
New Catalyst Development
Catalysis has been one of the main driving forces of innovation since the beginning of modern science. These days, more than 80% of all products on the market have at least one step in their manufacturing process that involves a catalyst that is either heterogenous, homogenous, or biological. Since 2014, these catalysts generated more than 900 billion USD in annual revenue, while the catalyst market alone is expected to grow to 33 billion USD, making catalysis the #1 value generator in the chemical industry. Unfortunately, many of these catalysts are still based on precious metal such as palladium, rhodium, and iridium, which are expensive, toxic, and harmful to the environment.
In our laboratory we develop new catalysts that are based on environmentally friendly earth-abundant metals. To control the reactivity of earth-abundant metals we have developed a new ligand platform that regulate the electronic needs of the catalyst, eventually leading to better productivity and selectivity