Late transition metal oxo complexes

• Antragsteller: Professor Dr. Peter Burger
• Fachliche Zuordnung: Anorganische Molekülchemie - Synthese, Charakterisierung
• Förderung: Förderung von 2004 bis 2009
• Projektkennung: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Projektnummer 5438616

The main scope of this project is to develop novel catalysts for the aerobic funtionalization of alkanes. Particularly, the selective transformation of methane to methanol has generated great interest in industry and academia, since it has been deemed as the future industrial carbon feedstock substituting mineral oil. The industrial scale functionalization of methane will obviously require an inexpensive and highly abundant reagent, i.e. dioxygen, O2. Based on previous experimental investigations and DFT calculations, it is anticipated that the unknown class of monomeric, late transition metal complexes with a terminal M=O unit, LnM=O, where M is a late transition metal of the nickel or cobalt group are perfectly suited as catalysts. The synthetic access to this type of complex is therefore a major part of this project. A new model for a catalytic functionalization cycle is proposed and is based on C-O coupling, O-O and C-H cleavage reactions previously observed in these systems. In the course of the project, the latter transformations will be investigated further in synthetic, mechanistic and theoretical studies.

• DFG-Verfahren: Sachbeihilfen