Catalyst design for synthesis

Mid-term: Oct 17, 2024, In Room AAC 1 37.

Teaching assistant (by email): Weijin Wang (weijin.wang@epfl.ch)

This course on homogeneous catalysis provides a detailed understanding of how these catalysts work at a mechanistic level and gives examples of catalyst design for important reactions (hydrogenation, olefin metathesis, cross-coupling).

Content:

• Organometallic chemistry: revision of basic ideas including structure and bonding and the implications this has on reactivity of an organic ligand coordinated to a metal centre.
• A description of the reactions involved in homogeneous catalysis, with an emphasis on the essential features required to predict which type of reactions can take place.
• Olefin metathesis
• Hydrogenation
• Cross-coupling