ד"ר אייל צור

In the last decades olefin metathesis become one of the most commonly used reactions for the carbon-carbon bond formation. The importance of this reaction was expressed in the 2005 Nobel Prize in Chemistry awarded to the major contributors to this field. The applications of this reaction are many and varied: from the creation of diverse polymers, through uses in the pharmaceutical, cosmetic, agricultural and other industries. The increase popularity of this reaction arise from the dramatic development of the reaction catalysts. The ability to design the catalyst structure has led to the creation of more reactive, durable, and more selective catalysts

Our research focuses on the design, synthesis, characterization and investigation of novel catalysts with unique features. We are particularly interested in latent catalysts which activation and deactivation can be control, mainly by physical means such as heating or irradiation. Our goal is to design a catalyst that will be in one hand, completely latent in ambient conditions, to a variety of metathesis reactions, and on the other hand, after activating (by UV radiation, for example) will be extremely active. We are also interested in unique applications of olefins metathesis reaction and in the factors influencing the effectiveness of the reaction

Our research combines organic and organometallics chemistry, using modern methods and advanced devices such as GC-MS, NMR, HR-MS