Michael A. Rowan

Vanadyl C and N-capped tris(phenolate) complexes: influence of pro-catalyst geometry on catalytic activity

Vanadyl complexes of C or N-capped tripodal ligands, possessing distorted tetrahedral geometry at vanadium, serve as extremely active, thermally robust pro-catalysts for ethylene homo- and ethylene/propylene copolymerisation, whereas pseudo-octahedral pro-catalysts produce far lower activities.

Catalysis at the Heart of Success

As you might appreciate, the board of ChemCatChem is reviewed every four years from top to bottom. We look for the Editorial Board renewal to raise the profile of the journal, to keep the journal from stagnation, and to spread the reputation of the journal into new areas. It is important to keep many things in balance while looking at the renewal—topic, country, institute, seniority, number of papers published, number of referee reports completed, and overall awesomeness. The founding co-Chairmen have served their final term and we welcome, for now, two new Chairmen in Professors Stephen Hashmi and Hermenegildo Garcia who have agreed to take over from Professors Luis Oro and Bert Weckhuysen. For some continuity, Professor Uwe Bornscheuer has agreed to remain for a further year.

10 Volumes of ChemCatChem, a Cross Section of Catalysis Research from ChemPubSoc Europe

Many Thanks! ChemCatChem has had a wonderful year and I would like to say a big thank you to our authors, referees, readers, and board members. It was great to meet up with you at conferences across the world, especially at EuropaCat in Florence! I appreciate all of the feedback and constructive criticism and I look forward to another year of fine interactions in 2018. Fearless Chairmen: Last year we renewed our Chairmen—the founding Chairmen and leaders of ChemCatChem had served for eight years and we welcomed two new Chairmen in Stephen Hashmi and Hermenegildo Garcia. Uwe Bornscheuer remained to allow for some continuity, but now makes way for Wolfgang Kroutil. On a related note, we would like to welcome Dieter Vogt to the International Advisory Board after the retirement of Arno Behr.

Let the Catalysis Continue

The decision to include nanocatalysis as a new term for the ChemCatChem family of topics was brought by the large amount of submissions described as nanocatalysis and was crystallised when we published our Special Issue on said topic in October. Indeed, we look forward to receiving more and more papers on this topic in the coming years. We had two highly successful Special Issues in 2012, one on Organocatalysis (Issue 7, Figure 1), which was guest edited by Pier Cozzi and Yujiro Hayashi, and one on the Synthesis of Discover this journal online at:

ChemCatChem: For a Catalytic Future

The first full year of ChemCatChem has passed and proved to be something of a momentous year in the field of catalysis, with the long-awaited awarding of the Nobel Prize for Chemistry to Richard Heck, Ei-ichi Negishi, and Akira Suzuki for their groundbreaking work on palladium-catalyzed cross couplings in organic synthesis (Figure 1). Owing to the tremendous impact on organic chemistry of the reactions carrying the names of the new Nobel Laureates, this award is well deserved (not to mention long overdue). This is perhaps also the moment to remember John Stille (1930–1989), as the reaction that carries his name is of similar nature and importance. John Stille died before his time in an air crash, but not before completing fascinating work on carbon–carbon bond coupling.

Early transition metal calixarene and tripod ligand complexes for ethylene polymerisation

The field of calixarene chemistry has grown substantially in the past decade. There are now many reported applications including sensors, medical diagnostics and phase transfer agents. [1] Use in polymerisation catalysis for a variety of chemical systems has, however, only recently gained attention with mixed success. [2-6] This paper focuses on our discoveries with early transition metal (primarily vanadium) oxo or organoimido fragments supported on the hexahomotrioxacalix[3]arene ligand (see figure for an example) or by one of a range of new tripodal ligands. Oxacalix[3] ligands have gained very little attention in the literature thus far, in contrast to the rich literature for the well-known calix[4]arenes. Here we report the structures and high ethylene polymerisation catalytic activity of the new compounds. The structural work has been undertaken using both laboratorybased conventional X-ray sources and synchrotron radiation at Daresbury Laboratory, all at low temperature.