Iron’s Star Rising

PRECIOUS METALS currently are the basis of catalysts that are well understood by chemists and widely used in labs, industrial processes, and automobile catalytic converters. But the metals—such as platinum, palladium, and rhodium—are rare and expensive, and they can be toxic and difficult to recycle. Catalysts enable some 90% of chemical processes, and chemists are always on the lookout for new ones. As they consider how to foster a more sustainable future, they are seeking alternatives that not only are greener and less expensive than current catalysts but also as effective or better. Matthias Beller and coworkers Stephan Enthaler and Kathrin Junge at the Leibniz Institute for Catalysis at the University of Rostock, in Germany, make up one team of chemists that has been giving serious thought to possible alternatives. They have investigated the first-row transition metals iron, copper, zinc, and manganese as potential homogeneous catalysts that can contribute to a more sustainable chemical enterprise. ...