| Description:
| Aims:
This unit aims to develop students' knowledge and understanding of how catalysis can provide lower cost, less energy-consuming and more environmentally-friendly processes both on an industrial and laboratory scale.
Learning Outcomes:
Students will have an appreciation of the major industrial processes that use catalysis for sustainable processes, with particular emphasis on the synthesis of pharmaceuticals. The principles of atom economy will be understood, and a recognition of how this is important in multi-step reaction pathways.
Skills:
Students will be able to analyse reactions for their usefulness as sustainable processes and suggest improvements to synthetic routes which involve expensive or environmentally-damaging reagents or procedures.
Content:
There will be a broad content covering the fundamental concepts of catalysis and the properties of a catalyst that allow reactions to be performed under milder conditions. Transition metal catalysed reactions which have become of recent importance in the pharmaceutical industry along with emerging areas will be covered. A comparison with biological catalysts, organocatalysts and non-transition metal catalysts will be made.
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Credits: