TitleA Midas touch for catalysis-computational studies on the use of gold

SpeakerProf. Brian Yates

Time2019年6月12日（周三）上午10：00

Place校本部E106

inviterJeffrey Reimers

Abstract

Over the last few years we have studied the mechanisms of synthetic reactions involving gold complexes as catalysts. Using computational chemistry methods, we have identified a number of intriguing processes in which the gold complexes behave in ways that we had not expected. For example, gold complexes traditionally work by activating an alkene substrate towards reaction with the nucleophile. However in the case of gold-catalysed hydrofunctionalisation of non-activated alkenes with phenol, we have found that the coordination of the gold(I) complex to a nucleophile (PhOH) enhances the acidity of the latter’s proton and promotes addition of the nucleophile to the alkene. This insight can be used to design well-defined gold-derived catalysts that follow this mechanism. I will discuss this process and the role of gold as a catalyst in organic chemistry in this presentation.

报告人简介：Brian Yates has an international reputation in computational chemistry research as applied to mechanisms of organic and organometallic chemistry. He joined the University of Tasmania in 1990. He has received the Carrick National Teaching Award for the Physical Sciences and an RACI Citation for contributions to chemical education, computational chemistry and the RACI. In 2013 he was seconded to the Australian Research Council as an Executive Director, and he returned to the University of Tasmania in 2015 to become Dean of Science. He is currently Executive Dean of the College of Sciences and Engineering at the University of Tasmania and in this role he has attended graduation ceremonies at Shanghai Ocean University.