Organic Chemistry Frontiers Blog

We are proud to announce that 5 of Organic Chemistry Frontiers Board members are recognized in Clarivate Analytics list of Highly Cited Researchers for 2019, ranking them among the top 1% most cited for their subject field and publication year.

The board members are:

Frank Würthner, University of Würzburg, Germany

Matthias Beller, University of Rostock, Germany
Frank Glorius, Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität Münster, Germany
Lutz Ackermann, Georg-August-Universitat Gottingen, Germany
Chen-Ho Tung, Technical Institute of Physics and Chemistry, China

Below are a few of our picks from their publications in Organic Chemistry Frontiers.
Access is free to these highlighted papers until 31 Jan 2020!

Guest-mediated chirality transfer in the host–guest complexes of an atropisomeric perylene bisimide cyclophane host
Meike Sapotta, Peter Spenst, Chantu R. Saha-Möllera and Frank Würthner*
Org. Chem. Front., 2019,6, 892-899
http://dx.doi.org/10.1039/C9QO00172G

Progress in the synthesis of perylene bisimide dyes
Agnieszka Nowak-Król and Frank Würthner*
Org. Chem. Front., 2019,6, 1272-1318
http://dx.doi.org/10.1039/C8QO01368C

Water-soluble naphthalene diimides: synthesis, optical properties, and colorimetric detection of biogenic amines
Annike Weißenstein, Vincenzo Grande, Chantu R. Saha-Möllera and Frank Würthner*
Org. Chem. Front., 2018,5, 2641-2651
http://dx.doi.org/10.1039/C8QO00611C

Decarboxylative sulfenylation of amino acids via metallaphotoredox catalysis
Lidan Wei, Chengjuan Wu, Chen-Ho Tung, Wenguang Wang* and Zhenghu Xu*
Org. Chem. Front., 2019,6, 3224-3227
http://dx.doi.org/10.1039/C9QO00817A

Scandium-catalyzed electrophilic alkene difunctionalization: regioselective synthesis of thiosulfone derivatives
Shuai Huang, Haoyu Li, Tian Xie, Fang Wei*, Chen-Ho Tung and Zhenghu Xu*
Org. Chem. Front., 2019,6, 1663-1666
http://dx.doi.org/10.1039/C9QO00138G

Cobalt-catalyzed radical cyclization of isocyanides forming phenanthridine derivatives
Xiangyu Liu, Chengjuan Wu*, Jing Zhang, Yihan Shi, Shengnan Zhang, Yan Geng, Chen-Ho Tung and Wenguang Wang*
Org. Chem. Front., 2018,5, 2997-3002
http://dx.doi.org/10.1039/C8QO00887F

Recent advances in positional-selective alkenylations: removable guidance for twofold C–H activation
Wenbo Ma*, Parthasarathy Gandeepan*, Jie Lid and Lutz Ackermann*
Org. Chem. Front., 2017,4, 1435-1467
http://dx.doi.org/10.1039/C7QO00134G

Organic Chemistry Frontiers is delighted to welcome Professor Jennifer Schomaker (University of Wisconsin-Madison, USA) as Associate Editor for the journal.

Biography

Jennifer Schomaker began her research career at Dow Chemical in Organic Chemicals and Polymers, later moving to Agricultural Chemicals Process Research, where she participated in route selection and scale-up campaigns for two new herbicides. After 7 years in industry, she obtained her Ph.D. with Professor Babak Borhan at Michigan State University in 2006 before moving to UC-Berkeley as an NIH postdoctoral fellow under Professors Robert G. Bergman and F. Dean Toste. She joined the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 2009, where she is a full professor.

Research Highlights

Her research focuses on new methodologies for preparing stereochemically complex, densely functionalized amines, catalyst-controlled, tunable chemo- and site-selective C-H functionalizations, uncovering new reactivities catalyzed by first-row transition metals, total synthesis of bioactive natural and unnatural products, and development of new bioorthogonal labeling reagents.

