THE SEMINAR WAS RESCHEDULED FROM APRIL 7, 2020
Brad Carrow of Princeton University will deliver a seminar entitled, "Polarization and Polarizability as Design Elements in Catalysis." Hosted by Tianning Diao.
Zoom Link: https://nyu.zoom.us/j/96304031030?pwd=SnJhV3p6cDBzLzMreDFQQ2MycXN6Zz09
For more information about Brad Carrow, click here.
Abstract: The research in our group is founded on a mechanism-driven approach to design transition metal complexes capable of promoting unique elementary catalytic steps and to challenge assumptions about the limits of transition metal reactivity in the context of long-standing sustainability hurdles in catalytic chemical synthesis and contemporary problems of plastics pollution and recycling. This presentation will focus on our recent efforts to discover ancillary ligands and associated catalysts that manifest special properties from seemingly "weak" interactions, for instance dispersion, which have long been overlooked as catalyst design elements. Catalysts with enhanced polarizability can promote unique steps in coupling chemistry, facilitate the characterization and reactivity studies of elusive catalytic intermediates in contemporary cross-coupling methods, and even enable direct visible light-induced bond weakening. In another area, ionic thioethers have also been shown to strongly polarize C–H heterolysis transition states, which correlates to unusual non-directed site selectivity during C–H functionalization. A generalized model for a polarized, concerted mechanistic continuum in C–H heterolysis is proposed from our mechanistic data, which reconciles a wide array of reactivity patterns in the literature and can potentially be leveraged for a priori prediction of catalyst-controlled selectivity – a major standing challenge in this field.