CENTC | Research

CENTC Projects and Publications

At any given time CENTC supports 8-12 collaborative research projects that are continually reviewed to maintain a broad and balanced research portfolio aimed at enabling some of the most challenging transformations in chemistry. Rather than serving as stand-alone projects, our science is strengthened by the synergism and collaboration of the large number of CENTC researchers who regularly meet to critically discuss these activities. Each project involves collaborators from multiple institutions, including faculty, students, and post-docs. These researchers, while physically distributed around North America, communicate on a daily basis utilizing videoconferencing and other cyber-enabled technologies. Summaries of current projects can be found by following the links, below.

Projects

Alkane Metathesis
Anti-Markovnikov Hydroamination of Alkenes
Dioxygen Chemistry
A New Generation of Electrophilic Oxidation Catalysts
Development of a Methane/Methanol Fuel Cell
Oxidative Oligomerization of Methane
Directed Evolution of Metalloenzymes for Organic Synthesis
Direct Formation of Aniline from Benzene via Homogeneous Catalysis
Tandem Catalysis to Convert Carbohydrates to Chemicals
Non-Enzymatic Disassembly of Lignocellulose
High Value Chemicals from Glycerol by Hydrogenolysis
Cyclization of Alkanes to form Aromatic Molecules

Publications
1. Ahuja, R.; Kundu, S.; Goldman, A. S.; Brookhart, M.; Vicente, B. C.; Scott, S. L. “Catalytic Ring Expansion, Contraction, and Metathesis-Polymerization of Cycloalkanes” ChemComm., 2008, 253-255.
(DOI: 10.1039/b712197k)

2. Hanson, S. K.; Heinekey, D. M.; Goldberg, K. I. "C-H Bond Activation by Rhodium(I) Phenoxide and Acetate Complexes: Mechanism of H−D Exchange between Arenes and Water" Organometallics, 2008, 27(7), 1454-1463. (DOI: 10.1021/om7012259)

3. Foley, N. A.; Ke, Z.; Gunnoe, T. B.; Cundari, T. R.; Petersen, J. L. “Aromatic C-H Activation and Catalytic Hydrophenylation of Ethylene by TpRu{P(OCH₂)₃CEt}(NCMe)Ph” Organometallics, 2008, 27(13), 3007-3017.
(DOI: 10.1021/om800275b)

4. Williams, D. B.; Kaminsky, W.; Mayer, J. M.; Goldberg, K. I., “Reactions of Iridium Hydride Pincer Complexes with Dioxygen: New Peroxo Complexes and Reversible O₂ Binding” ChemComm., 2008, 35, 4195-4197.
(DOI: 10.1039/b802739k)

5. Nair, N. U.; Zhao, H. “Evolution in Reverse: Engineering a D-Xylose-specific Xylose Reductase” ChemBioChem, 2008, 9, 1213-1215.
(DOI: 10.1002/cbic.200700765)

6. Macala, G. S.; Robertson, A. W.; Johnson, C. L.; Day, Z. B.; Lewis, R. S.; White, M. G.; Iretskii, A. V.; Ford, P. C. "Transesterification Catalysts from Iron Doped Hydrotalcite-like Precursors: Solid Bases for Biodiesel Production" Catalysis Letters, 2008, 122(3-4), 205-209.
(DOI: 10.1007/s10562-008-9480-y)

7. Bailey, B. C.; Schrock, R. R.; Kundu, S.; Goldman, A. S.; Huang, Z.; Brookhart, M. "Evaluation of Molybdenum and Tungsten Metathesis Catalysts for Homogeneous Tandem Alkane Metathesis", Organometallics, 2009, 28(1), 355–360.
(DOI: 10.1021/om800877q)

8. Hanson, S. K.; Baker, R. T.; Gordon, J. C.; Scott, B. L.; Sutton, A. D.; Thorn, D. L. "Aerobic Oxidation of Pinacol by Vanadium(V) Dipicolinate Complexes: Evidence for Reduction to Vanadium(III)" J. Am. Chem. Soc., 2009, 131 (2), 428–429.
(DOI: 10.1021/ja807522n)

9. Macala, G. S.; Matson, T. D.; Johnson, C. L.; Lewis, R.; Iretskii, A. V.; Ford, P. C. “Hydrogen Transfer from Super-critical Methanol over a Solid Base Catalysts. A Model for Lignin Depolymerization” ChemSusChem, 2009, 2, 215-217.
(DOI: 10.1002/cssc.200900033)

10. Huang, Z.; Brookhart, M.; Goldman, A. S.; Kundu, S.; Ray, A.; Scott, S. L.; Vicente, B. C. “Highly active and recyclable heterogeneous iridium pincer catalysts for transfer dehydrogenation of alkanes” Adv. Synth. Catal., 2009, 351, 188-206.
(DOI: 10.1002/adsc.200800615)

