Grants and Contributions:

Grant or Award spanning more than one fiscal year. (2017-2018 to 2022-2023)

Olefin metathesis is the most powerful and versatile method now known for building new carbon-carbon bonds, and hence the frameworks of new molecules. Its applications range from the assembly of new drugs to utilization of renewable resources, as cited in the Nobel Prize for metathesis in 2005. Uptake in pharmaceutical and specialty-chemicals manufacturing, anticipated for decades, is a very recent reality. Metathesis is being used to access new, potent viral inhibitors, and to transform renewable plant oils into specialty chemicals.

Despite its enormous potential, however, major limitations still impede its use, particularly in the context of chemical manufacturing, where it has the potential to dramatically reduce waste. A major challenge lies in the short lifetimes of the catalysts that enable these reactions. This leads to uneconomic, unreliable processes: moreover, competing reactions lead to byproducts. This severely restricts the practical use of metathesis for transformation of renewable plant-oil feedstocks, and has been highlighted as a serious, recurring problem in reports from pharma.

Much of our work in this important area is directed at understanding and addressing the factors that limit catalyst lifetimes and productivity. We seek to understand why these catalysts are vulnerable, and how they decompose under conditions of use. Such understanding would be a powerful aid to designing next-generation, long-lived catalysts, and expanding industrial uptake. We also seek to expand these capabilities, to enable the assembly of molecular structures presently unattainable. Development of robust, versatile, readily-handled catalysts would allow these powerful tools for molecular design to reach their long-heralded potential.

Finally, we are also investigating bold new possibilities in which we harness catalyst decomposition. We have recently discovered that nanoparticles are formed as key projects of decomposition. By learning how to impede, or promote, these reactions, we hope to create major opportunities at the forefront of molecular and nanoparticle catalysis.