Chris Slootweg, the project coordinator of SusPhos, received a VIDI Grant for his research on chemical transformations with main-group elements. The VIDI grant is for scientist who belong to the top ten-to-twenty percent within their discipline. 

Slootweg receives the grant for his research on chemical transformations with main-group elements. The synthesis of most chemical products from raw materials typically involves transition-metal mediated steps. However, these catalysts are often expensive, difficult to prepare, and are left as undesirable toxic traces in products, such as pharmaceuticals. Chemical transformations by benign main-group compounds are therefore of considerable interest.

This project targets easily accessible Lewis acid/base combinations (so-called frustrated Lewis pairs, FLPs) as new main-group catalysts to efficiently activate and functionalize small molecules, like H2, CH4, NH3 and CO2. These molecules are ubiquitous reservoirs of chemical energy and are appealing synthons for constructing more complex molecules.

By means of this project, they wish to contribute to the replacement of the currently applied transition metals by abundantly available main-group elements with green industrial processes as objective, thereby advancing the sustainable development of our society.