Transition metal catalysts, which play a central role in modern organic synthesis, face sustainability challenges due to limited reserves, high costs, and concerns over metal contamination. Earth-abundant main group elements have attracted attention as potential alternatives, but unlike transition metals, they have limited access to multiple oxidation states. In particular, the severe instability of highly oxidized species generated during two-electron oxidation has left multielectron catalysis based on main group elements largely unexplored.
 

To overcome these limitations, Professor Seung Youn Hong aims to develop multi-redox-state main group catalyst systems that harness through-space aromaticity. By enabling main group systems to exhibit the two-electron and multielectron redox catalytic reactivity characteristic of transition metals, his research seeks to establish a sustainable molecular catalysis platform.
 

The project is based on an original concept: using through-space interactions between orbitals, rather than interactions mediated by adjacent chemical bonds, to endow main group elements with transition-metal-like access to multiple oxidation states. By deriving catalytic reactivity from a new electronic structure that does not rely on chemical bonding, the research is expected to establish a conceptually new paradigm in organic catalysis.