The Disputation will be live streamed for everyone else.
The livestream will be activated 15 minutes before the Defense starts.
Trial lecture
May 30th, 10:15 AM, Auditorium 3, Chemistry building
Trial lecture title: Converging Homogeneous Organometallic Catalysis and Heterogenous Catalysis
Kreeringssammendrag/Conferral summary
Avhandlingen undersøkte, ved hjelp av beregningsbaserte metoder, reaktiviteten til tre edle overgangsmetallkomplekser i homogene reaksjoner med fokus på katalytiske C-H aktiveringsreaksjoner. Målet var å forstå de underliggende mekanismene for å forbedre eksisterende katalysatorsystemer og bidra til utviklingen av nye.
Main research findings
Transition metal complexes are essential for many industrial processes where they serve as catalysts for the production of both bulk and fine chemicals. The latter is dominated by homogeneous catalysis, where all reactants and the catalyst are present in the same phase, usually a liquid. Due to their molecular structure and isolated reaction sites, homogeneous catalysts can be studied with more ease than their heterogeneous analogs, often allowing for better insights into the underlying mechanism of the reaction. However, many transformations are still elusive and, consequently, efforts to gain a better understanding of these processes are ongoing.
This thesis investigates three transition metal complexes and their reactivity toward small molecules, such as methane and ethylene. Using computational methods, mechanisms of two different C-H bond activation reactions, one gold-catalyzed and one iridium-catalyzed, and a rhodium-mediated hydrogenation reaction were proposed. Closer investigations into the electronic structure and spectroscopic characteristics of the systems as well as studies of the underlying microkinectics connected the computational work well to experiments and elucidated the origins of unexpected results. Overall, these studies contributed to a better understanding of transition metal complexes in homogeneous catalysis and addressed the challenges that are met when combining experiments with computational approaches.
Candidate contact information
LinkedIn: http://linkedin.com/in/inga-schmidtke-7bb4a6152
E-post: inga.l.schmidtke@uit.no
Phone: +47 91858791
Adjudication committee
Professor Fahmi Himo
Stockholm University, Sweden
Professor Maria Besora Bonet
University Rovira I Virgili, Spain
Associate Professor Jonathan Polfus
Department of Chemistry, University of Oslo, Norway
Supervisors
Researcher Ainara Nova Flores
Department of Chemistry, University of Oslo, Norway
Senior Researcher David Balcells Badia
Department of Chemistry, University of Oslo, Norway
Professor Mats Tilset
Department of Chemistry, University of Oslo, Norway
Chair of defence
Professor Truls Norby
Department of Chemistry, University of Oslo, Norway