Topic: High-Valent Organocopper (III) Complexes in Catalysis
Speaker: Assistant Professor Liu Wei, Department of Chemistry, University of Cincinnati (UC)
Date and time: August 7, 16:00–17:30
Venue: Room 105, #5 Building of SPST
Host: Huang Huan-Ming
Abstract:
High-valent organocopper (III) compounds have long been proposed as key intermediates in many Cu-catalyzed reactions, in which the carbon-carbon or carbon-heteroatom bond-forming reductive elimination from CuIII species is considered the final product-releasing step. Despite the significant work conducted to synthesize and understand these high-valent species, CuIII complexes with well-defined structures that are related to Cu catalysis remain rather limited. This talk will focus on our recent work on the synthesis and investigation of catalytically relevant organocopper (III) complexes.
Biography:
Prof. Liu Wei completed his undergraduate studies at Peking University under the supervision of Prof. Yuan Gu. In 2008, he moved to Princeton University for doctoral studies under the supervision of Prof. John T. Groves, focusing on metalloporphyrin-catalyzed C–H halogenation reactions. Wei then joined the Chang lab at Berkeley as a postdoctoral researcher. He started as an assistant professor at Miami University and moved to the Department of Chemistry at the University of Cincinnati. The research in the Liu Lab focuses on the field of catalysis, with specific interests in organic synthesis and energy conversion.