Designed Nanoporous Solids for the Green Production of Vitamins, Fine Chemicals and Renewable Nylons

Abstract

Designed nanoporous solids are highly effective in facilitating shape-selective and regiospecific catalytic conversions in the synthesis of fine chemicals, pharmaceutical intermediates as well as in sustainable manufacture of ε-caprolactam and in the production of adipic acid from renewable resources. When judiciously engineered single-sites are accommodated within a well-defined nanospace, catalytically active species are generated, which in turn facilitate the determination of the kinetics and mechanism of catalytic turnover and render accessible the energetics of various intermediates. The approach that we have evolved adopts the principles and practices of solid-state chemistry, augmented by lessons derived from enzymology, as well as computational chemistry. In particular, large fractions of these catalysts are ideally suited for the era of green chemistry and clean technology in which single-step and/or solvent-free processes abound, and in which benign oxidants such as air or oxygen and inexpensive nanoporous materials are employed.