(126C) Synthesis of Oxygen-Based Ligands for C-H Bond Activation Catalysts

The cleavage of specific C-H bonds is very useful for many companies including the fuel and pharmaceutical companies. The foremost issue in this research is the strong energy barrier that needs to be overcome to cleave them, meaning that the main ways that have been implemented to overcome this issue involve expensive catalysts such as platinum complexes or energy-intensive processes that require high temperatures. While this process is ultimately effective in its purpose, it does not achieve this transformation in any specific fashion, as it is often uncertain which C-H bond will break first under such extreme conditions, thus leading to many byproducts (which are typically discarded) and waste generation. In this research, we try to find a catalyst that would lower the activation energy of carbon-hydrogen bond cleavage and use earth-abundant, cheap metals instead (e.g., first-row transition metals). The result of this research would be a step towards stopping global warming and increasing the availability of important products such as energy and drugs to many people, especially in developing countries.