From Homogeneous To Heterogeneous Catalysis: New Directions Towards Renewable Energy

This talk will display some of the organometallic work Lohr performed throughout her doctoral thesis at the University of Calgary, as well as heterogeneous catalysis work ongoing at Northwestern University. The first half of this talk will focus on the fundamental chemistry of archetypical oxygen containing ligands (M-OH₂, M-OH, and M=O) and their possible role in metal mediated water splitting catalysis. In order to understand how these ligands interconvert at a level equal to our knowledge of analogous hydrocarbon ligands, the goal of this thesis was to prepare well-defined monomeric examples of metal hydroxides and bis hydroxides, and to study their resulting reactivity. The routes taken to prepare, isolate, and characterize discrete platinum hydroxo complexes, along with an in-depth study of their reactivity under thermal conditions will be presented.

The second half of this talk will focus on using homo-heterogeneous tandem catalysis for the breakdown of biomass and related substrates through selective C-O bond cleavage. Particular focus will be on mechanistically understanding ester C-O bond hydrogenolysis and its use towards the efficient conversion of biomass-derived triglycerides to value added C3 products and biodiesel, as well as the breakdown of lignin model complexes. This talk will conclude with the preparation and characterization of new supported catalysts for C-O bond cleavage reactions.