RESEARCH
Group Visions
Our laboratory is dedicated to tackling challenges in catalysis with inorganic and organometallic approaches. Achieving sustainability in the chemical industry is of significant importance in addressing global climate change and energy crisis. To address these issues, we focus on developing novel catalysts and reactions that enable the conversion of CO2 and renewable feedstocks using earth-abundant metals. Our approaches are based on a fundamental understanding of catalysts and their mechanisms, while employing modern concepts of coordination chemistry such as metal-ligand coopertivity, second coordination sphere interaction and metal-metal bonding. Through these efforts, our ultimate goal is to make contributions to carbon neutrality and sustainability in the chemical industry.
Key approches and techniques in our lab are
Synthesis of organic/inorganic compounds
Characterization of metal complexes and their electronic structures
Catalytic performance evaluation using high-throuput screening
Mechanistic study using experimental and computational methods
Reaction design based on mechanism and kinetic information
Projects
Carboxylation using CO2
Olefin Transformation
Bimetallic System
The production of carboxylic acid using CO2 is attractive process as it utilizes abundant and inexpensive greenhouse gas to make valuable feedstocks. Despite recent advances in metal-catalyzed carboxylation, however, several challenges need to be overcome such as catalyst activity, selectivity and stability.Â
Our research focuses on development of new catalytic systems and the exploration of their mechanisms to establish design principles for enhanced catalytic performances.
Olefins are fundamental building blocks in traditional petroleum-based chemical industry. Large quantities of olefins has been produced through the naphtha cracking process, however, recent emergence of bio-olefin offers a new opportunity towards a sustainable chemical industry. While promising, to leverage biomass utilization in chemical industry, efficient conversion of biobased olefin to value-added chemical is important. Our group is interested in conversion of olefins into value-added chemicals with novel catalyst development.
The bimetallic system exhibits intriguing features such as cooperative effects, unique redox properties and extended tunabilities, causing a paradigm shift in the field of inorganic chemistry. Recent advances have demonstrated the remarkable potential of bimetallic system in catalysis, enabling precise tuning of reactivity and selectivity.
Our group is intrigued by the fundamental development of novel bimetallic systems and their potential applications in small molecule activation and catalysis. By harnessing the synergistic effects and unique properties of two metal centers, we aim to unveil unprecedented catalytic pathways and design catalysts that pave the way for challenging reactions.