Grants awarded within the Czech-Norwegian Research Programme and managed by The Ministry of Education, Youths and Sports of the Czech Republic provide funding to support research-based development in various program areas in the Czech Republic through cooperation with partners from Norway. This particular grant entitled “Phosphine Ligands for Environmentally Friendly C-C Bond Forming Reactions” (ENVIPHOS, project code 7F14392) project aims at the development of new and efficient catalysts for practically important reactions and, as such, falls within the Environmental protection and Management program area.
The motivation behind this grant project reflects the great attention which is currently being paid to the development of efficient metal catalyzed processes because the current synthesis in research laboratories as well as in industry often relies on these synthetic transformations. The main research goals in this are can be envisaged in the design of new reactions, in increasing the efficiency of the known, practically utilized processes and, particularly, in reduction of their environmental impact. The objective of this project is to develop, synthesize and test new polar phosphine ligands suitable for use as catalyst in palladium-mediated C–C bond forming reactions that can be performed in water or aqueous reaction media. This approach should minimize the waste production through an increased overall efficiency, lower energy consumption and, mainly, avoidance of toxic and hazardous solvents.
The project builds upon synergy between theoretical approach toward investigating chemical reactions and predicting the relevant properties of reaction intermediates and products, and the classical synthetic approach, which are guaranteed by the participating laboratories from the University of Bergen and Charles University in Prague. It is conceived as an introductory study with background in the successful past work of both research teams. Hence, it can open new research directions and thereby provide a basis for future cooperation of the teams involved in solving the grant project.