Investigations into surface-confined covalent organic frameworks : towards developing novel enantioselective heterogeneous catalysts
Abstract
There is an increasing necessity for the pharmaceutical industry to develop
enantiomerically pure drugs. Up till now, production of enantiomerically pure
molecules has been provided by harvesting them from plants or utilising homogeneous
catalysis and biocatalysis. None of these methods are efficient means of production,
and attention is now being directed towards heterogeneous enantioselective catalysis
as the preferred technique. This is on account of the high product yield and ease of
separation of catalyst from the reaction mixture.
Over the past few decades, a great deal of research has been conducted into
investigating the Ni catalysed hydrogenation of β-ketoesters and Pt catalysed
hydrogenation of α-ketoesters. These are the most successful systems for
enantioselective heterogeneous catalysis. However, they are unsuitable for industrial
purposes due to the low thermal and mechanical stability of the modified surfaces.
The main goal throughout this project has been the investigation of surface-confined
covalent reactions. The motivation of this research is to develop enantioselective
heterogeneous catalysis; covalent networks are believed to infer the necessary
thermal and chemical stability required to chirally modify catalytic surfaces for docking
interactions with reactant species. Covalent organic frameworks (COFs) on surfaces
hold potential for a number of chemical applications, and not just in the field of
heterogeneous catalysis; for example in areas such as molecular electronics and
templating.
Type
Thesis, PhD Doctor of Philosophy
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