Check some of her publications at Royal Society of Chemistry:

Regioselective differentiation of vicinal methylene C–H bonds enabled by silver-catalysed nitrene transfer

Ryan J. Scamp, Bradley Scheffer and Jennifer M. Schomaker

Chem. Commun., 2019,55, 7362-7365

Tunable differentiation of tertiary C–H bonds in intramolecular transition metal-catalyzed nitrene transfer reactions

Joshua R. Corbin and Jennifer M. Schomaker

Chem. Commun., 2017,53, 4346-4349

Organic Chemistry Frontiers is delighted to welcome Professor Arjan W. Kleij (Institute of Chemical Research of Catalonia, Spain) as Associate Editor for the journal.

Biography

Arjan W. Kleij received his MSc in 1996 and PhD in 2000 from Utrecht University working on dendrimer- and polymer-supported homogeneous catalysts. In 2000, he moved to industry and worked for more than 3 years at Avantium in its pharmaceutical branch, and later at Hexion as a research scientist. In 2002-2005, he was a postdoc at UAM in Madrid (Spain) and at the University of Amsterdam. In 2006, he moved to the Institute of Chemical Research of Catalonia (ICIQ) and became Group Leader, and was promoted to ICREA Professor in 2011. He is the recipient of a NWO Talent Fellowship and an ICREA junior grant, and recently featured in the author profile section of Angewandte Chemie. Arjan has (co)authored around 180 papers and 4 patent applications with >9600 citations (h-index 55). He is an advisory board member for ChemSusChem and editorial board member for the Journal of CO₂ Utilization. He is chair of the Carbon Dioxide Conversion Catalysis (CDCC) conference and the EuGSC-4.

Research Highlights

His research is centered on the use of effective and new catalytic solutions (both metal- and organocatalysisorientated) towards the preparation of fine chemicals, pharma-relevant compounds and novel materials based on bio-based polymers. Focuses are on exquisite control over chemo-, regio-, diastereo- and enantio-selectivity features creating new synthetic opportunities of fundamental and industrial interest.

Check some of his publications at Royal Society of Chemistry:

Entropic corrections for the evaluation of the catalytic activity in the Al(III) catalysed formation of cyclic carbonates from CO₂ and epoxides

Joan González-Fabra, Fernando Castro-Gómez, W. M. C. Sameera, Gunnar Nyman, Arjan W. Kleij and Carles Bo

Catal. Sci. Technol., 2019,9, 5433-5440

Advances in the use of CO₂ as a renewable feedstock for the synthesis of polymers

Bruno Grignard, Sandro Gennen, Christine Jérôme, Arjan W. Kleij and Christophe Detrembleur

Chem. Soc. Rev., 2019,48, 4466-4514

Self-assembly of bis-salphen compounds: from semiflexible chains to webs of nanorings

Sergey V. Pyrlin, Nicholas D. M. Hine, Arjan W. Kleij and Marta M. D. Ramos

Soft Matter, 2018,14, 1181-1194

Polystyrene-supported bifunctional resorcinarenes as cheap, metal-free and recyclable catalysts for epoxide/CO₂ coupling reactions

Jose, S. Cañellas, M. A. Pericàs and A. W. Kleij

Green Chem., 2017,19, 5488-5493

Organic Chemistry Frontiers is delighted to welcome Professor Qian Zhang (Northeast Normal University, China) as Associate Editor for the journal.

Biography

Qian Zhang is a Professor in the Department of Chemistry at Northeast Normal University, Changchun, China. She obtained her BS and MS degrees from Department of Chemistry, Northeast Normal University, and PhD degree from Changchun Institute of Applied Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences under the supervision of Professor Lixiang Wang in the research field of organic light emitting materials. Then she spent half a year as a visiting scholar in the University of Sydney, Australia. She has been teaching and doing research at Northeast Normal University for more than 20 years. She received several awards including Thieme Chemistry Journals Award and Changchun Excellent Female Contributors Award in 2014.

