Welcome to the website of the Barta Group!
Research Interests
Research in the Barta group is centered around sustainability and Green Chemistry with a special focus on the conversion of renewable resources and catalysis using earth-abundant metals. Two main research lines are being pursued:
1.) Synthesis and characterization of novel heterogeneous catalysis for the cleavage of crude lignocellulose resources, including lignocellulose pre-treatment and characterization
2.) New homogeneous catalytic methods for the atom-economic functionalization of the obtained building blocks.
A variety of research lines include reductive and hydrogen-neutral depolymerisation and defunctionalization of lignin to aromatic monomers. Similarly, reductive approaches using copper catalysts are used for the conversion of cellulose and derived platform chemicals to a variety of end products. Here, the central aim is to find new concepts that allow to deal with complexity and changed material inputs and to identify causes of and minimize side reactions which lead to decreased product yields. In addition, we are involved in developing new methods for iron-catalysed coupling of alcohols and amines as well as hydrogenation of carbonyl compounds including esters also in an asymmetric fashion.
The Group
News
You can access the article, written by Prof. Katalin Barta Weissert, here: Project Repository Journal, Volume 5, April 2020, Pages 74-75
or
Cleave and couple: Sustainable Routes to Bio-based Amines – CatASus Project Dissemination
The past few months were incredibly busy, beside everything else, we moved! A fantastic and ongoing team effort to build up our new labs at the Institute of Chemistry, University of Graz. Stay tuned for more exciting research from this new location!
Baltrusaitis, Barta, and Wang: 2020 Winners of the ACS Sustainable Chemistry & Engineering Lectureship Awards
David T. Allen
ACS Sustainable Chem. Eng. 2019, 7, 22, 18197-18197
Turning lignin into bioactive molecules in three green steps
The awarded project ‘PURE’ aims to explore cleaner and more sustainable catalytic pathways for the conversion of renewable resources to valuable building blocks that are of interest for industrial partners.
Congratulations to all past and present group members who have made great contributions!
Thanks @ChemSusChem for organizing this nice event - and afternoon full of lignin chemistry:) https://t.co/xdn2N7XANH
@GaMakVa @ethnoprimate @CarolynBertozzi @NatureComms Postdocs who have their own ideas, dedication, creativity and love for science (aka @GaMakVa) are a pleasure to mentor! 👍