Electrolytes such as KOH as obtained from the vendors typically have metal impurities and sometimes when used in electrocatalysis, can lead to an overestimation of a catalyst’s performance. This is because the metal impurities in the electrolytes could also be catalyzing the reaction of interest and hence cause an analytical error in catalytic activity assessment. To ensure that catalytic performance reports are as accurate as possible, it’s important to have a bird-view of the metallic profile of the electrolytes to monitor metals that can probably improve the rate of reaction thereby catalyzing the reaction of interest.

Another goal is to establish a working comparison of various Lewis acids and oxidant species to bring palladium into solution from palladium nanoparticles (NPs). This expands on work found by Hull et al. in which a palladium and iron co-catalyzed system was established for the aminoboration of terminal and internal unactivated alkenes. In this system, Fe^III generated over the course of the reaction from Fe(OTf)₂ served to “leach” palladium back into solution, thereby re-activating the active catalyst. While Fe(OTf)₂ provided the best oxidant for this purpose and product formation, establishing a comparison of various Lewis acidic additives and an organic oxidant.