Immobilised Homogeneous Catalysts for Sequential Fine Chemical Synthesis : Functionalised Organometallics for Nanotechnology

Abstract

The work described in this thesis has demonstrated the application of heterogenised homogeneous catalysts. We have shown that by coupling a homogeneous catalyst to a heterogeneous support we could combine the benefits of two major fields of catalysis: retain the high selectivity of homogeneous catalysts with the ease of separation and cost-efficiency of heterogeneous catalysts. A number of techniques both for the functionalisation of organometallic complexes, and the functionalisation of inorganic support materials have been demonstrated and applied. These techniques are a breakthrough because they demonstrate simple, highly efficient procedures for the desired products. Furthermore, they demonstrate a very simple ‘from lab shelf to reaction vessel’ concept for the immobilisation of homogeneous catalysts and application of such catalytic materials. It was further demonstrated that by compartmentalising heterogenised homogeneous catalysts we could mimic nature’s ability to carry out highly selective multi-step reaction sequences without work-up or intermediate isolation steps. This achievement is a simple, but highly important and distinguished achievement because it brings the field of multi-step catalysis a step closer to being truly efficient, and more importantly, environmentally benign.