Special Interdisciplinary Lecture
Please join 2010 Nobel Laureate Ei-ichi Negishi to explore the...
Magical Power of d-Block Transition Metals — Past, Present, and Future
Friday, February 25
Lecture 1:30 – 2:30 p.m. in Kane Hall Room 210
Reception following in the Walker-Ames Room
Abstract
Until recently, most of the 24 d-block transition metals had been used primarily as useful materials for construction and as
tools and containers; for precious and ornamental items; and for electromagnetic applications. Over the past several
decades, their superb properties as chemically useful substances, especially as catalysts for chemical reactions, have been
increasingly recognized. In most cases, their superb catalytic properties may be attributed to their ability to provide
simultaneously both filled nonbonding valence-shell orbitals (one or more) and empty valence-shell orbitals (one or more)
within thermally stable species and/or their ability to undergo simultaneously both reduction and oxidation under one set
of reaction conditions in one reaction vessel. A combination of these two properties can be exploited in devising a wide
variety of useful catalytic reactions for formation and cleavage of C–C, C–H, C–O and other bonds. For critically important
C–C bond formation, reductive elimination, carbometalation, and migratory insertion may be exploited. Pd-catalyzed
cross-coupling proceeding via reductive elimination and Zr-catalyzed asymmetric carboalumination of alkenes (ZACA)
proceeding via carbometalation will be discussed. Many more novel catalytic one- and two-electron processes via
organotransition metals will be discovered and developed.
About Ei-ichi Negishi, H.C. Brown Distinguished Professor at Purdue University
Dr. Negishi graduated from University of Tokyo with a BS in Chemistry in 1958, and
obtained his PhD in Chemistry from University of Pennsylvania in 1963. He taught at
Syracuse University from 1972–1979, then joined Purdue University, where he is currently
H.C. Brown Distinguished Professor. In 2010 he was a Nobel Laureate in Chemistry and
also was awarded the Japanese Order of Culture and The ACS Award for Creative Work in
Synthetic Organic Chemistry. Most recently, Dr. Negishi was awarded the distinguished
Asian American Engineer Award.
Sponsored by the Engineering Dean's Office &
the Department of Mechanical Engineering
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