Transitionmetal Catalysts for the Use of Less-Utilized Carbon Resources

In the last century, chemical industry made progress utilizing fossil resources for the synthesis of carbon-based chemicals now widely used in our daily life. Historically, coal and then oil played the major role as resources and in the recent years, natural gas has expanded its use as a cleaner hydrocarbon resource. As an alternative carbon source, renewable resources came to attract more and more attention. As a bio-based resource, lignin is a fascinating material since currently its use is limited fuel for heat. Plastic waste also consists of carbon materials.

Since such resources are complicated polymeric materials, degradation of the polymeric structure is indispensable for effective utilization of them. In lecture, catalyst development for covalent bond cleavage will be discussed in relation to its potential application for polymer degradation. Here in this presentation, our homogeneous catalysts development toward utilization of CO2,1,2 lignin,3 and plastic wastes4-6 will be addressed.

Speaker: Kyoko Nozaki, University of Tokyo