Carbenes as Powerful Transition-Metal Surrogates

Date	11 Jul 2024
Time	5:00 pm - 6:00 pm (HKT)
Venue	Lecture Theatre P3, Chong Yuet Ming Physics Building
Speaker	Prof. Guy Bertrand
Institution	UCSD/CNRS Joint Research Chemistry Laboratory University of California, San Diego

Title:

Mesoporous Crystals for Carbon Neutralization

Schedule:

Date: 30th May, 2024 (Thurday)

Time: 11 am - 12 noon (HKT)

Venue: Lecture Theatre P2, Chong Yuet Ming Physics Building

Speaker:

Prof. Guy Bertrand

UCSD/CNRS Joint Research Chemistry Laboratory

University of California, San Diego

Biography:

Guy Bertrand received his Ph.D. from University Paul Sabatier (Toulouse, France). After serving as CNRS group leader at the Laboratoire de Chimie de Coordination du CNRS, he was Director of the Laboratoire d'Hétérochimie Fondamentale et Appliquée at University Paul Sabatier from 1998 to 2005. From 2001 to 2012, he served as the Director of the UCR/CNRS Joint Research Chemistry Laboratory at the University of California Riverside, which he created. Since July 2012, he is Distinguished Professor and Director of the UCSD/CNRS Joint Research Chemistry Laboratory at the University of California, San Diego. Prof. Bertrand’s research focuses on taming reactive molecules such as carbenes, nitrenes, and diradicals and transforming these compounds into useful tools for synthetic chemists. He is a member of the French Academy of Technology (2000), the Academia Europaea (2002), the European Academy of Sciences (2003), the French Academy of Sciences (2004), and the German National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina (2023). Among other awards, he has received the ACS Award in Inorganic Chemistry (2014), the Sir Geoffrey Wilkinson Award of the RSC(2016) and le Grand Prix de la Maison de la Chimie (2020).

Abstract:

A decade ago, we recognized that due to their lone pair of electrons and accessible vacant orbital, singlet carbenes resemble transition metal centers, and thus are able to mimic their chemical behavior. We will discuss recent results demonstrating that, for some catalytic reactions including those involving single electron transfers, carbenes can indeed compete with transition metal complexes.

The development of catalytic processes promoted by carbenes, which are genuine organic compounds, could address the major drawbacks of current transition metal catalysis technology that are the excessive cost of metal complexes (metal + ligands) and in many cases the toxicity of the metal.

Carbenes are 6-electron species. To push the boundaries further, we wish to undress carbon atoms even more. As an illustration we will discuss our recent results dealing with a dicoordinate carbodication.

Prof. Bertrand‘s recent papers:

1. Z. Zhang, S. Huang, C.-Y. Li, L.-L. Zhao, W. Liu, M. Melaimi, G. Bertrand, X. Yan. Chem Catal. 2022, 2, 3517-3527.

2. C. Liu, Z. Zhang,L.-L. Zhao, G. Bertrand, X. Yan. Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2023, e202303478.

3. Y. K. Loh, M. Melaimi, D. Munz, G. Bertrand. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2023, 145, 2064-2069.

4. Y. K. Loh, M. Melaimi, M. Gembicky, D. Munz, G. Bertrand. Nature 2023, 623, 66-70.

5. M. Addellaoui, K. Oppel, A. Vianna, M. Soleilhavoup, X. Yan, M. Melaimi, G. Bertrand. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2024, 146, 2933–2938.

6. Y. K. Loh, L. Gojiashvili, M. Melaimi, M. Gembicky, D. Munz, G. Bertrand. Nature Synth. 2024, DOI: 10.1038/s44160-024-00516-6.

7. J. Lorkowski, P. Yorkgitis, M. R. Serrato, M. Gembicky, C. Pietraszuk, G. Bertrand, R. Jazzar. Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2024, e202401020.

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