Home Page of Prof. Ronny Neumann The Israel and Rebecca Sieff Professor of Organic Chemistry The Weizmann Institute of Science 76100 Rehovot, Israel telephone: +972 (8) 934-3354  e-mail: ronny.neumann@weizmann.ac.il

Members of the group

Senior Research Associate:
Alex Khenkin Ph.D.	alex.khenkin@weizmann.ac.il
Graduate Students:
Adina Haimov	adina.haimov@weizmann.ac.il
Anat Milo	anat.milo@weizmann.ac.il
Delina Barats	delina.barats@weizmann.ac.il
Hila Azoulay	hila.azoulay@weizmann.ac.il
Irakliy Ebralidze	irakliy.ebralidze@weizmann.ac.il
Jessica Ettedgui	jessica.ettedgui@weizmann.ac.il
Noam Levi	noam.levi@weizmann.ac.il
Olivier Benaud	olivier.benaud@weizmann.ac.il
Sasha Laskovy	sasha.laskovy@weizmann.ac.il
Dvory Namdar	dvory.namdar@weizmann.ac.il

 

Standing (L to R): Irakliy, Hila, Delina, Sasha, Anat and Olivier.
Seated (L to R): Adina holding Maya, Alex, Ronny, Jessica and Noam.

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Research in our Group

The "push" of modern society towards environmentally sound "green chemistry" has led to concentrated activity into the development of new catalytic methods to replace effective but ecologically unacceptable stoichiometric procedures. In this context, molecular oxygen, hydrogen peroxide, ozone and nitrous oxide as oxidants and/or oxygen donors in metal-catalyzed oxidations in the liquid phase have the future potential for becoming basic chemical reactions for the derivatization of many classes of organic substrates, especially hydrocarbons. In order to realize the potential of these oxygen donors in such oxidation reactions, there is first still required a continuing intensive effort to identify new catalysts and catalyst precursors.

In general we are investigating the preparation, characterization and use of polyoxometalates and derivatives such as transition metal substituted polyoxometalates and organometallic polyoxometalates as catalysts. These are attractive compounds for oxidation catalysis due to their high stability to strongly oxidizing conditions. Second, a key point in our research efforts is to probe the possible modes of activation of the oxidant, especially in the case of molecular oxygen. Third, we also engage in mechanistic efforts to understand reaction pathways and to identify active intermediates. Finally, the synthetic scope of our new catalytic procedures are evaluated.