Light mediated carbonylation reactions using CO 'surrogates'

Carbon monoxide 'surrogate' molecules can be used in carbonylation reactions to mitigate the risk of using toxic and flammable CO.

Such CO releasing molecules can also be used to conveniently control CO stoichiometry for small scale reactions and where the infrastructure for handling CO is not available.

This project seeks to develop novel complexes that are capable of trapping and then releasing CO when activated by UV light.

To date, most CO surrogate molecules are triggered to release CO via thermal energy, however, the growing range of photocatalytic reactions mean that light activated releasing CO processes will become more important.

This project aims to combine flow chemistry for light mediated carbonylation reactions and apply the system to generating carbonyl containing molecules (aldehydes, amides, esters, lactams etc.) that are relevant to the pharma and agrochemical sectors.