Earth Abundant Catalysis

For its inherent sustainability, low toxicity, and favourable environmental effects compared to heavy metal catalysis, earth-abundant metal catalysis is hailed. The variety of changes that earth-abundant metals, beyond those of their equivalents in precious metals, may undergo is something that is sometimes underestimated. Recently, there has been a resurgence in interest in using earth-available and maybe more sustainable materials for catalysis. Although many earth-abundant elements, such as Mn and Fe, were investigated in the early years of organometallic chemistry, precious metals, such as Ru, Rh, Ir, Pd, and Pt, have historically predominated these techniques in organic chemistry—at least in part because of their predictable and robust 2-electron reactivity patterns. Instead, several main-group and first-row transition metals exhibit behaviour that is ostensibly more complex, showing a penchant for 1-electron chemistry, quick ligand exchange, simple spin crossover, or intricate solution-phase speciation.