Research Lines

Design and Development of Catalytic Synthetic Methodoogies.....

Key-words: Gold Catalysis, Nickel, CO₂ valorization, Electrosynthesis, Carbocatalysis, Graphene Oxide

We have recently opened new research lines in the fields of electrosynthesis and electrocatalyzed synthetic methodologies, succesfully achieving the firsts risults.

• Electrosynthesis: employment of electrogenerated radicals of different philicity for multiple synthetically relevant tranformations.  

Suggested paper about the topic: Synthetic Organic Electrochemical Methods Since 2000: On the Verge of a Renaissance; Ming Yan,Yu Kawamata, and Phil S. Baran. https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acs.chemrev.7b00397

Two well established research lines in our group are focused toward the development of new Au(I) and Ni(II) catalytic asymmetric methodologies, thus approaching both the noble and earth abundant metal catalysis fields.

• Au(I): development of new carbene and phosphine lingands for catalytic intramolecular cyclization reactions.

• Ni(II): development of Nickel catalyzed CO₂ activations as carbon centered electrophile or as a second electrophilic partner in cross electrophile coupling reactions.

Suggested paper about the topic: Transition-Metal-Catalyzed Carboxylation Reactions with Carbon Dioxide; Andreu Tortajada, Dr. Francisco Juliá-Hernández, Marino Börjesson, Dr. Toni Moragas, Prof. Ruben Martin. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/anie.201803186

In our group, along with pubblic and private partners the catalytic properties of graphene oxide and its derivatives are currently under investigation.

• Graphene oxide (GO): activation of CO₂ for the preparation of cyclic carbonates.

The identification of unprecedented synthetic routes or the replacement of existing but obsolete chemical synthetic protocols with modern and more Simple, Selective and Sustainable alternatives is our ultimate goal......

                                                                                                                                 PARTNERSHIPS

• Prof. M. Monari group - Organometallic chemistry group from UNIBO - Italy 
• Prof. Carlos Silva Lopez – Computational chemistry group from Universidade de Vigo - Spain
• Dr. M. Melucci; Dr. A. Kovtun – ISOF CNR Bologna - Italy
• Prof. T. Ollevier - University of Laval - Canada
  
• Prof. S. Protti - University of Pavia - Italy
• Dr. A. Gondolini; Dr. N. Sangiorgi – Istec CNR Faenza - Italy 
• Center for Chemical Catalysis C³ from UNIBO - Italy