05/03/2020

43ª RA: Grela busca interessados na pesquisa de metátese de olefinas

Pesquisador polonês fará conferência sobre as conquistas de seu grupo nessa área da catálise

O trabalho do professor Karol Grela (Universidade de Varsóvia) é um entre muitos exemplos de como a química contribui para a solução das grandes questões globais. Com quase sete mil citações para 187 trabalhos (Scopus), ele é um dos grandes especialistas em metátese de olefinas, uma reação que, em suas palavras, "mudou a forma como os químicos constroem estruturas moleculares avançadas, com aplicações em energia renovável, economia circular, química verde e ideias correlatas."

Karol Grela (Universidade de Varsóvia): "Quero encontrar estudantes e jovens doutores interessados em colaborar com o Grela´s Group, na síntese de complexos organometálicos"

Grela é o convidado internacional da Divisão de Química Inorgânica para a 43ª Reunião Anual da SBQ (26 a 29 de maio, em Maceió). "Além de desenvolver um excelente trabalho científico, o professor Grela está bastante engajado no desenvolvimento tecnológico", conta o professor Eduardo Nicolau dos Santos (UFMG), responsável pelo convite. "Têm origem em seu grupo o desenvolvimento de vários catalisadores comerciais para a metátese de olefinas, uma reação de grande interesse industrial na atualidade."

O pesquisador polonês contou ao Boletim SBQ que um de seus objetivos nesta primeira visita ao Brasil é fazer recrutamento. "Estou muito animado para conhecer o Brasil e os pesquisadores brasileiros. Quero encontrar estudantes e jovens doutores interessados em colaborar com o Grela´s Group", declara.

"Focamos na síntese de complexos organometálicos, tendo em mente sua imediata aplicação como catalisadores na síntese orgânica. Estamos buscando métodos de catálise eficientes e com baixa geração de resíduos."

Fã da literatura, do mergulho e da navegação, Grela conta que um de seus escritores preferidos é o britânico de origem polonesa Joseph Conrad, que descreveu em Coração das Trevas e outras obras ficcionais, viagens ao hemisfério sul. É possível que um passeio de jangada no mar verde de Alagoas seja outro de seus objetivos no Brasil.

Conheça o Grela´s Group: https://www.karolgrela.eu/

Leia a íntegra da entrevista concedida pelo professor Karol Grela ao Boletim SBQ:

In laymen´s terms, what will you speak about?
I am going to speak about Olefin Metathesis—a reaction that changed the way how chemists nowadays construct advanced molecular architectures. Especially in the field of renewable energy and resources metathesis gives a great promise and fits well with Circular Economy principles, green chemistry and related ideas, as can be used for example in fatty oil transformations in metathesis-based bio-refineries.

Could you elaborate a bit on the yin-yang vision your group shares?
I am not sure what do you mean, but if you are commenting about a yin-yang picture in my website, yes, we try to have a holistic view on our research. We are developing the tools (catalysts) but we are not so narrow to limit only to this. At the same time we are developing new applications (targets) to our tools. Like famous A. H. Maslov stated: ’If your only tool is a hammer, then every problem looks like a nail’, we do not want to limit ourselves only to hammering nails. We want to know the problems, make the specialised tools, and also look for new problems to solve.

Could you describe a recent breakthrough your group has achieved?
What we are happy of, is that we found a way how to make macrocyclic musk (valuable perfumes) at high concentration. In metathesis such musk macrocycles have been always made at high dilution, even if this makes the industrial production is not economical this way (huge demand of solvent). But from the very first paper by Villemin in 1980 till recent ones, metathesis chemists use high dilutions for this reaction. With holistically optimised catalysts and conditions we were able to make it for the first time at up to 33% wt. concentration and published this work in J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2018, 140, 8895. Now we are further optimising this reaction.

In Brazil, currently science has been attacked by visions such as creationism or flat earth ‘theories’. Does that happen in Poland? How do view polish youth attitude towards science and education?
As Poland is the homeland of the famous astronomer MikoÅ‚aj Kopernik (in latin: Nicolaus Copernicus), I think that all people in Poland know that the Earth is not flat (smile). However, I noted that many people in Europe are very easily manipulated by various “fake news”, and with surprise I learned that many of them believe that nuclear power plants produce a lot of carbon dioxide, so should be closed and replaced by power stations burning Siberian gas, which apparently does not produce CO2 according to some fake news activists websites. A lot of such nonsenses are present in the Internet and the role of scientists and teachers is to fight with them.

What do expect from your visit to Brazil? Is it the first?
It is my very first visit to Brazil, and I am thrilled to see this fantastic country. I have already some friends in Brazil, like Professor  Eduardo Nicolau dos Santos, but I wish to meet more people. My visit to Brazil has also some “head-hunting” context, as I hope to find some bright Brazilian graduated students and young doctors interested in a research or postdoctoral stay in my group.

Could you briefly tell us a bit about your bringing up, hobbies and personal life?
When I was a kid, I was reading a lot of Joseph Conrad novels about Malaya region. So, today, being an adult, I like travelling (I think that this is not surprising) and recently I discovered scuba diving. My dream is to buy a wooden boat, hire a crew composed of Malay sailors and sail around warm and shallow seas of South East Asia.

Please indicate five articles which represent your work as a whole.
My most favourite papers are these with cover art made by my great friend and talented artist, Ms. Czyżyńska-Gołos (www.fb.com/effe.fineart) and they are listed on my website (www.karolgrela.eu/pubs/).

But if you are asking to provide five of them, I think about:
Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2002, 41, 4038;
J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2006, 128, 13261;
J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2006, 128, 13652-13653;
Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2007, 46, 7206;
ACS Catalysis 2019, 9, 587.

As you see, all of them are devoted olefin metathesis, my favourite reaction.


Texto: Mario Henrique Viana (Assessoria de Imprensa da SBQ)