哈尔滨工业大学（深圳）学术讲座

演讲人Speaker：Dr Amit Kumar

题目Title: Homogeneous (De)hydrogenative Catalysis for a Circular Economy

时间Date：2025 年 12 月 12 日       Time：10:00 – 11:00

地点Venue：T6401

内容摘要Abstract： 

The development of sustainable methods for the closed-loop production and recycling of plastics is an important challenge of current times. Reactions based on catalytic (de)hydrogenation are atom-economic, and sustainable routes for organic transformations. This lecture will discuss the application of homogeneous (de)hydrogenative catalysis for the synthesis of several renewable polymers, in particular, polyureas, poly(ureaurethane), polyethylenimines, polyketones, and polyesterethers from the ruthenium/manganese catalysed dehydrogenative coupling of diamines and alcohols. Additionally, the hydrogenation of CO2 to CO as well as the hydrogenative depolymerisation of polyureas, polyurethanes, nitrile butadiene rubber, and polyesters for the upcycling of plastic waste will also be discussed.

References:
1. Chem. Rev., 2022, 1, 385.  2. J. Am. Chem. Soc., 2020, 142,14267. 3. Chem. Commun., 2021, 57, 6153. 4. ACS Catal, 2022, 12, 6923. 5. Eur. J. Org. Chem, 2021, 32, 4546. 6. Angew. Chem. Int. Ed., 2023, 62, e2023066. 7. Nat. Commun., 2024, 15, 6253. 8. Cat. Sci. Technol. 2023, 13, 3551-3557. 9. ACS Catal., 2024, 14, 10624–10634. 10. https://chemrxiv.org/engage/chemrxiv/article-details/6823b289927d1c2e669d3033. 11. https://chemrxiv.org/engage/chemrxiv/article-details/68cc52f023be8e43d6fd1fcf

 个人简介(About the speaker): 

Amit Kumar is an Associate Professor and UKRI Future Leaders Fellow in the School of Chemistry at the University of St Andrews, UK. He earned his Integrated M.Sc. in Chemistry (2007–2012) from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Roorkee, where he received multiple competitive research fellowships and honours, including awards from the Indian Academy of Science, DAAD (Germany), IIT-ParisTech, and the Government of India’s KVPY and INSPIRE programmes, along with the Institute Silver Medal for academic excellence. 

He was subsequently awarded a Rhodes Scholarship to pursue his DPhil (2012–2016) at the University of Oxford under the supervision of Prof. Andrew Weller. Following his doctoral studies, Amit conducted postdoctoral research with Prof. David Milstein at the Weizmann Institute of Science, Israel (2016–2019), supported by prestigious national fellowships.

 Amit joined the University of St Andrews in 2020, where he leads a research group focused on organometallic catalysis to address key challenges in the circular economy, including the synthesis of renewable polymers, plastic recycling, CO₂ capture and utilisation, and polymeric binders for batteries. His contributions to the field were recently recognised with the Royal Society of Chemistry’s 2025 Harrison–Meldola Early Career Prize in Chemistry.