Seminar Schedule

Seminar Title: “Phosphorus, Photons, and Metals: Increasingly Efficient ways to P–C Bonds.”
Abstract: An important challenge for chemists is increasingly efficient routes to element–carbon bonds, as characterized by energetic costs and atom economy, among other factors. An atom-economical route to metal-catalyzed element–carbon bond formation is the addition of an E–H bond across an unsaturated substrate, generally termed heterofunctionalization. For hydrophosphination or P–C bond formation, challenges in substrate scope, selectivity, and catalyst have loomed. Starting from poor initial hydrophosphination catalysis with zirconium compounds of the type (N3N)ZrX (N3N = N(CH2CH2NSiMe3)33–; X = anionic ligand), a family of earth abundant, highly active, and selective catalysts have been discovered and investigated. A reinvestigation of the zirconium catalysis has shown that, using primary phosphine substrates, alkenes and dienes are easily functionalized with high selectivity for either the secondary product (i.e., one P–H addition) or the tertiary product (i.e., two P–H additions). Surprising photolysis is a critical factor in activity for these catalysts. The arc of catalysis moves to iron chemistry that informs most recent discoveries in simple copper catalysts that may be the most active known.

Seminar Title: “Phosphorus, Photons, and Metals: Increasingly Efficient ways to P–C Bonds.”
Abstract: An important challenge for chemists is increasingly efficient routes to element–carbon bonds, as characterized by energetic costs and atom economy, among other factors. An atom-economical route to metal-catalyzed element–carbon bond formation is the addition of an E–H bond across an unsaturated substrate, generally termed heterofunctionalization. For hydrophosphination or P–C bond formation, challenges in substrate scope, selectivity, and catalyst have loomed. Starting from poor initial hydrophosphination catalysis with zirconium compounds of the type (N3N)ZrX (N3N = N(CH2CH2NSiMe3)33–; X = anionic ligand), a family of earth abundant, highly active, and selective catalysts have been discovered and investigated. A reinvestigation of the zirconium catalysis has shown that, using primary phosphine substrates, alkenes and dienes are easily functionalized with high selectivity for either the secondary product (i.e., one P–H addition) or the tertiary product (i.e., two P–H additions). Surprising photolysis is a critical factor in activity for these catalysts. The arc of catalysis moves to iron chemistry that informs most recent discoveries in simple copper catalysts that may be the most active known.

Seminar Title: TBD.