Organometallic Chromium Catalysis

Please reach out to Dr. Hanna Hinrika Cramer by email (hanna.cramer(at)rub.de) to discuss your project before submitting your application!

About the topic

As an earth-abundant, first-row transition metal, chromium is attractive in organometallic catalysis but remains significantly underexplored. A main challenge is that the active, low-valent catalyst species is typically formed in situ from complicated mixtures that hamper insight into the catalytic mechanism, which significantly limits rational catalyst development.

This project aims to develop well-defined chromium complexes that form active catalyst species by mild, external triggers, such as visible light. We envision these to enable catalytic applications in the cleavage of strong bonds and in the upconversion of bioderived feedstocks to useful products.

What we expect from the students

We are looking for motivated students with basic knowledge on molecular inorganic chemistry and/or computational chemistry. Depending on your interest, projects are available with both experimental and computational focus.

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Paper related to the topic