Expanding Olefin Metathesis Catalysis with Sulfur Chelation and Light by Dr. Gabriel Lemcoff

Professor, Department of Chemistry, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev

One of the most striking success stories in recent times in the area of catalysis has been in the development of the olefin metathesis reaction. Even after the award of the 2005 Nobel Prize to Chauvin, Schrock and Grubbs, the olefin metathesis method has continued to evolve, producing more efficient catalysts, new methodologies and enhanced selectivity. Our group has also contributed to this area in the past decade, especially using Sulfur-chelated Ruthenium benzylidenes, and we will show how the judicious choice of the correct ligand sphere can be used to perform novel olefin metathesis sequences. I will give a short background to what we have done in the past and most of the talk will be dedicated to recent efforts and unpublished material, including selective light activation with sulfur and phosphorous containing ligands, the use of Bertrand's cyclic alkyl amino carbenes (CAAC) and the impact of the anionic ligands on the catalysts’ reactivity.

BIO

Dr. Lemcoff was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina and received his B.S. Degree an Ph.D. at Tel-Aviv University, 1995 (Magna Cum Laude) and 2002 (Summa Cum Laude) respectively.  His thesis was titled “Novel Macromolecular Diacetyl Systems.”  He continued as postdoctoral research assistant at the Univeristy of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, Dept. of Organic Chemistry.  He taught as a Senior Lecturer and became an Associate Professor in 2011 and became a full professor at Ben-Gurion Univeristy fo the Negev in 2015 where he is currently.

Contact Dr. Lemcoff at [email protected]