I develop organometallic and inorganic compounds for homogeneous catalysis. The goal is to activate different type of E-H bonds (E = H, D, C, Si, Ge...). High selectivy and smooth conditions are expected for each reaction. This goal can be reach  by a fine tuning of the auxillary ligands associated with a transition metal. The mechanistic study helps us to select the best conditions. Different applications of such approach  are  developed in this page.

Dihydrogen

Mechanism investigations on bis dihydrogen complexes had led us to find new efficient homogeneous catalysts for hydrogenation of nitriles under very smooth conditions (e.g. room temperature, 3 bar of H2, in the neat)

 

 

 

J. Am. Chem. Soc., 2010, 132 , 7854

H/D Exchange

Selective deuterium labelling is important for reaction mechanism determination. We have develop different deuterated compounds, such as hydrosilane and hydrosilazane compounds. This compounds have been obtained by using homogeneous catalyst.

 

 

Organometallics 2005, 24, 3824

Adv. Synth. Catal. 2014, 356 , 759

C-H activation

C-H bond activation is one of the major challenge in order to functionnalized organic molecules.

The C-H bond activation by catalyst at room temperature is important in  order to get low energy cost reaction. Our complexes have shown their potential to be used in the Murai reaction at room temperature with ethylene.

J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2005, 127, 17592

J. Am. Chem. Soc., 2015, 137, 4062


Ethylene

We are developping in collaboration with Mexican groups a deshydrogenative hydrosilylation and hydroboration of ethylene in order to get vinylsilane and vinylborane respectively. We focus our research on selective and efficient new homogeneous catalysts.

ANR N2CDFun Program

Germane

Transformation of commercial simple germane compounds into valuable products is expected for different domains such as electronics and optics. We have recently discover a selective way to convert germane into hydrogermoxane.

 

Organometallics, 2015, 34, 4158

H2-N2

Fondamendal research for new activation  routes of H2 and N2 to produce NH3 is under progress.

This project is a collaboration with 3 partners in France (Nicolas Mézailles, Laurent Micouin, Marc Robert) .

More informations concerning this project will be available later.

ANR CaDeSMARE Program.