Thought Leaders in Catalytic Research

Catalysis is a cornerstone of Green Chemistry. Reducing the energy demand of chemical processes is essential to minimize the environmental footprint of the chemical industry. Selective catalysts also reduce the amount of undesired byproducts thereby maximizing feedstock utilization and minimizing waste generation.

Catalysis research is very diverse. Traditional sub-disciplines such as homogeneous and heterogeneous catalysis are complemented with theory, process development, organic chemistry, and many more. New catalysts comprising (transition)metal-, organo-, bio-, photo- and electro-catalysts are constantly added to the toolbox.

The increasingly dynamic nature of Catalysis research and innovation is generating a huge global output of papers and other scientific literature. This makes it progressively more difficult to identify key barriers to advancement, major unrealized opportunities, and challenges the community is not addressing. Mapping this complex landscape to identify these opportunities and challenges is a daunting but vitally important task, as it can identify dead-end directions as well as fundamental challenges with game-changing potential.

This type of strategic “Prospective” forum is missing in the Catalysis literature, the overwhelming focus being on the “now” (research articles) and “retrospective” review articles. To address this gap, Frontiers in Catalysis has assembled a group of globally acknowledged leaders in Catalysis with decades of experience and contributions that have been of the highest quality throughout their careers. We will also include several young, emerging leaders in Catalysis research to complement the more established contributors. We have invited these ‘thought leaders’ to speculate on key challenges and unrealized opportunities that require a fundamental advance Catalysis. In this way, we aim to build a resource of unique value to researchers that will grow and develop and encourage debate in this fascinating research area.

Keywords: Biocatalysis, Electrocatalysis, Photocatalysis, Organocatalysis, Organometallic Catalysis, Modelling Theory and Computational Catalysis, Heterogeneous Catalysis

Important note: All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.