Description du sujet de thèse

Dehydrogenative couplings of formamides and alcohols for catalytic polyturethane synthesis
Polyurethanes (PUs) are polymers used in many industrial sectors to formulate adhesives, paints, elastomers, foams and fibers, to name only a few applications. Their success is grounded in their versatile synthesis by polyaddition of polyfunctional alcohols and isocyanate monomers. The growing range of precursors available enables the structures of PUs, and hence their related properties, to be varied almost as required. However, despite the robustness of this route, with the growing concerns regarding the toxicity of isocyanates and of its phosgene precursor, as well as the risks associated with storage (Bhopal disaster), the design of non-isocyanate polyurethanes (NIPUs) has increasingly raised the attention of both academic and industrial communities. Alternative reactions producing polymers with the same properties as that of conventional PUs but without using isocyanates as starting building blocks are investigated.
In this context, we propose to investigate alternative and more sustainable synthetic routes to PUs excluding the use of isocyanates following an integrative strategy ranging from the development of metallo-catalyzed dehydrogenative couplings (DC) between alcohols and formamides to their implementation for the elaboration of NIPUs
The strategy to reach this goal is to finely tune the metal electronic and steric properties by an appropriate ligand design. Therefore, one important part of the research work will be devoted to the design and synthesis of Earth abundant transition metals catalysts, and of the corresponding ligands.

Contexte de travail

The Laboratoire de Chimie de Coordination of Toulouse (LCC) was founded in 1974 with the mission of studying the electronic nature of coordination bonds, and has since expanded its areas of research to include a variety of related disciplines, notably catalysis. Today, the LCC employs over 250 people in 15 teams, working in three main areas of research: catalytic chemistry, health chemistry and materials chemistry. The project will be carried out under the direction of Dr. Stéphanie Bastin and Prof. Jean-Baptiste Sortais.

Contraintes et risques

Occupational hazards associated with a chemical research laboratory