Frustrated Lewis pairs reactivity across the periodic table: The 2024 Catalysis Award Lecture

Abstract

Listen

Translate article

This article presents an overview of some of our developments of the chemistry of “frustrated Lewis pairs” (FLPs). We begin with a brief outline of the foundations of this discovery and applications of FLPs in hydrogenations. Recent advances in asymmetric hydrogenations and CO2 reduction are discussed. Early studies of FLPs with alkynes and olefins are introduced and shown to lead to the more recent uncovering of phosphino-phosphination reactions, affording a route to dissymmetric bidentate phosphines, a class of understudied ligands for transition metal catalysis. The concept of FLP is further expanding into alkali metal species, with applications in the chemistry with CO or H2 as well as Fischer–Tropsch chemistry. Efforts to use FLPs to model the reduction of N2 in Haber–Bosch type chemistry are also discussed. The concept of FLPs is applied to xenon difluoride chemistry and the fluorination of electron deficient boranes and borates affording new anions that offer potential applications in catalysis. Finally, the broad scope of chemistry where FLPs are being applied is briefly highlighted, demonstrating the impact of this concept around the world and across the periodic table.