Research Overview

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The Swarts Research Group, has and continues to contribute tangibly to the development of catalysts which contribute to achieving the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals. Specifically, the Swarts Research Group seeks to develop catalyst systems exploiting the principles of inorganic chemistry, organic synthesis, reaction development and optimisation and mechanistic investigations. These are geared toward contributing to the UN Sustainable Development Goals:

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• UN SDG #7:      Affordable & Clean Energy

• UN SDG #9:     Industry, Innovation & Infrastructure

• UN SDG #12:   Responsible Consumption & Production

• UN SDG #13:   Climate Action

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Key goals include:

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• Rational design of a novel ligands with tuneable electronic and steric properties, synthetic flexibility and variable metal chelation (UN SDG #9)

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• Development of catalyst system capable of efficient redox reactions: carbon dioxide (transfer) hydrogenation, hydro-amination/aminomethylation, olefin oxidation, alcohol and water oxidation. (UN SDG #9, #13)

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• Key features of our catalysts are the use of earth-abundant metals which are cheap, performing the reactions at low/ambient temperatures and pressures, accessing high-value chemicals and commodities and providing alternative energy-generation approaches (UN SDG #7, #9, #12 and #13)