Editorial pubs.acs.org/CR
Cite This: Chem. Rev. 2019, 119, 2089−2089
Introduction: First Row Metals and Catalysis
Chem. Rev. 2019.119:2089-2089. Downloaded from pubs.acs.org by 193.56.75.118 on 02/27/19. For personal use only.
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will contribute to more sustainable chemistry in academia and industry. You are invited to contribute.
he development of all kinds of catalysts has been one of the major inspirations for discovering new chemical reactivity in the past century, and even today it is a powerful tool for innovations in chemical sciences. In fact, modern organic synthesis with all its abilities to create (more or less) any desired chemical compound would be impossible to imagine without catalysis. As the key technology for controlling molecular reactivity and selectivity, it provides a basis for more benign chemical transformations and the implementation of novel industrial processes for the benefit of our society. Clearly, the tremendous advancements in chemistry and the success of the chemical and life science industries in the past century would have been impossible without catalysts based on palladium, platinum, rhodium, ruthenium, rare earth metals, and so on. Numerous original reactions and bulk-scale industrial processes, such as specific olefin polymerizations, hydroformylations, hydrosilylations, metathesis, coupling reactions, hydrogenations, and many more, are based on molecular-defined noble metal complexes or supported precious metal nanoparticles. As a student and later on as a young researcher in industry, I remember well attending conferences in the areas of (homogeneous) catalysis or organometallic chemistry. Not surprisingly, the focus of the presented work there was mainly on noble metal catalysis and the respective complexes. Without doubt, the 20th century has been to a significant extent the century of noble metal-based organometallic catalysis. However, catalysis in nature follows a different route: metalcontaining enzymes make use of accessible 3d-metals such as iron, copper, nickel, zinc, etc. Partly because of availability but also due to evolution, nature found ways to provide accurate structural (micro)environments, which allows, for example, for the unique redox catalysis of Fe−Fe based hydrogenases or Mn-catalyzed water oxidation in photosynthesis. For decades, researchers tried to develop man-made defined 3d-metal complexes often inspired from bioinorganic chemistry that mimic this distinctive reactivity. Unfortunately, most approaches failed. However, mainly since the turn of the millennium and the growing awareness of limited resources, the use of earth-abundant and often less-toxic metal catalysts flourished. Specifically, the synthesis of new organometallic complexes and ligands, bi- and multifunctional catalysis, as well as the precise creation of 3d-metal based nanoparticles, all these developments paved the way for more general 3d-metal catalysis. Thus, contrary to traditional belief, now it is commonly possible to use for instance molecular-defined iron or manganese complexes for catalytic dehydrogenation/ hydrogenation reactions. Looking at the different contributions from experts all over the world for this thematic issue, the reader will enjoy many more examples and, more importantly, I hope, will be inspired to develop even better catalytic materials or to use them in applications ranging from carbonylations to CH-activations, from carbon dioxide valorizations, electrocatalysis to enantioselective catalysis, etc. This field of research is definitely not mature, and I am convinced it © 2019 American Chemical Society
Matthias Beller*
Leibniz-Institut für Katalyse e.V.
AUTHOR INFORMATION Corresponding Author
*E-mail:
[email protected]. ORCID
Matthias Beller: 0000-0001-5709-0965 Notes
Views expressed in this editorial are those of the author and not necessarily the views of the ACS. Biography Matthias Beller studied chemistry at the University of Göttingen, Germany, where he completed his Ph.D. thesis in 1989 in the group of L.-F. Tietze. He then worked with K. B. Sharpless at MIT, USA, as a postdoctoral fellow. From 1991 to 1995, Beller was active in industry. After being at the TU München as Professor for Inorganic Chemistry, in 1998, he relocated to Rostock to head the Institute for Organic Catalysis, which became in 2006 the Leibniz-Institute for Catalysis. He has received a number of awards including the OttoRoelen Medal and the Leibniz-Price of the DFG. In 2006, he was also awarded “Entrepreneur of the Year” of Rostock and he received the German Federal Cross of Merit. Since then, the work of his group was awarded the first “European price for Sustainable Chemistry”, the “Paul-Rylander Award” of the Organic Reaction Catalysis Society of the USA, the Gay-Lussac-Alexander-von-Humboldt-Prize of the French Academy of Sciences, and the Emil Fischer Medal of the German Chemical Society. He was awarded honorary doctoral degrees from the University of Antwerp, Belgium, and the University of Rennes 1, France. Matthias Beller is Vice President of the Leibniz Societyone of the major science organizations in Germanyand a member of the German National Academia of Science “Leopoldina” and three other Academies of Sciences.
Special Issue: First Row Metals and Catalysis Published: February 27, 2019 2089
DOI: 10.1021/acs.chemrev.9b00076 Chem. Rev. 2019, 119, 2089−2089
