Catalysis and Sustainable Bio-organic Synthesis

Catalysis as a phenomenon is in the core of metabolism, evolution and life itself. As a synthetic tool, catalysis was utilized starting from the XIX century, and nowadays it is impossible to imagine the everyday life without the benefits that catalysis has brought to us. Up to 80% of the materials and fuels are produced with at least one catalytic transformation. The rising interest in the development of sustainable and green chemical reactions additionally increases the importance of catalysis. Novel catalytic methodologies are expected to become the key lever that will increase the efficiency of chemical synthesis to make it compatible with modern challenges and societal demands.

In this course we will discuss catalysis from different angles, constructing a unified matrix of catalysis-related topics: from fundamental principles of catalysis to the practical utilization of catalytic transformation in both fine (bio)-organic synthesis and the large scale industrial processes. The different elements of the course will include:

• role of the catalysis in organic synthesis with elements of retrosynthetic analysis;
• fundamentals of catalysis theory from physical and inorganic chemistry perspective
• homogeneous transition metal catalysis with elements of biocatalysis and organocatalysis;
• heterogeneous catalysis
• the application of computational modeling in catalysis.

The ultimate goal of this coarse is to develop an understanding of catalysis as a multifaceted phenomenon.

After successful completion of this course students are expected to be able to:

• Analyze catalysis-related problems on different dimensions: from multi-ton scale industrial applications to an atomic level of active catalytic cites
• Explain catalysis-related observations using basic principles of homogeneous and heterogeneous catalysis
• Complete a mechanism/mechanistic cycle for the catalytic transformation and formulate original methods to further prove the hypothesis
• Propose methods to investigate and optimize the performance of the catalyst
• Analyze efficiency and sustainability aspects of multistep synthesis of organic molecules involving catalytic transformations
• Perform computational modeling of catalytic system

Assumed Knowledge:
ORC20306 Bio-organic Chemistry and/or BNT20806 Bio-inorganic Chemistry and/or PCC22306 Driving Forces in Chemistry, Physics and Biology