Exploration of New Chemical Reactivities for Sustainable Molecular Transformations

Our future global sustainability mandates fundamental innovations in sciences and technologies with regard to resources, energy, and the environment. The exploration of unconventional chemical reactivities that can directly transform readily available feedstocks (preferably renewable ones) without the need for extensive manipulation could have a positive impact on the three key interconnected pillars of sustainability: resources, energy, and the environment (waste minimization). As part of this endeavor, this review explores new fundamental reactions that can drastically shorten synthetic steps, more directly transform renewable biomass and abundant feedstocks (e.g., CO2 and methane) into high- value products, harvest solar energy by chemical means, and utilize light as energy input for chemical conversions. These new reactivities could potentially provide some food for thought for the next generation of fundamental molecular transformations with an eye on future sustainability.