Project Summary
Alkane upgrading is a major industrial goal (for biomass, waste and fossil fuel derived alkanes) that can drastically enhance the efficiency of the chemical industry. In phase 1 of this proof of concept study we aim to demonstrate that Earth-abundant electrophilic metal catalysts can activate hydroboranes to perform sp3 C-H borylation to generate alkylboranes. While alkylboranes are useful in their own right as versatile synthetic intermediates, phase 2 of this project will look at one specific application of alkylboranes - the thermal conversion of alkylboranes to alkenes by dehydroboration (a process that regenerates the hydroborane for potential use in phase 1). Success would establish the feasibility of a low energy route (relative to commercialised direct alkane dehydrogenation currently performed on a large scale) to convert alkanes to terminal alkenes which is a significant and currently unmet challenge in the chemical industry. This project is underpinned by proof of principle results and calculations. While this is a synthetic organometallic chemistry and homogenous catalysis based project there is a collaboration with Prof. Stuart Macgregor in place relating to this project. Thus there will be multiple opportunities to collaborate with the expert computational chemistry team at Heriot Watt during this PhD. program. This project will develop skills in organoborane synthesis, organometallic chemistry, catalysis, DFT calculations and a range of key characterization techniques.
In the first instance, informal enquiries (accompanied by a CV) should be directed to:
Prof. Michael Ingleson, [Email Address Removed] School of Chemistry, University of Edinburgh, David Brewster Road, Edinburgh EH9 3FJ, UK.
Key Words:
Synthetic Chemistry; Inorganic Chemistry
Equality and Diversity
The School of Chemistry holds a Silver Athena SWAN award in recognition of our commitment to advance gender equality in higher education. The University is a member of the Race Equality Charter and is a Stonewall Scotland Diversity Champion, actively promoting LGBT equality. The University has a range of initiatives to support a family friendly working environment. See our University Initiatives website for further information. University Initiatives website: https://www.ed.ac.uk/equality-diversity/help-advice/family-friendly
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