Molecular Catalysts Structure and Functional Design

Highlighting the key aspects and latest advances in the rapidly developing field of molecular catalysis, this book covers new strategies to investigate reaction mechanisms, the enhancement of the catalysts' selectivity and efficiency, as well as the rational design of well-defined molecular catalysts. The interdisciplinary author team with an excellent reputation within the community discusses experimental and theoretical studies, along with examples of improved catalysts, and their application in organic synthesis, biocatalysis, and supported organometallic catalysis. As a result, readers will gain a deeper understanding of the catalytic transformations, allowing them to adapt the knowledge to their own investigations.

With its ideal combination of fundamental and applied research, this is an essential reference for researchers and graduate students both in academic institutions and in the chemical industry.

With a foreword by Nobel laureate Roald Hoffmann.

Lutz H. Gade holds a chair of inorganic chemistry at the University of Heidelberg (Germany) and is a director of the Institute of Inorganic Chemistry. After completing his undergraduate studies at the University of Bonn (Germany) and the Technical University Munich (Germany), he went to Cambridge (United Kingdom) to work for his Ph.D. with Jack Lewis. Having returned to Germany after defending his doctoral thesis in 1991, he joined the Chemistry Department at the University of Würzburg, were he finished his habilitation in 1996 and where he subsequently worked as a lecturer. In 1998 he moved to the Université Louis Pasteur (Strasbourg, France) to take up a full professorship in inorganic chemistry and to become the Head of the Laboratory of Organometallic Chemistry and Catalysis. He moved to his present position in Heidelberg in October 2003 where he is also chairman of the collaborative research centre (SFB 623) on molecular catalysis (since 2009).

Peter Hofmann holds a chair in organic chemistry at the University of Heidelberg (Germany) since 1995 and is the scientific director of CaRLa, the joint Catalysis Research Laboratory of the University of Heidelberg and BASF (since 2006). He obtained a diploma in chemistry in 1970 and a PhD from the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg (Germany) in 1973. After post-doctoral studies with Roald Hoffmann at Cornell University (USA), he returned to Erlangen-Nuremberg to do his habilitation with Paul v. Ragué Schleyer. He became associate professor at the same university in 1980. From 1981 until 1983 he held a guest chair at the Technical University Munich (Germany) were he was appointed associate professor at the Institute of Inorganic Chemistry in 1983. He is a recipient of the Emil Fischer medal of the German Chemical Society (GDCh) and was elected as the 1st Charles and Martha Casey Lecturer on Organometallic Chemistry at the University of Wisconsin (Madison, USA) in 2012.

FOREWORD
INTRODUCTION
1) MECHANISMS OF ELEMENTARY REACTIONS IN CATALYTIC PROCESSES
Introduction
1.1. Quantum Dynamics of Molecular Elementary Processes in Catalytic Transformations
1.2. Activation of Small Molecules with Metal and Metal Oxide Clusters in Inert Gas Matrices
1.3. Single Molecule Spectroscopy of Catalytic Sites and Metal Catalyzed Reaction Steps
1.4. Intermediates and Elementary Reactions in Gold Catalysis
1.5. Diastereoselectivity of Olefin Metathesis
2) NEW CATALYSTS -
NEW AND OLD REACTIONS
Introduction
2.1. Oxidation Catalysis with the Iron(II)-bispidine/H2O2 system
2.2. Single-site Organochromium Catalysts for High Molecular Weight Polyolefins
2.3. Hydroformylation and Hydrocyanation: Ligand Design for Efficient and Selective Catalysts Based on Theoretical Modelling and Mechanistic Insight
2.4. Strongly Electron Donating Tridente N-Heterocyclic Biscarbene Ligands for Rhodium and Iridium Catalysis
2.5. NHCP Ligands for New Catalysts
3) CATALYSTS IN SYNTHESIS
Introduction
3.1. Iridium-Catalysed Allylic Substitutions
3.2. Sequential Catalysis Involving Metal Catalysed Cycloisomerisations and Insertion Cyclisations
3.3. C-N-Coupling Reactions in Catalytic One-Pot Synthesis Using Molecular Group 4 Catalysts
3.4. Sequential Catalysis for the Stereoselective Synthesis of Polyketides
3.5. Modular Assembly of Chiral Catalysts with Polydentate Stereodirecting Ligands
4) STRUCTURES AND MECHANISMS IN BIOLOGICAL CATALYSIS
Introduction
4.1. Mechanistic Studies in Enzyme Catalysis
4.2. Conformational Flexibility and Catalytic Reactivity in Phosphoesterases
4.3. Selective Hybrid Catalysts Based on Nucleic Acids
5) STUDIES OF IMMOBILIZED CATALYSTS
Introduction
5.1. Dendrimers as Platforms for Stereoselective Catalysis
5.2. Solid Phases as Protective Environments for Biomimetic Catalysts
5.3. High Throughput Screening of Catalysts and Reactions