PhD - New Silicon-based catalysts

Laboratoire Hétérochimie Fondamentale et Appliquée

Toulouse, France

Description

Transition‐metal catalysts are indispensable in actual organic synthesis. However, the principal problem is the highly limited natural resource of precious transition metals. To overcome this problem, in this project, we propose the use of silicon (the second most abundant element in the Earth’s crust) which can be found everywhere in the world as sand, rock or quartz. Thus you can expect that you will not have any problem of natural resource to prepare catalysts. In fact, although the importance of its natural abundance is well recognized in material chemistry, as it can be seen by the vast world production of silicon based materials (polymers, rubber, semiconductors), real success has never been achieved in synthetic chemistry. For this purpose, we consider the use of silicon(II) complexes (type 1) which show some particular coordination properties. Indeed, We have very recently reported that the Si(II) complexes show a reactivity and coordination properties similar to those frequently observed for transition metal complexes (reversible addition/elimination reactions of poorly reactive ethylene gas at room temperature or activation of CO2 gas). We propose, in this project, the development of new stable Si(II) complexes with a transition metal like behavior which could be used as “resource‐problem‐free catalysts”. The success of this project should open a new wide research domain in chemistry and could change the vision of catalysis.

Requirements

The candidate must have a solid background in molecular chemistry. Some experience in manipulations with highly reactive molecules will also be appreciated.

More information and applications

Applications should include a cover letter and a detailed CV with the name and address of at least one referee.

Net salary: 1400 €/month

E-mail : Kato@chimie.ups-tlse.fr

http://hfa.ups-tlse.fr