Grant: Canada Research Chairs

Dr. Schafers research interests bridge the areas of organometallic and organic chemistry. She has developed a new class of complexes employing low toxicity metals that are easily modified and rapidly assembled. This new family of catalysts shows remarkable reactivity in selective bond forming reactions. Furthermore, these catalytic transformations can be deployed to access new functionalized and responsive polymeric materials that display tunable physical properties for application as light-emitting, conductive, self-healing or anti-microbial materials. Thus, the focus of her research efforts is to develop readily accessed, inexpensive complexes that show promise for the fine chemical, petrochemical, pharmaceutical and the plastics and coatings industries to realize transformative, sustainable manufacturing methods.