Paul Kossmann was recognized for his poster entitled "About the Dehydrogenation of Diformamides to Diisocyanates - A Greener Pathway for the Production of Polyurethanes" during the "C1 Building Blocks for Future Chemistry" conference held in Dresden, Germany, Oct. 11-13-23. He is conducting his research in molecular catalysis as a doctoral student at the Max Planck Institute for Chemical Energy Conversion under the guidance of PD Dr. Andreas Vorholt.

"I would like to thank you very much for the award for my poster at the conference. It was a great experience and I am very happy about the recognition. As a PhD student at the Max Planck Institute for Chemical Energy Conversion, I am proud that my work was positively received," explains Paul Kossmann.

His poster illustrates the patented synthesis of isocyanates, which are essential building blocks for the production of polyurethanes, from renewable raw materials by the catalytic dehydrogenation of formamides. Paul Kossmann's work closes the gap by using homogeneous ruthenium-pincer catalyst systems to enable the direct conversion of formamides to isocyanates. This groundbreaking approach not only eliminates the need for toxic reagents, but also provides a sustainable alternative to conventional isocyanate synthesis.

About the conference

The "C1 Building Blocks for Future Chemistry" conference in Dresden, jointly organized by the DGMK Petrochemistry Division, the Industrial Chemistry Division of the Società Chimica Italiana and the ÖGEW Austrian Society for Energy Sciences, served as a significant platform for bringing together experts from industry and academia. This conference is characterized by a strong participation of industry (one third of the delegates), thus creating an ideal environment for networking.

P. P. Kossmann, A. J. Vorholt, T. Faßbach, W. Leitner, PCT/EP2021/067662, 2021