James Fleming

• MChem (Hon) Chemistry
• Chiral Magnetic Nanoparticles as Recoverable Asymmetric Catalysts.

Homogeneous catalysis is a key technology for transforming inexpensive starting materials into more complex products of commercial and societal value. In addition to accelerating the rate of a chemical reaction, an ideal catalyst carries out the transformation in a selective, atom-efficient manner i.e. minimising waste, and can be recovered and recycled continually. In practice the catalyst can contaminate products like pharmaceutical precursors, as their retrieval from solution is difficult. Here we propose to make novel chiral magnetically recoverable catalysts which will allow us to separate drug precursors from the catalyst by application of an external magnetic field (using a magnet).

Funding Source: Newcastle University