Discovery of Molecular Oxidation Catalysts Using Metallo-Enzyme Mimicry and Combinatorial Chemistry Stephen B. Colbran & D. Brynn Hibbert, School of Chemistry, University of New South Wales, Sydney, NSW 2052, Australia Aims • To synthesize and screen molecules combining an organometallic N-heterocyclic carbene (NHC) centre and one or more ‘classical’ metal sites as homogeneous catalysts for selective oxidations of organic substrates. Progress • Routes to the precursor polytopic ligands with the NHC and bis(pyridylmethyl)amine (bpa) donor domains to make multi-metallic complexes have been developed. • Problems of metal selectivity between the ligand domains have been overcome to prepare novel bi- and tri-metallic systems such as 1 and 2. Future • Combinatorial screens for efficient oxidation catalysts using libraries of complexes based on series 1 and 2.