Molecular Catalysts for Olefin Polymerization and Water Oxidation

The activity of our research group mainly focuses on synthesizing, investigating and testing in catalysis of two classes of compounds: i) metallocene and post-metallocene complexes for olefin polymerization and ii) robust coordination complexes for water oxidation to molecular oxygen. As far as point i) is concerned, our main aim is to rationalize the effects of ion pairing and, in general, of co-catalyst/catalysts interactions on the performances of catalysts. Investigation of the intermolecular structure of aggregates in solution is carried out taking advantages of the NMR methodologies developed during the last years. Coming to point ii), water oxidation is an essential process for constructing an artificial photosynthetic apparatus aimed at the splitting of H₂O into H₂ and O₂, whose realization would contribute to solve the energetic problem in a green and sustainable way [5]. We recently entered in such a fascinating research area by synthesizing new iridium(III) catalysts that showed remarkable catalytic activity