Grant: Research Tools and Instruments - Category 1 (<$150,000)

This application is for the purchase of an inert-atmosphere glovebox, which is essential for the research program 'Dynamic Ligands for Sustainable Molecular Catalysis'. The goal of the program is to develop transition-metal catalysts that are highly efficient for high-value organic transformations. An emphasis is placed on transformations that are highly atom-economic and that use clean and abundant feedstocks (i.e. water and oxygen). Catalysts will be cooperative in nature, where two catalyst functions work together to maximize activity and selectivity. The results of this program will significantly advance the fundamental understanding of cooperative and sustainable catalysts. The new catalytic transformations will be beneficial for the environmentally sustainable synthesis of complex target molecules. The ultimate goal is for the catalytic systems to be employed by the pharmaceutical or agrochemical industries to synthesize high-value organics. The methodology of the research program involves the synthesis of ligands and metal complexes, evaluation of catalyst performance and mechanistic assessment. All of these studies require that reactions be conducted under rigorous air- and moisture-free conditions, or under controlled addition of oxygen or water. Undesired decomposition due to contamination during reactivity or catalysis studies will compromise the accuracy of the quantitative data and the subsequent interpretation. A glovebox is standard equipment in an inorganic laboratory and it is certain that all of our competitors have at least one similar system devoted to their research program. Without the requested equipment, research progress is delayed and there are limitations to the types of studies that are undertaken. Consequently, the impact of the research will be reduced to reflect the limited feasible interrogation.