Perspectives on some challenges and approaches for developing the next generation of selective, low temperature, oxidation catalysts for alkane hydroxylation based on the CH activation reaction

The development of selective, energy efficient direct alkane oxidation chemistry could lead to a new paradigm in materials and energy technologies in the 21st century that is environmentally and economically superior and allow the vast reserves of natural gas to be employed directly as feedstocks for fuels and chemicals. The use of homogeneous catalysts that activate and functionalize the CH bonds of unactivated hydrocarbons is of particular interest from a scientific as well as an economic viewpoint. This results from the strong potential for these catalysts to carry out oxidative hydrocarbon conversions with high atom and energy efficiency and under mild conditions. Despite the large body of work on the CH activation reaction that has been produced over the last three decades, to date relatively few catalyst systems that are based on this approach have been developed that allow the functionalization of hydrocarbons and there are still large gaps in our fundamental knowledge of how to rationally design such catalysts. Addressed in this paper are some of the key challenges and approaches to the de novo, rational development of the next generation of organometallic, alkane functionalization catalysts based on the CH activation reaction with emphasis on our own research. (C) 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.