​​​Schoenebeck Research Group

Detailed mechanistic understanding is key to designing better catalysts. In catalysis, it is frequently challenging to obtain such mechanistic insights however, as cycles tend to be complex and key intermediates might not be experimentally detectable. Our group therefore makes use of a combined computational and experimental approach to answer mechanistic questions and design reactivities. Using this approach, the group has explored and discovered a number of reactivity phenomena in palladium, nickel and copper catalysis, relating to solvent, ligand, additive effects, and elucidation of the active catalytic species. The latest contributions were in the area of dinuclear palladium catalysis with oxidation state (I).