11. Look, J. L.; Wick, D. D.; Mayer, J. M.; Goldberg, K. I. "Autoxidation of Platinum(IV) Hydrocarbyl Hydride Complexes to Form Platinum(IV) Hydrocarbyl Hydroperoxide Complexes", Inorg. Chem., 2009, 48, 1356-1369. (DOI: 10.1021/ic801216r)

12. Ter Horst, M.; Urbin, S.; Burton, R.; McMillan, C. “Using proton nuclear magnetic resonance as a rapid response research tool for methyl ester characterization of biodiesel”, Lipid Technology, 2009, 21, 39-41.
(DOI: 10.1002/lite.200900004)

13. Goldman, A. S.; Brookhart, M.; Huang, Z.; Krogh-Jespersen, K.; Kundu, S.; Scott, S. L. "Transition-metal-based catalytic systems for the dehydrogenation and metathesis of alkanes. Solution-phase and solid-supported iridium-based pincer catalysts." Prepr. Symp. - Am. Chem. Soc., Div. Fuel Chem., 2009, 54, 213-215.

14. Meredith, J. M.; Goldberg, K. I.; Kaminsky, W.; Heinekey, D. M. “Dinuclear Iridium Complexes Containing Cp* and Carbonyl Ligands: Synthesis, Structure and Reactivity” Organometallics, 2009, 28, 3546-3551.
(DOI: 10.1021/om900186j)

15. Bernskoetter, W. H.; Hanson, S. K.; Buzak, S. K.; Davis, Z.; White, P. S.; Swartz, R.; Goldberg, K. I.; Brookhart, M. “Investigations of Iridium Mediated Reversible C-H Bond Cleavage: Characterization of a 16-Electron Iridium(III) Methyl Hydride Complex”, J. Am. Chem. Soc., 2009, 28, 3546-3551.
(DOI: 10.1021/ja901706b)

16. Kundu, S.; Choliy, Y.; Zhuo, G.; Ahuja, R.; Emge, T. J.; Warmuth, R.; Brookhart, M.; Krogh-Jespersen, K.; Goldman, A. S. "Rational Design and Synthesis of Highly Active Pincer-Iridium Catalysts for Alkane Dehydrogenation", Organometallics, 2009, 28, 5432-5444.
(DOI: 10.1021/om900568f)

17. Wesley H. Bernskoetter, Cynthia K. Schauer, Karen I. Goldberg, and Maurice Brookhart, "Characterization of a Rhodium(I) σ-Methane Complex in Solution", Science, 2009, 326, 553-556.
(10.1126/science.1177485)

CATSB (Phase I) Publications:

1. Kloek, Susan M.; Heinekey, D. Michael; Goldberg, Karen I.; "C-H bond activation by rhodium(I) hydroxide and phenoxide complexes" Angewandte Chemie, International Edition, 2007, 46(25), 4736-4738
(DOI: 10.1002/anie.200700270)

2. Kloek, Susan M.; Goldberg, Karen I. "Competitive C-H Bond Activation and β-Hydride Elimination at Platinum(II)" J. Am. Chem. Soc., 2007, 129 (12), 3460–3461
(DOI: 10.1021/ja0669629)

3. X. Zhang; T. J. Emge; A. S. Goldman, "Selective Cleavage of the C-C Bond of Aminoethyl Groups, via a Multistep Pathway, by a Pincer Iridium Complex", J. Am. Chem. Soc., 2005, 127, 8250
(DOI: 10.1021/ja051300p)

4. Alan S. Goldman; Amy H. Roy; Zheng Huang; Ritu Ahuja; William Schinski; Maurice Brookhart, "Catalytic Alkane Metathesis by Tandem Alkane-Dehydrogenation-Olefin-Metathesis", Science, 2006, 312, 257
(DOI: 10.1126/science.1123787)

5. Susan M. Kloek; D. Michael Heinekey; Karen I. Goldberg, "Stereoselective Decarbonylation of Methanol to Form a Stable Iridium(III) Trans-Dihydride Complex", Organometallics, 2006, 25, 3007
(DOI: 10.1021/om051098z)

6. Devon C. Rosenfeld; Shashank Shekhar; Akihiro Takemiya; Masaru Utsunomiya; John F. Hartwig*, "Hydroamination and Hydroalkoxylation Catalyzed by Triflic Acid. Parallels to Reactions Initiated with Metal-Triflates", Org. Lett., 2006, 8 (19), 4179-4182
(DOI: 10.1021/ol061174+)

7. Inigo Göttker-Schnetmann; D. M. Heinekey; Maurice Brookhart, “Temperature and Solvent Dependent Binding of Dihydrogen in Iridium Pincer Complexes.” J. Am. Chem. Soc., 2006, 128, 17115-17119
(DOI: 10.1021/ja065854j)