Maha Ahmed Aljuhani

Maha's invention operates by reacting organometallic compounds with surfaces of highly divided oxides (or of metal nanoparticles). After designing a single-site well-defined catalyst and revealing the whole mechanism through isolating some catalytic intermediate and reaction test, she was able to prove the mechanism. Those catalysts can be tested in imine metathesis, hydroamination, and many other reactions to produce useful products.

For the first time proving the whole mechanism that was considered before a black box, with some unprecedented catalytic intermediate being isolated and getting a good yield of useful chemical products.

In the future, Maha aims to design a single-site well-defined catalyst that can be applied to different chemical reactions, such as olefine metathesis, which is important in the oil industry.