John Meurig Thomas

Single-Site Heterogeneous Catalysts: Innovations, Advantages, and Future Potential in Green Chemistry and Sustainable Technology

The advantages that flow from the availability of single-site heterogeneous catalysts are many. They facilitate the determination of the kinetics and mechanism of catalytic turnover and render accessible the energetics of various intermediates. More importantly, it is possible to prepare soluble molecular fragments that circumscribe the single site, thus enabling a direct comparison to be made between the catalytic performance of the same active site when functioning as a heterogeneous or a homogeneous catalyst. Our approach adopts the principles and practices of solid-state chemistry, augmented by lessons derived from enzymology, as well as computational chemistry. We have succeeded in designing a range of new catalysts to effect, inter alia, shape-selective, regioselective, bifunctional, and enantioselective catalytic conversions. In particular, large fractions of these catalysts are ideally suited for the era of clean technology in which single-step and/or solvent-free processes abound, and in which benign oxidants such as air or oxygen and inexpensive nanoporous materials are employed.