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Design, Synthesis and Applications of Novel Transition Metal Catalysts
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Design, Synthesis and Applications of Novel Transition Metal Catalysts

A special issue of Molecules (ISSN 1420-3049). This special issue belongs to the section "Applied Chemistry".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 31 July 2025 | Viewed by 4497

Special Issue Editors

Dr. Hui Jiang

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
College of Chemistry, Zhengzhou University, Zhengzhou 450001, China
Interests: transition metal catalysts; olefin polymerization; co-polymerization; upgrading and utilization; waste polymer materials
Prof. Dr. Junfang Gong

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
College of Chemistry, Zhengzhou University, Zhengzhou 450001, China
Interests: pincer catalyst; transition metal; asymmetric catalysis; methodology; organic synthesis

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

This Special Issue, entitled “Design, Synthesis and Applications of Novel Transition Metal Catalysts”, aims to publish research focusing on all aspects of transition metal catalysts. The design, synthesis, and applications of novel transition metal catalysts are key areas of interest in the field of chemistry, particularly in organic synthesis, materials science, and catalysis. The field continues to evolve with the discovery of novel materials and mechanisms, leading to more efficient and selective catalysts for various applications. Research in this area not only focuses on enhancing existing processes, but also on developing novel catalytic systems that can address current challenges in sustainability and energy efficiency. Herein, we encourage the submission of manuscripts that provide novel and mechanistic insights and papers that focus on significant advances in this field. The scope of this Special Issue includes, but is not limited to, the following:

  • New synthetic methodologies for the development of novel transition metal catalysts;
  • Computational modeling in predicting the reactivity and selectivity of potential transition metal catalysts;
  • Transition metal catalysts applied in a wide range of chemical transformations, including organic synthesis, photocatalysis, electrocatalysis, hydrogenation, polymerization, energy storage and conversion, and environmental applications;
  • The application of homogeneous and heterogeneous transition metal catalysts in fine chemistry;
  • The design of transition metal catalysts that enable sustainable chemical syntheses, including the use of renewable feedstocks and the development of recyclable polymers.

Dr. Hui Jiang
Prof. Dr. Junfang Gong
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Molecules is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2700 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • pincer catalysts
  • transition metal catalysts
  • organic synthetic methodologies
  • photocatalysis
  • electrocatalysis
  • polymerization
  • fine chemistry

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Published Papers (5 papers)

