Final Report Summary - FUNCAT (Fundamental Studies in Organometallic Chemistry and Homogeneous Catalysis)
The FUNCAT project tackled very fundamental scientific questions such as what are the thermochemical driving forces behind fundamental reaction steps in homogeneous catalysis. Individual catalytic steps such as oxidative-addition and ligand substitution were addressed in palladium, gold and ruthenium chemistry and catalysis. These fundamental results have guided our synthetic efforts in these areas and have led to the isolation of “reactive intermediates” and well-defined pre-catalysts possessing increased activity. These well-defined species have also permitted further fundamental mechanistic studies into gold and ruthenium catalysis. Such fundamental studies are at the core of understanding catalytic processes and have allowed us to develop novel catalysts. Some have been scaled-up to kilogram-scale by industry and used in pilot-scale reactions for the synthesis of organic molecules and remedies.