synthetic chemistry, offering unique capabilities in catalysing reactions like olefin metathesis and asymmetric hydrogenation. However, the field is hindered by the lack of versatile and stable ‘master precatalysts’, capable of allowing the reliable fast generation and screening of new catalysts by simply mixing them with libraries of ligands. Instead, common precatalysts such as RuCl3 or [(para-cymene)RuCl2)]2 are rarely used for in situ generation of new catalysts due to stability issues and non-straightforward ligand exchange, leaving chemists with few ruthenium-catalyst options to optimize or explore new chemistry.
We have developed a novel ruthenium-complex that we believe represents the first ‘master precatalyst’ in this field. The complex, which we have called RuAqua, has been designed for maximum stability under ambient conditions –it is stable to air and moisture for years–, while affording very fast ligand exchange for in situ new catalyst formation. We have shown that RuAqua is an ideal precatalyst for high-throughput screenings and can be readily implemented into existing academic- and industry-based catalyst screening pipelines. This will result in more innovative processes being developed, as well as potentially displacing the use of much more expensive rhodium, iridium and palladium-based processes through the availability of new ruthenium-based synthetic routes.
This project will aim to maximise the innovation potential of RuAqua by exploring improved synthetic routes to its scalable manufacture, taking into consideration industrial needs, engaging with downstream users to obtain evaluation in key processes, and further exploring the versatility of RuAqua for a wide range of reaction types.
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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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)
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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
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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-POC - HORIZON ERC Proof of Concept Grants
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Call for proposal
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Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
(opens in new window) ERC-2024-POC
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M13 9PL Manchester
United Kingdom
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