Catalytic action, industrial development

Hydrotreating catalysts originated in the 1920s when German researchers developed unsupported metal sulfide catalysts to liquefy coal. However, it was not until the 1970s that the structures of these catalysts and the mechanisms of their catalytic action began to be understood. It was established that under catalytic reaction conditions, most of the molybdenum in industrial... 

The creation of the Institute of Catalysis was Boreskov s life work. He was the director of the Institute from the time of its foundation in 1958. He formulated the main research problems of the Institute the development of scientific bases for foreseeing catalytic action and scientific bases of catalyst preparation and mathematical modeling, combined with solutions of applied problems essential for modem industry. In a fairly short period of time the Institute has gained world-wide recognition. In 1980 it received an International Gold Mercury prize. 

Although enzymes play, in a specific reaction, a role similar to that of synthetic catalysts, leading to a substantial reduction of reaction activation energy, their catalytic action is extremely efficient and selective, well beyond the performances of synthetic catalysts. It is not surprising, therefore, that prospects of their possible applications has prompted an enormous interest both in universities and industries leading to a series of related developments, such as ... 

Nature created multienzymatic systems to accomplish extremely efficient one-pot tandem catalysis. As in an assembly line, tens of enzymes are well organised to transform simple materials to complex molecules with perfect control of selectivity hy a series of coupled reactions in the cell. It has long been chemists endeavor to extend such coordinated catalytic action to artificial processes to make synthetic chemistry more sustainable. Nowadays, owing to the resource-intensive nature of the current synthetic industry, the development of tandem one-pot reactions, avoiding the use of costly and time-consuming protection-deprotection processes as well as purification procedures of intermediates, has become especially important and valuable because society is confronted with bottle-neck problems such as energy and time shortage and environmental pollution. 

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