SunCatChem · Sustainable Light - Driven Catalytic Chemistry

Innovative fundamental research is key to facing challenges posed by our current societal, environmental and economic needs. Catalysis is a vital component of many potential solutions to contemporary global issues and breakthroughs in catalysis would inevitably bring about change.Among the most prominent challenges of the 21st century is the functionalization of abundant but unreactive C-H bonds as development of these transformations would enable the sustainable formation of new carbon-carbon or carbon-heteroatom bonds, needed for the construction of vitally important complex molecules. Even more challenging is the direct, enantioselective functionalization of unreactive C-H and C-C double bonds which would lead to valuable, optically active products which are highly desirable for the pharmaceutical, agrochemical and fine chemical industries.The general objective of this proposal is to redefine the synthetic methodology for obtaining highly valuable, optically active products, used in life science applications, by using novel strategies, involving three unprecedented concepts which employ visible light available from the sun.Successful validation of our three innovative, light-driven, catalysis concepts will have great impact on catalysis, organic synthesis and fundamental science in general. As a key enabling technology, we will also devise unprecedented reaction concepts which will allow fast and autonomous self-optimization without the need for any manual interaction, resulting in increased practicability and high acceptance from the scientific community.By both designing and matching synthetic methodology with innovative technology we aim to enhance the environmental credentials and improved economic feasibility of the resulting reactions and systems, leading to wide acceptance and implementation and, thus, make a significant contribution towards the paradigm shift to sustainable chemistry.