Cobalt-catalyzed carbonylations of small molecules and commodity polymers promoted by light

About This Grant

With the support of the Chemical Catalysis program in the Division of Chemistry, Professors Erik Alexanian and Aleksandr Zhukhovitskiy of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill are studying fundamental catalytic reactions of raw materials and high-volume commodity polymers using earth-abundant metals. The classes of reactions being studied—including some of the highest-volume catalytic processes globally— currently rely on precious metals, which limits their sustainability. The work herein will develop new catalytic processes using Earth-abundant metals to access both valuable small molecule building blocks and new plastics and rubber materials. This research is expected to break new ground in Earth-abundant metal catalysis and will provide students an excellent training spanning the areas of organic chemistry, polymer chemistry, and catalysis. Through this proposal, the Alexanian and Zhukhovitskiy groups will develop demonstrations that increase students’ understanding of the relationship between the chemistry, properties, utilization, and sustainability of rubber materials, and will initiate new outreach programs relating synthetic chemistry to everyday life. With the support of the Chemical Catalysis program in the Division of Chemistry, Professors Erik Alexanian and Aleksandr Zhukhovitskiy of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill will develop a photochemical carbonylation platform using earth-abundant cobalt addressing fundamental catalytic transformations of small molecules and commodity polymers. This work will enhance the sustainability of carbonylations that currently rely on precious metals, while introducing new reaction modes that are inaccessible using established methods. The studies involving small molecules will extend the capabilities of the cobalt-catalyzed platform to encompass fundamental carbonylation processes using alkenes and aryl halides as substrates. The entire suite of hydrocarbonylation reactions will also be applied to the functionalization of diene polymers for the synthesis of new rubber materials. The proposed studies are expected to deliver several valuable cobalt-catalyzed carbonylations for applications across chemical synthesis. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.