Title: On the Pluripotent Triple Bond
Time: 2025-11-24 10:00
Lecturer: Alois FÜRSTNER
Max Planck Institute for Coal Research, Germany
Venue: Chemistry lecture hall
Abstract：
In this lecture I intend to discuss the development of new catalytic transformations, which might impact on the logic and practice of target-oriented synthesis. The focus will be on recent advances in alkyne functionalization with the aid of metal alkylidyne complexes, carbophilic Lewis-acid catalysts, as well as by unorthodox metal-catalyzed addition reactions. The latter include non-canonical trans-hydrogenation, trans-hydroboration, trans-hydrosilylation, and trans-hydrostannation reactions. Moreover, an entirely unprecedented mode of delivery of dihydrogen was found, which allows alkynes to be converted into discrete metal carbene complexes (“gem-hydrogenation”). The mechanism of these transformations will be discussed in some detail.
These methods opened access to a host of target molecules of different chemical estates (polyketides, alkaloids, terpenes, cyclic peptides etc.) with promising biological activities.
Bio of the Lecturer：
Alois Fürstner is a native of Austria. He obtained his doctoral degree from the Technical University of Graz in 1987 (Prof. H. Weidmann). After a postdoctoral stint with the late Prof. Oppolzer at the University of Geneva, Switzerland (1990-1991), and completion of his Habilitation in Graz (1992), he joined the Max-Planck-Institut für Kohlenforschung in Mülheim, Germany, in 1993 as a group leader. In 1998, he was promoted to the rank of Director and served two terms as the Managing Director of the Institute.
Dr. Fürstner’s research interests in the area of organometallic chemistry and homogeneous catalysis range from the characterization of reactive intermediates and the development of new synthetic methods to applications in natural product total synthesis. Major lines of research comprise alkene and alkyne metathesis, π-acid catalysis, metal carbene chemistry, iron catalyzed cross coupling, and unconventional trans-addition reactions to alkynes.
His honors include the Leibniz Prize (1999, German Science Foundation), the Thieme-IUPAC Prize (2000), the Arthur C. Cope Scholar Award (2002, ACS), the first Mukaiyama Award (2005, Japan), the Otto-Bayer-Prize (2006), the Janssen Prize for Creativity in Organic Synthesis (2008), the Prelog Medal (2011, ETH Zürich), the Karl Ziegler Prize (2013, German Chemical Society), the Kitasato Medal (2013), the Gay Lussac/Humboldt Prize (2014, France), the H. C. Brown Award for Creative Research in Synthetic Methods (2016, ACS), the Prix Mondial Nessim Habif (2019, Switzerland), and the Nagoya Gold Medal (2024, Japan). He is member of the German National Academy of Science “Leopoldina” and the Austrian Academy of Sciences..
