ERC Advanced Grant

Frustrated Lewis pair chemistry is an exciting new field of very high current interest. Usually, Lewis acids and Lewis bases quench each other by strong adduct formation when brought together in solution. This is avoided or hindered by the attachment of sufficiently bulky substituents at these components. Non-quenched pairs of bulky Lewis acids and Lewis bases feature an unprecedented potential for cooperative small molecule activation and they induce an amazing manifold of new reactions and reactivities. This project will significantly advance this fascinating new field by the specific design and synthesis of novel advanced frustrated Lewis pairs (FLPs) and by using them for finding and developing new chemical reactions of fundamental chemical building blocks according to the following scheme:A. Design and Preparation of New Frustrated Lewis PairsB. New FLP Reactionsa. New Areas of Metal-free Catalytic Hydrogenationb. Opening the New Field of FLP-Based Free Radical Chemistryc. New Oxidation reactionsd. FLP-Based Carbon Dioxide Chemistrye. FLP Reactions of High Energy IntermediatesWith this project and its subdivisions we propose to tackle very timely questions in an innovative and original way by using the enormous potential that the emerging field of frustrated Lewis pairs has to offer.