Development of Homogeneous Catalysts – Green Chemistry and Pharmaceutical Compounds.

The subject of this PhD is to develop new transition metal catalysts. The main areas of application of these systems are pharmaceutical and green chemistry. The new catalytic systems are targeted for either remediation of environmental issues or for the synthesis of pharmaceutical compounds. For the latter case, asymmetric variations are envisaged in order to develop enantioselective processes. Therefore, this project involves the design and synthesis of new ligands and their associated complexes, their characterisation and the testing of the new catalysts in targeted reactions.
The knowledge and competences acquired during such a PhD are broad and multidisciplinary as they combine organic, inorganic and organometallic chemistry and require inert atmosphere handling skills and expertise in a variety of analytical techniques. The student will develop his/her presentation skills by performing regular oral presentations and writing his/her papers that will be submitted for publication in peer-reviewed journals. The PhD student might also be required to supervise and train undergraduate students and will be encouraged to participate to national and international conferences by communicating his/her results by the mean of posters and oral presentations.