Design and Applications of Metal-Catalyzed Reactions for Sustainable Chemistry

David Milstein is Israel Matz Professor of Organic Chemistry at the Weizmann Institute of Science, Israel. During postdoctoral research at Colorado State University, together with his advisor John Stille, he discovered the Stille Reaction. In 1979, he joined the DuPont Company, where he became a group leader in the homogeneous catalysis area. 

The design of “green” synthetic methodology and new approaches to sustainable energy are major goals of modern catalysis. Traditionally, catalysis by metal complexes has been based on the reactivity of the metal center, while the ligands bound to it influence its reactivity electronically and sterically, but do not interact directly with incoming substrate molecules. In recent years, complexes based on “cooperating” ligands were developed, in which both the metal and a ligand can undergo bond making and breaking in key steps of the catalytic cycle, thus providing new opportunities for catalytic design.

Milstein's team has developed a new mode of metal-ligand cooperation, involving ligand aromatization—dearomatization—that provides a new approach to the activation of chemical bonds. This has led to new, environmentally benign catalytic reactions, including several synthetically useful reactions that either produce hydrogen (“acceptorless dehydrogenation”) or consume it. These reactions are efficient, proceed under neutral conditions and produce no waste.Dean’s Distinguished Lectur