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Hu paper on structural characterization of trineopentylphosphine complexes published.

9/25/2019

A paper by Dr. Ethan Hu entitled, "Synthesis, Structural Characterization, and Coordination Chemistry of (Trineopentylphosphine)palladium(aryl)bromide Dimer Complexes ([(Np<sub>3</sub>P)Pd(Ar)Br]<sub>2</sub>)," was published in Inorganic Chemistry. Co-authors on the paper are, Monica Vasiliu, Deidra Gerlach, Fengrui Qu, Trent Stein, Dr. David Dixon, and Kevin Shaughnessy. The paper describes the structure of the trineopentylphosphine ligand in [(Np<sub>3</sub>P)Pd(Ar)Br]<sub>2</sub> complexes as a function of the steric demand of the aryl group. The trineopentylphosphine is highly flexible allowing it to accommodate other sterically demanding ligands.

Review published in Israel Journal of Chemistry

9/5/2019

A review entitled, "Development of Palladium Precatalysts that Efficiently Generate LPd(0) Active Species," has been published in the Israel Journal of Chemistry. This article was an invited contribution for a special issue honoring John Hartwig and Stephen Buchwald on receiving the Wolf Prize in Chemistry.

Fall 2019 ACS Meeting

8/28/2019

Kevin Shaughnessy presented a talk entitled, "Generation of active palladium(0) catalyst species from air-stable palladium(II) precatalysts and their application in cross-coupling reactions," at the fall 2019 National Meeting of the American Chemical Society in San Diego, CA.

Undergraduate Researchers Join Group

8/21/2019

Maddie Plunkett, Luke LaRochelle, and Alexander Lund have joined the group as undergraduate research students recently. Maddie is a Chemistry and Theater double major. Alexander and Luke are biology majors.

Shaughnessy stepping down as chair

8/16/2019

After ten years as department chair, Kevin Shaughnessy is excited to be stepping down to focus on teaching and research.

Congratulations group graduates

5/4/2019

Undergraduate researchers Sabrina Curley, Jade Kelley, and Brent Kuhnfeld earned their BS degrees during the May commencement. Sabrina has been accepted to the PhD program in materials engineering at Michigan State University. Jade will enroll in the University of Texas School of Dentistry. Brent will take a gap year while applying to medical school.

New graduate students

1/9/2019

The Shaughnessy group welcomed two new students in January. Andrea Nuñez León and Matthew Delahay joined the group. Andrea is pursuing a PhD degree. Her research focuses on developing methods to remove toxic metals from water. Matt is pursuing a MS degree and is doing research on novel palladium precatalysts for cross-coupling reactions.

PRF grant awarded

6/20/2018

An ACS Petroleum Research Fund (PRF) New Directions grant entitled, "Cooperative bond activation by metal complexes of ligands with proximal basic sites," has been awarded to the Shaughnessy group. The grant will provide $110,000 over two years to pursue new research in the development of complexes that activate element-hydrogen bonds using a metal-ligand cooperative mechanism.

James Howard graduates

5/5/2018

Congratulations to James Howard who graduated with an ACS-Certified degree in Chemistry at the May Commencement. James has been accepted to the PhD program at the University of Texas, Austin, where he plans to work with Prof. Eric Anslyn.

Precatalyst activation paper published in Organometallics

4/16/2018

A paper authored by Kerry Barnett, James Howard, Renee Stullich, Adam Shipley, and Colin Treager entitled, "Air-Stable [(R3P)PdCl2]2 Complexes of Neopentylphosphines as Cross- Coupling Precatalysts: Catalytic Application and Mechanism of Catalyst Activation and Deactivation," was published in Organometallics. This paper describes the use of [(R3P)PdCl2]2 complexes as catalysts in the Suzuki coupling. A study of the mechanism of conversion of the Pd(II) precatalyst to the Pd(0) active species showed that palladacycle formation was a competitive pathway in acetonitrile. Switching the solvent to toluene eliminated formation of the palladacycle byproduct. This solvent switch allowed a 50-fold decrease in catalyst loading.