Craig Day

Project title

Carboxylation of Native Alcohols

What is your project about?

My project aims to develop a cleaner way to make carboxylic acids, a family of chemicals used in medicines, plastics, textiles, and many everyday products. Today, these compounds are often made through wasteful routes that rely on toxic reagents, precious metals, or several synthetic steps. To improve this synthesis, I aim to combine two simple starting materials, carbon dioxide and common alcohols, with the help of an earth-abundant nickel catalyst and electricity. With alcohols derived from biomass, this process will show how waste resources can become useful building blocks for greener chemistry.

How did you become interested in your particular field of research?

I became interested in this field through a fascination with how metals control chemical reactions at the molecular level. During my PhD, I studied nickel catalysts and how they break and form strong bonds, especially carbon-oxygen bonds. I learned that understanding why a reaction works is just as important as discovering that a reaction works. Later, during postdoctoral research in Denmark and the United States, I became more focused on applying this mechanistic knowledge to sustainability challenges. This project brings those interests together through nickel catalysis, electrochemistry, and CO2 utilization.

What are the scientific challenges and perspectives in your project?

The main challenge is that both alcohols and CO2 are difficult reaction partners. Alcohols contain strong carbon-oxygen bonds, while CO2 is very stable and usually reluctant to form new bonds. My project overcomes this using nickel catalysis to break the carbon-oxygen bond and electrochemistry to control the catalyst. A key task is finding conditions where electricity activates nickel without wasting energy or reducing CO2 to unwanted products. If successful, the project could open a new platform for sustainable synthesis.

What is your estimate of the impact, which your project may have to society in the long term?

In the long term, this project could contribute to cleaner chemical manufacturing. Carboxylic acids are important in pharmaceuticals, polymers, packaging, textiles, and many consumer products. Making these compounds directly from CO2 and common alcohols could reduce reliance on fossil-based raw materials, toxic reagents, precious metals, and wasteful multistep processes. The project will not solve climate change by itself, but it can help change how chemists use carbon dioxide, not only as a waste gas but as a renewable carbon source for valuable products.

Which impact do you expect the Sapere Aude programme will have on your career as a researcher?

The Sapere Aude programme would be a decisive step in my development as an independent research leader. It would allow me to build a small team around an ambitious, high-risk idea and establish a distinct research profile in sustainable catalysis at the University of Copenhagen. The grant would strengthen my leadership through mentoring a PhD student and postdoctoral researcher, supporting international collaboration, and positioning my group for future major funding. Most importantly, it would help me train young scientists in creative and sustainability-focused chemistry.