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Research

11 pages, 5888 KiB  
Article
Iridium-Catalyzed Hydrocarboxylation of Olefins with CO2 and H2
by Yang Li, Ying Wang, Longbo Zhang, Yanru Zhang, Jia Guo, Yanyan Wang, Chenglong Yu, Jun He, Zhenpeng Wang, Juanjuan Han, Qian Li, Tianbin Wu, Qingli Qian and Buxing Han
Molecules 2025, 30(7), 1599; https://doi.org/10.3390/molecules30071599 - 3 Apr 2025
Viewed by 349
Abstract
CO2 is a greenhouse gas and a nontoxic, easily available and renewable C1 feedstock. H2 is a clean and cheap reductant that can be obtained from renewable energy. Olefins are platform chemicals that can be produced from a variety of [...] Read more.
CO2 is a greenhouse gas and a nontoxic, easily available and renewable C1 feedstock. H2 is a clean and cheap reductant that can be obtained from renewable energy. Olefins are platform chemicals that can be produced from a variety of raw materials such as petroleum, coal and renewable biomass. The production of carboxylic acids by combining olefins, CO2 and H2 is a sustainable and very promising protocol. However, only a few advances in this topic have been achieved because novel catalysts need to be developed. In this work, we demonstrate that a simple iridium-based catalyst could efficiently promote the synthesis of C2+ carboxylic acids via the reaction of olefins with CO2 and H2. The reaction was effectively accelerated by a simple iridium-based catalytic system at 170 °C, which may be applied to various olefin substrates. The catalytic mechanism was studied through a series of control experiments. The findings contribute to advancing the sustainable production of valuable products by the reaction of renewable CO2 and green H2 with platform chemicals. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Design, Synthesis and Applications of Novel Transition Metal Catalysts)
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14 pages, 1542 KiB  
Article
Synthesis, Characterization, and Comparative Study on Norbornene Polymerization of CNN and PCN Pincer Palladium Complexes
by Huizhu Wang, Jin-Kui Liu, Yi-Dong Wang, Xin-Qi Hao, Mao-Ping Song, Jun-Fang Gong and Hui Jiang
Molecules 2025, 30(7), 1530; https://doi.org/10.3390/molecules30071530 - 30 Mar 2025
Viewed by 340
Abstract
Several CNN pincer Pd(II) complexes including chiral complexes 1a–e with 2-phenyl-6-(oxazolinyl)pyridines and achiral ones 2a–c with N-substituted-2-aminomethyl-6-phenylpyridines were prepared. In addition, the preparation of the achiral PCN pincer Pd(II) complexes 3a–e with aryl-based phosphinite–imine ligands and [...] Read more.
Several CNN pincer Pd(II) complexes including chiral complexes 1a–e with 2-phenyl-6-(oxazolinyl)pyridines and achiral ones 2a–c with N-substituted-2-aminomethyl-6-phenylpyridines were prepared. In addition, the preparation of the achiral PCN pincer Pd(II) complexes 3a–e with aryl-based phosphinite–imine ligands and chiral 4a–c with aryl-based phosphinite–imidazoline ligands was also performed. Among them, the PCN Pd(II) pincers 3a–e were new complexes and were readily synthesized from commercially available materials in only two steps. The new complexes were characterized through elemental analyses, namely 1H NMR, 13C{1H} NMR, and 31P{1H} NMR spectroscopies. Furthermore, the molecular structure of complex 3a was determined via X-ray single-crystal diffraction analysis. In the presence of EtAlCl2, Et2AlCl, or methylaluminoxane (MAO), the CNN pincer Pd(II) complexes and PCN pincer Pd(II) complexes exhibited excellent activities and monomer conversion rates in norbornene addition polymerization. Surprisingly, the CNN pincer Pd(II) complexes exhibited a higher conversion rate (99.5%) with Et2AlCl as the cocatalyst, while the PCN pincer Pd(II) complexes showed a higher conversion rate (98.8%) with MAO. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Design, Synthesis and Applications of Novel Transition Metal Catalysts)
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16 pages, 4726 KiB  
Article
Refining Surface Copper Species on Cu/SiO2 Catalysts to Boost Furfural Hydrogenation to Furfuryl Alcohol
by Jieqiong Wang, Jingyi Yang, Zezheng Bing, Yuanyuan Gao, Tao Yang, Qiaoyun Liu, Meng Zhang and Zhongyi Liu
Molecules 2025, 30(2), 225; https://doi.org/10.3390/molecules30020225 - 8 Jan 2025
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1267
Abstract
Controllable hydrogenation of carbonyl groups (C=O) is crucial for converting furfural into high-value furfuryl alcohol. Instead of traditional impregnation method, a novel Cu-based catalyst (Cu/SiO2) is prepared using the ammonia evaporation method (AE) for the efficient hydrogenation of furfural to furfuryl [...] Read more.