Research Highlights

Her research focuses on the field of synthetic methodology mostly mediated by transition metals, aimed to address key unmet challenges in contemporary organic synthesis, with an emphasis on asymmetric catalysis. Current research topics include: 1) to develop novel synthetic methodologies focusing on the new strategy for C-N bond formation and the discovery of new amination reagents; 2) strain release promoted and inspired new reaction.

Check some of her publications at Royal Society of Chemistry:

Enantioselective and site-specific copper-catalyzed reductive allyl–allyl cross-coupling of allenes

Guoxing Xu, Bin Fu, Haiyan Zhao, Yanfei Li, Ge Zhang, Ying Wang, Tao Xiong and Qian Zhang

Chem. Sci., 2019, 10, 1802-1806

Pd-Catalyzed carboannulation of γ,δ-alkenyl oximes: efficient access to 5-membered cyclic nitrones and dihydroazines

Baozhen Sun, Shuang Liu, Mengru Zhang, Jinbo Zhao and Qian Zhang

Org. Chem. Front., 2019, 6, 388-392

Copper-catalyzed oxidative amidation of α,β-unsaturated ketones via selective C–H or C–C bond cleavage

Tony Wheellyam Pouambeka, Ge Zhang, Guang-Fan Zheng, Guo-Xing Xu, Qian Zhang, Tao Xiong and Qian Zhang

Org. Chem. Front., 2017,4, 1420-1424

Organic Chemistry Frontiers is delighted to welcome Professor Chulbom Lee (Seoul National University) as Associate Editor for the journal.

Biography

Chulbom Lee is Professor in Chemistry Department at the Seoul National University (SNU), Korea. He obtained his BS and MS degrees in Chemistry from SNU, and PhD from Stanford University, USA. In 1998, he moved to Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center to work with Professor Samuel Danishefsky as a US Army Breast Cancer Research Fellow. In 2001, he joined the Chemistry Department of Princeton University as Assistant Professor and in 2008, he moved back to his alma mater, SNU, as Professor of Chemistry. He was the recipient of the Roche Award in Organic Chemistry (1998), the U.S. Army Breast Cancer Research Fellowship (1999-2001), the Thieme Journal Award (2001), the Amgen Young Investigator Award (2006), the SNU Teaching Award (2011), and the Chang Sehee Award from the Organic Chemistry division of the Korean Chemical Society (2015).

Research Highlights

His research focuses on the development of novel reactions and strategies for chemical synthesis. In particular, his group has been in engaged in the design, mechanistic studies and implementation of new catalytic reactions mediated by transition metal vinylidene complexes. Another ongoing research of the Lee group is total synthesis of natural products.

Check some of her publications at Royal Society of Chemistry:

Stereoselective allylic reduction via one-pot palladium-catalyzed allylic sulfonation and sulfinyl retro-ene reactions

Hyun-Suk Um, Jungki Min, Taeyang An, Jin Choi and Chulbom Lee

Org. Chem. Front., 2018,5, 2158-2162

Nitrogen-centered radical-mediated C–H imidation of arenes and heteroarenes via visible light induced photocatalysis

Hyejin Kim, Taehoon Kim, Dong Gil Lee, Sang Weon Roh and Chulbom Lee

Chem. Commun., 2014,50, 9273-9276

Nicolai Cramer

Nicolai Cramer earned his Ph.D. in Organic Chemistry in 2005 from the University of Stuttgart, Germany under the guidance of Professor Sabine Laschat. After a brief research stint at Osaka University, Japan, he joined the group of Professor Barry Trost at Stanford University as Feodor-Lynen postdoctoral fellow from 2006-2007. He then moved to the ETH Zurich, Switzerland working towards his habilitation associated to the chair of Professor Erick M. Carreira. He received the venia legendi in 2010. Subsequently, Dr. Cramer joint EPF Lausanne, Switzerland as Assistant Professor and was promoted to Associate Professor in 2013. Among other prizes, he received the 2010 Bayer Early Excellence in Science Award and in 2013, the Novartis Early Career Award in Organic Chemistry, the BASF Catalysis Award and the Latsis Prize.

