Nontraditional Ligands in Coordination Chemistry: A Review of Small Molecules Activation and Catalysis

Unofficial AI-generated summary based on the public title and abstract. Not an official translation.

🔬研究者:Coordination chemists and catalysis researchers can use this review to identify promising ligand designs and mechanistic insights for sustainable catalysis.

🏢実務担当者:Chemical industry R&D teams may find new directions for developing more efficient catalysts for CCU and hydrogen storage processes.

🏛政策担当者:Policymakers supporting clean energy innovation can note the potential of nontraditional ligands in enabling next-generation sustainable chemical processes.

Coordination chemistry has, over the past several years, been completely changed by the advent of non-traditional ligand systems that have altered the accepted donor-acceptor paradigm. Recent years have been characterized by a revolutionary shift in the field of non-traditional ligands, such as carbenes, nitrenes, borylenes, and ambiphilic species with novel electronic and steric properties, challenging traditional paradigms in coordination chemistry. Traditional ligands well proven in the field of coordination chemistry include amines, phosphines, and carboxylates. This review critically evaluates recent advances in ligand design, mechanistic understanding, and computational–spectroscopic validation of cooperative reactivity. We identify key research gaps in scalability, base-metal translation, and mechanistic quantification. Importantly, we highlight emerging industrial prospects in carbon capture and utilization (CCU), hydrogen storage, and methane valorization. The review establishes non-traditional ligands as enabling platforms for sustainable catalysis, energy conversion, and fine chemical synthesis.

• semanticscholar https://doi.org/10.65997/zxjh9062first seen 2026-07-25 05:30:55