Controllable hydrogenation of carbonyl groups (C=O) is crucial for converting furfural into high-value furfuryl alcohol. Instead of traditional impregnation method, a novel Cu-based catalyst (Cu/SiO2) is prepared using the ammonia evaporation method (AE) for the efficient hydrogenation of furfural to furfuryl alcohol under mild conditions. At the reaction conditions of 90 °C and 1 MPa H2, the 5Cu/SiO2-AE sample showed optimal performance with higher turnover frequency (36.0 h−1) and furfuryl alcohol selectivity (>99.9%). After five cycles, the catalyst recycled still showed a high reaction activity and selectivity for furfuryl alcohol. Characterization results such as XRD, H2-TPR, FT-IR, and XPS showed that the excellent catalytic performance of 5Cu/SiO2-AE catalyst was attributed to the formation of layered copper silicate and the high dispersion of Cu species. Furthermore, the formation of layered copper silicate resulted in a higher ratio of Cu+/(Cu0+Cu+) at a reduction temperature of 250 °C, which was also responsible for the optimum activity. This work showed the importance of controllable synthesis of layered copper silicate in improving the catalytic performance of copper-containing catalyst. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Design, Synthesis and Applications of Novel Transition Metal Catalysts)
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11 pages, 2295 KiB  
Article
Co Cluster-Modified Ni Nanoparticles with Superior Light-Driven Thermocatalytic CO2 Reduction by CH4
by Mei Li, Yuhua Zhang, Na Sun, Dan Cheng, Peng Sun and Qian Zhang
Molecules 2024, 29(22), 5338; https://doi.org/10.3390/molecules29225338 - 13 Nov 2024
Viewed by 806
Abstract
Excessive fossil burning causes energy shortages and contributes to the environmental crisis. Light-driven thermocatalytic CO2 reduction by methane (CRM) provides an effective strategy to conquer these two global challenges. Ni-based catalysts have been developed as candidates for CRM that are comparable to [...] Read more.
Excessive fossil burning causes energy shortages and contributes to the environmental crisis. Light-driven thermocatalytic CO2 reduction by methane (CRM) provides an effective strategy to conquer these two global challenges. Ni-based catalysts have been developed as candidates for CRM that are comparable to the noble metal catalysts. However, they are prone to deactivation due to the thermodynamically inevitable coking side reactions. Herein, we reported a novel Co-Ni/SiO2 nanocomposite of Co cluster-modified Ni nanoparticles, which greatly enhance the catalytic durability for light-driven thermocatalytic CRM. It exhibits high production rates of H2 (rH2) and CO (rCO, 22.8 and 26.7 mmol min−1 g−1, respectively), and very high light-to-fuel efficiency (ƞ) is achieved (26.8%). Co-Ni/SiO2 shows better catalytic durability than the referenced catalyst of Ni/SiO2. Based on the experimental results of TG-MS, TEM, and HRTEM, we revealed the origin of the significantly enhanced light-driven thermocatalytic activity and durability as well as the novel photoactivation. It was discovered that the focused irradiation markedly reduces the apparent activation energy of CO2 on the Co-Ni/SiO2 nanocomposite, thus significantly enhancing the light-driven thermocatalytic activity. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Design, Synthesis and Applications of Novel Transition Metal Catalysts)
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13 pages, 2772 KiB  
Article
Low-Cost Ni-W Catalysts Supported on Glucose/Carbon Nanotube Hybrid Carbons for Sustainable Ethylene Glycol Synthesis
by Rafael G. Morais, Lucília S. Ribeiro, José J. M. Órfão and Manuel Fernando R. Pereira
Molecules 2024, 29(16), 3962; https://doi.org/10.3390/molecules29163962 - 22 Aug 2024
Cited by 3 | Viewed by 1159
Abstract
The production of ethylene glycol (EG) from cellulose has garnered significant attention in recent years as an attractive alternative to fossil fuels due to the potential of cellulose as a renewable and sustainable feedstock. In this work, to the best of our knowledge, [...] Read more.
The production of ethylene glycol (EG) from cellulose has garnered significant attention in recent years as an attractive alternative to fossil fuels due to the potential of cellulose as a renewable and sustainable feedstock. In this work, to the best of our knowledge, a series of low-cost Ni-W bimetallic catalysts supported on glucose/carbon nanotube hybrid carbons were synthesised for the first time and employed to transform cellulose into EG. Two different strategies were combined for the preparation of the carbons: the activation and addition of carbon nanotubes (CNTs) to obtain a hybrid material (AG-CNT). The catalytic conversion process proceeded through cellulose hydrolysis to glucose, followed by glucose retro-aldol condensation to glycolaldehyde and its subsequent hydrogenation to EG. Through the optimisation of the catalyst’s properties, particularly the metals’ content, a good synergistic effect of C-C bond cleavage and hydrogenation capabilities was assured, resulting in the highly selective production of EG. The balance between Ni and W active sites was confirmed to be a crucial parameter. Thus, total cellulose conversion (100%) was achieved with EG yields of 60–62%, which are amongst the best yields ever reported for the catalytic conversion of cellulose into EG via carbon-supported catalysts. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Design, Synthesis and Applications of Novel Transition Metal Catalysts)
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