RUB Research School

Cooperative Bond Activations with Transition Metal Carbene Complexe

The Research Project

In our future energy economy, hydrogen will play an important role due to its high energy density and its CO2-free combustion. However, hydrogen storage is still challenging. Besides physical storage methods, hydrogen can be stored chemically in Liquid Organic Hydrogen Carriers (LOHC) like alcohols which enable safer and easier handling and transportation. For the effective storage and release of hydrogen (chem.: hydrogenation/dehydrogenation) catalysts are needed. During my doctoral studies my aim is to synthesize and investigate nucleophilic transition metal carbene complexes. Due to their interesting electronic properties, they will be applied as homogeneous catalysts in hydrogenation and dehydrogenation of LOHCs as well as in hydrogen-autotransfer reactions which allow the atom-economic synthesis of complex organic molecules in one step without the direct usage of molecular hydrogen. Based on the catalytic studies relations between (electronic) structure and catalytic performance will be investigated to design new catalysts with customized properties.

IRB funded activities

International Conference on Organometallic Chemistry in Prague  (July 2022)

Together with some of my collegues and my supervisor Viktoria Däschlein-Gessner I visited the International Conference on Organometallic Chemistry (ICOMC) in Prague. This was my first in-person conference where I had the opportunity to present some results of my research on methandiide-based carbene complexes. The ICOMC is a rather specialized conference so that good and helpful discussions with experts were possible during the poster sessions. I enjoyed to get in touch with other young scientists from my research field e.g. during the poster sessions and coffee breaks, which was not possible to that extend during the first two years of my PhD. The different talks on Organometallic Chemistry enabled a broader overview on current research activities and new perspectives for my own research.

44th International Conference on Coordination Chemistry in Rimini (August 2022)

In August 2022 I participated in the International Conference on Coordination Chemistry (ICCC) in Rimini with some of my collegues and my supervisor Viktoria Däschlein-Gessner. The ICCC is a large international conference on a broad research field with a long history. During my PhD I combine experimental and computational methods, whereas on many conferences in my research field the computational methods only play a minor role during the talks. However, due to 8 parallel lectures in every slot, the ICCC offered talks on experimental as well as computational studies. During the poster session I presented the results of my research on (de)hydrogenation reactions with methandiide-based carbene complexes. There I had some interesting discussions which enabled new perspectives for my project due to scientists from slightly different research fields. The participation in the ICCC 2022 gave me the great opportunity to broaden my scientific network, reflect my current research and to collect ideas for my new research project.