Inorganic & Materials Chemistry Laboratory
- the "de Ruiter" Research Group -
Who we Are
Welcome to the website of the de Ruiter Research Group at the Technion - Israel Institute of Technology . Located on top of the Carmel Mountain the Technion not only combines a majestic view of one the most fantastic landscapes in whole Israel, but also facilitates cutting edge research at one of the premier research institutes in the country. Our group has a broad research interest in Inorganic Chemistry that can be applied to Surface Chemistry and Catalysis
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Our Research
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Homogeneous Catalysis with Base Metals
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Our group is interested in the organometallic chemistry of first-row transition metals in particular those containing redox-active ligands. These ligands supplement the redox-activity of the metal by donating additional electrons to confer "noble metal"reactivity to cheap and earth abundant metals such as Fe, Co, Mn, and Ni. The reactivity of these metal are subsequently evaluated for various organic transformations that include, hydrogenation, remote hydrofunctionalization, and cross-coupling reactions that all bear relevance to important pharmaceutical and industrial precursors.
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Organometallic and Bioinorganic Chemistry
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Over the past decades, nature has served as a great source of inspiration for developing metal complexes capable of activating strong-bonds. Our group is interested in discovering the principles behind the activation of one of the strongest bonds in nature (N2), by developing carbene-pincer complexes that can donate electron-density in to bio-relevant metal centers such as iron and manganese. These complexes will not only be used for catalytic N2-reduction, also for the reduction of other small molecules such as carbon dioxide, nitrous oxide, nitric oxide, and oxygen amongst others.
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Supramolecular Surface Chemistry
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Our group is also interested in organometallic (surface) chemistry and the design and synthesis of hybrid inorganic materials for energy conversion and catalysis. The main mode of action relies on the self-assembly of inorganic building blocks into complex architectures with interesting physicochemical properties. These materials will be used in a variety of projects that include:
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Electro-Catalysis
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Solar Energy Conversion
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Small Molecule Activation
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