Water, oxygen, nitrogen, carbon dioxide, etc., are small molecules that are abundant on the planet's surface, and can constitute almost infinite sources of atoms for the chemical industry and our societies. In fact, they have been used by living organisms for billions of years in their biosynthesis and metabolisms.
However, getting the most out of them is a real scientific and technological challenge, due to their extreme stability, which explains their accumulation on earth and in the atmosphere. To activate them, we need catalysts (in living cells, these are enzymes).
The lecture focuses specifically on the chemistry of these molecules and their activation by a specific class of catalysts: heterogeneous, solid catalysts, which are probably the most promising in terms of potential applications, due to their greater stability and recyclability.
However, a particular angle is taken to make the link between this class of catalysts and homogeneous molecular catalysts (of which natural enzymes are a part), through the description of approaches to the heterogenization of molecular catalysts, for example, the use of molecular precursors for the synthesis of solids or bioinspired heterogeneous chemistry approaches.