Preparation of Alkali-Metalated Molecular Organic Hybrid Materials in Flow

• Applicant: Professor Dr. Hermann A. Wegner
• Subject Area: Organic Molecular Chemistry - Synthesis and Characterisation
• Term: since 2025
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 570782710

This project aims to develop a flow chemistry setup for synthesizing alkali metalated organic compounds that is easy to use, safe, and effective. By incorporating in-line analytical tools such as IR, UV-Vis, EPR, and NMR spectroscopy, the setup will provide a straightforward way to characterize and investigate these materials. Ideally, automating the setup will enable the creation of a library of compounds and associated data, serving as a basis for machine learning applications. This will facilitate the design of alkali metalated organic materials tailored for specific uses like superconductivity, ferromagnetism, or catalysis, and help explain processes in ion batteries. The flow chemistry approach offers several advantages: highly reactive species can be handled in a controlled manner, experimental conditions can be reliably reproduced, and running experiments becomes faster and more convenient once the setup is installed. In-line analytical tools allow close monitoring of processes, detecting intermediates and unstable species that are hard to observe under classic laboratory batch conditions. Automation opens the option for high-throughput screening, producing large amounts of data that can be analyzed using artificial intelligence solutions. This approach will yield novel insights into alkali metalated organic species, explaining phenomena in various fields such as catalysis and energy storage, and providing fundamental knowledge for new applications. Especially with the advent of alkali ion batteries the interaction between alkali metals and organic materials has gained significant attention. While lithium batteries are well-established, sodium batteries have gained more attention due to their lower criticality. Organic electrodes have been shown to be highly effective, but a general understanding of the interactions between the metal and the organic component is still lacking.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants
• International Connection: France, Slovenia
• Major Instrumentation: Upgrade für Lösungsmittelunterdrückung für benchtop NMR-Spektrometer
• Instrumentation Group: 1740 Hochauflösende NMR-Spektrometer
• Cooperation Partners: Dr. Denis Arcon; Professor Dr. Chris Ewels