ISCR 2022 Webinar - Franziska SCHOENEBECK

Insight-driven strategies in catalysis for selective functionalizations

Franziska Schoenebeck is a professor at the Institute of Organic Chemistry of RWTH Aachen in Germany.

"Detailed mechanistic understanding is key to designing better catalysts. In catalysis, it is frequently challenging to obtain such mechanistic insights however, as cycles tend to be complex and key intermediates might not be experimentally detectable. Our group therefore makes use of a combined computational and experimental approach to answer mechanistic questions and design reactivities. Using this approach, the group has explored and discovered a number of reactivity phenomena in palladium, nickel and copper catalysis, relating to solvent, ligand, additive effects, and elucidation of the active catalytic species. Insight-Driven Strategies in Catalysis for Selective Functionalizations The latest contributions were in the area of dinuclear palladium catalysis with oxidation state (I). A number of the group's research activities are in experimental organic chemistry. The experiments are frequently inspired by our newly gained mechanistic insights, i.e. we perform experiments to test theoretical predictions and synthesize rationally designed catalysts. We also develop and discover novel transformations and explore their scope for synthetic applications. Various computational studies are pursued within the group. The methodology applied ranges from QM, QM/MM to MM/MD & QM/MD methods.

We address questions in relation to properties, mechanisms, selectivities or stereochemistry, primarily in the context of homogeneous catalysis. Several investigations are also collaboration with other groups from academia or industry on national and international level."

Her intervention will be preceded by a talk from Naba Abuhafez, PhD student at the Rennes Institute of Chemical Sciences: Boosting the activity of cross-coupling reactions with a supramolecular palladium catalyst.

Not from ISCR: register at animation-iscratuniv-rennes1 [dot] fr

Contact: Rafael Gramage-Doria - rafael [dot] gramage-doriaatuniv-rennes1 [dot] fr