Kosei Sugahara, Department of Applied Chemistry, won the Best Poster Presentation Award in the 4th Asia-Oceania Conference on Green and Sustainable Chemistry (AOC-4)

Kosei Sugahara (Department of Applied Chemistry) won the Best Poster Presentation Award in the 4th Asia-Oceania Conference on Green and Sustainable Chemistry (AOC-4).

<About awarded research>

Polyoxometalates are metal-oxygen cluster anions and have been developed as catalysts for acid-catalyzed and oxidation reactions because of their extensively alterable molecular properties.  On the other hand, the base catalysis by polyoxometalates has scarcely been reported.  In this study, basic lacunary polyoxometalates are designed by controlling their protonation states.  A diprotonated germanotungstate could act as an efficient homogeneous catalyst for Knoevenagel condensation of a wide range of substrates including unreactive phenylacetonitrile while a tetraprotonated germanotungstate was inactive.  In addition, this compound also efficiently catalyzed cyanosilylation of carbonyl compounds with trimethylsilyl cyanide.  This study provides the first example of efficient polyoxometalate base catalyst.

<Comments>

It was a great honor for me to receive this award.  I'm really grateful to Prof. Dr. Noritaka Mizuno and Dr. Keigo Kamata for their valuable comments and suggestions throughout this study.  I'll continue to do my best in my research.  I'd also like to thank the Japan Association for Chemical Innovation (JACI) for the kind financial support.