The majority (> 90 %) of chemical and pharmaceutical industry processes are based on catalysis. In a society where sustainability becomes increasingly important, it is essential to develop catalysts that enable formation of the target product under mild conditions, without byproduct formation.
During the last decade, improved characterization tools have enabled chemists and physisists to elucidate which atom arrangement in solid catalysts that constitutes the active catalytic site for some reactions. Moreover, systematic studies of catalytic materials with pores of molecular dimensions (0.4 – 1.2 nm) have demonstrated the effect of the immediate surrounding of the active site, as well as the effect of confinement, on the rate and selectivity of complex reactions.
In this project, the goal is to study the effect of confinement for a wider class of reactions, and furthermore to study the effect of co-functional groups in the immediate surroundings of the active site. The study will be carried out by comparing the rate of reaction over homogeneous metal complex catalysts, as well as over their heterogeneous analogues, i.e. when the active site (and possible co-functional groups) is built into a 3-dimensional network, so-called metal-organic framework (MOF) materials.
The fundamental knowledge gained in this project will provide design principles for single-site heterogeneous catalysts.
