RSC Prize-winner’s Lecture: Mechanistic Insight into Iron(salen) Catalysed Reactions

Iron catalysis offers an attractive alternative to precious metal catalysis due to its abundance and low cost, along with the additional benefits of being a non-toxic and environmentally-benign metal.
A large number of transition metal salen complexes have been reported and are capable of mediating several organic transformations. Complexes containing these ligands are highly versatile due to the ligand’s modular nature and synthesis scalability. This seminar will cover phosphaalkyne cyclotrimerization along with an unexpected salen ligand activation process and its implications in cyclotrimerization catalysis.