Multimetallic Cooperative Bond Activation: Fundamentals & Catalysis

The majority of homogeneous metal catalysts consist of a single metal atom and organic ligands, which tune activity or selectivity. Similarly, nature employs metals in the active sites of metalloenzymes to catalyze chemical reactions. However, for the most challenging chemical transformations, metalloenzymes often employ complex cofactors where multiple metals work together to make and break chemical bonds.

Research in the Broere Group focusses on obtaining fundamental understanding of how multiple metals can activate strong chemical bonds, and use this knowledge to develop new multinuclear catalysts for the conversion of abundant materials or waste product into valuable chemicals. To this end we utilize a combination of organic and organometallic synthesis, spectroscopy, kinetics and computational chemistry.