His general interests encompass enantioselective metal-catalyzed transformations and their implementation for the synthesis of biologically active molecules. A key focus of his research is the development of asymmetric C-H and C-C bond functionalizations enabled by tailored chiral ligands.

Check some of his recent publications:

Asymmetric Catalysis Powered by Chiral Cyclopentadienyl Ligands

Christopher G. Newton, David Kossler, and Nicolai Cramer

J. Am. Chem. Soc., 2016, 138, 3935–3941

DOI: 10.1021/jacs.5b12964

Enantioselective palladium(0)-catalyzed intramolecular cyclopropane functionalization: access to dihydroquinolones, dihydroisoquinolones and the BMS-791325 ring system

J. Pedroni, T. Saget, P. A. Donetsa and N. Cramer

Chem. Sci., 2015, 6, 5164-5171

DOI: 10.1039/C5SC01909E

Chiral Cyclopentadienyls: Enabling Ligands for Asymmetric Rh(III)-Catalyzed C–H Functionalizations

Baihua Ye and Nicolai Cramer

Acc. Chem. Res., 2015, 48, 1308–1318

DOI: 10.1021/acs.accounts.5b00092

Catalysis: Gold unleashes the power of three

Christopher M. B. K. Kourra and Nicolai Cramer

Nature, 2015, 517, 440–441

DOI: 10.1038/517440a

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Professor Guy Bertrand from University of California San Diego and CNRS was awarded the Sir Geoffrey Wilkinson Award for his discovery of stable carbenes and their applications in organometallic synthesis and catalysis.

The Sir Geoffrey Wilkinson Award is for outstanding contributions to pure or applied research in the field of organometallic chemistry. For more information on nominations, past winners, or selection criteria, see the Sir Geoffrey Wilkinson Award page.

Guy Bertrand is actively involved in scientific publishing. He now serves as a member of Editorial Board for Organic Chemistry Frontiers and the Associate Editor of Chemical Reviews. To learn more about Guy Bertrand and his exciting research, read his interview with Organic Chemistry Frontiers .

Organic Chemistry Frontiers is delighted to welcome Frank Würthner of University of Würzburg as Associate Editor in the area of functional organic molecules.

Biography

Frank Würthner, born in 1964, received his education in Chemistry at the University of Stuttgart (Germany) where he obtained his doctoral degree in 1993 under the supervision of Prof. Franz Effenberger. He was a Feodor Lynen Fellow (Alexander von Humboldt foundation) and carried out postdoctoral research at MIT in Cambridge/MA (USA) with Prof. Julius Rebek, Jr.  After two years in the BASF central research laboratories in Ludwigshafen (Germany), he did a Habilitation in Organic Chemistry at the University of Ulm. Since 2002, he is professor at the University of Würzburg, where he has served as head of the Institute of Organic Chemistry, dean of the Chemistry and Pharmacy Department and founding director of the Center for Nanosystems Chemistry. His main research interests include the synthesis and characterization of pi-conjugated molecules and functional dyes, their application in organic electronics, photonics and photovoltaics, the construction of complex supramolecular architectures composed of pi-scaffolds, the mechanistic elucidation of self-assembly processes, and the investigation of light-induced processes in dye-based nanosystems. He has published more than 300 papers and been a co-inventor on more than 20 patents.

Research

The research programme of Frank Würthner’s group is devoted to functional dyes and the development of methodologies for the self-assembly of pi-conjugated molecules into nanoscale and condensed phase materials for highly desirable (opto-)electronic, photovoltaic and biomedical applications. Current activities are focused on the following contemporary research topics:

• Supramolecular Synthesis
• Photofunctional Dye Assemblies
• Nano and Solid State Chemistry
• Organic Electronics & Photovoltaics
• Nanosystems for Biomedicine

Frank is now accepting submissions to Organic Chemistry Frontiers. Submit your high quality work to his Editorial Office today!