The group has a strong, experimental background in (in)organic synthesis, organometallic chemistry and homogeneous catalysis, mainly directed to ligand design, small molecule activation, electron and proton transfer and (asymmetric) hydrofunctionalization reactions. Students and coworkers in the group will be exposed to organic and inorganic synthesis under inert conditions using either Schlenk lines or dedicated gloveboxes. The characterization of new compounds as well as the interrogation of their (un)desired reactivity can be interrogated using a suite of spectroscopic and other analytical techniques, available in-house (multinuclear NMR, (stopped flow) UV-vis-NIR spectroscopy, IR and EPR spectroscopy, single crystal X-ray diffraction, gas chromatography, mass spectrometry, magnetochemistry, electrochemistry and spectroelectrochemistry) or, in case of more specialized techniques, through (inter)national collaborations (e.g. Mössbauer, X-ray absorption and resonance Raman spectroscopy, vibrational and magnetic circular dichroism, SQUID magnetometry). We are committed to uncovering new coordination and organometallic chemistry and interesting reactivity studies, catalysis and kinetic analysis. To further inform these experimental efforts, computational analysis of e.g. electronic structure, spin density distribution and reaction pathways can be included as well.

Since 2007, the group has built up expertise in the design, coordination chemistry and catalytic application of reactive and redox-active ligand platforms with main group, base and precious metals. Current work deals with the development of new ligand architectures for metal-ligand cooperation as well as ligand centered reactivity and redox-chemistry, the formation of multinuclear reaction centers embedded by reactive ligand structures, the storage and transfer of multiple protons/electrons, the incorporation of additional types of functionality and the application of these systems for selective bond activation, small molecule functionalization and catalytic reactivity.