The development of vast natural gas reserves has created an abudance of small hydrocarbons including methane, ethane, ethylene and propylene. Converting these ubiquituous small molecules to more value-added products other than polyolefins is an important challenge in contemporary catalysis science. Our laboratory has discovered iron and cobalt catalysts bearing redox-active bis(imino)pyridine and diimine ligands that promote unique enchainments of abudant small alkenes. My lecture will focus on the application of these catalysts to the regio- and stereoselective synthesis of cyclobutanes as well as understanding the mechanism of catalytic turnover and how electrons flow during conversion of starting materials to products. Efforts to alter the reactivity of key metallocyclic intermediates to form new products derived from alternative modes of cycloaddition reactivity will also be presented.

Earth abundant transition metal catalysts for the upgrading of hydrocarbons

252nd National Meeting (2016)

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