SMARTCAT
Sustainable development of smart chiral metal-catalysts for industrial processes
Our research focuses on the sustainable design, synthesis, and screening of highly active and selective chiral catalysts. These catalysts are essential for advancing key reactions in the biological, pharmaceutical, and organic industries, ensuring efficiency, precision and sustainability in chemical synthesis.
Research Areas:
1. Homogeneous Catalysis
Homogeneous catalysis involves the use of chiral metal catalysts in a single-phase solution, enabling precise control over reaction selectivity and efficiency. Our research in this area includes:
- Design and Development of Novel Catalysts: Creating and optimizing chiral metal complexes for asymmetric transformations.
- Mechanistic Studies: Investigating reaction pathways and catalyst behavior to enhance efficiency and selectivity by NMR or DFT studies.
- Green Chemistry Approaches: Implementing sustainable solvents, recyclable catalysts and non-toxic reagents to minimize environmental impact.
- Applications in Asymmetric Synthesis: Developing catalysts for enantioselective reactions essential to pharmaceutical and fine chemical production.
2. Flow Chemistry
Flow chemistry provides a modern approach to catalytic reactions, offering advantages such as enhanced reaction control, scalability and reduced waste. Our work in this area includes:
- Integration of Supported Homogeneous Catalysts in Flow Systems: Developing stable and efficient chiral catalysts that operate effectively in continuous flow environments.
- Process Optimization: Enhancing reaction conditions, residence times and selectivity through innovative reactor designs.
- Sustainability and Scalability: Reducing energy consumption and reagent waste while ensuring industrial feasibility and high productivity.
By combining homogeneous catalysis and flow chemistry, SMARTCAT aims to develop next-generation chiral catalysts that align with the principles of green chemistry and industrial efficiency. Our research contributes to advancing sustainable methodologies in chemical synthesis, ensuring economic and environmental benefits across multiple industries.
Our projects have significant applications in industry, providing great job opportunities for students and postdoctoral fellows after graduation. SMARTCAT collabrates with (inter)national chemical companies, such as AstraZeneca, Bayer, Johnson Matthey, Repsol, among others.
Our laboratories have the latest generation equipment and techniques such as high pressure reactors, combinatorial synthesis reactors and flow reaction reactors, quiral GC, quiral HPLC, GC-MS, NMR and ATRFTIR, a glove box, and many others that are required to perform research of excellence.
