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Details of Grant 

EPSRC Reference: EP/E004334/1
Title: CYCLOOLIGOMERISATION OF CO AT U(III) CENTRES AND RELATED STUDIES
Principal Investigator: Green, Professor JC
Other Investigators:
Researcher Co-Investigators:
Project Partners:
Department: Oxford Chemistry
Organisation: University of Oxford
Scheme: Standard Research
Starts: 01 October 2006 Ends: 30 September 2009 Value (£): 128,816
EPSRC Research Topic Classifications:
Chemical Structure Chemical Synthetic Methodology
EPSRC Industrial Sector Classifications:
No relevance to Underpinning Sectors
Related Grants:
EP/E004342/1
Panel History:  
Summary on Grant Application Form
Carbon monoxide is a very important industrial feedstock, and is used extensively for the large scale production of hydrocarbons and alcohols via reduction with hydrogen in the Fischer-Tropsch process. The concept of directly coupling CO molecules together directly to form larger units of (CO)n is an appealing one; however, despite the long history of the Fischer-Tropsch reaction, carbon monoxide has proven remarkably resistant to such selective homologation under mild conditions. The cyclic, aromatic, oxocarbon anions CnOn2- (n= 3-6), in principle, are accessible by such a route, which may provide new strategies for the synthesis of complex organic molecules directly from CO. This proposal builds on our very recent discovery of a uranium(III) organometallic complex which will reductively cyclise CO under very mild conditions to from the deltate dianion, C3O3 2-, held between two uranium centres. In the proposed research, we will study the mechanism of this reaction, generate a system which is catalytic, and carry out reactions on the uranium-bound deltate unit to form larger organic rings (e.g. reductic acid- an important antioxidant). We will also modify the uranium(III) complex to allow the assembly of larger units of (CO)n, and investigate the activation of other important small molecules, e.g. CO2, by this system.
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Organisation Website: http://www.ox.ac.uk