Base-Metal Catalysis

Base metals have unique properties compared to their heavier congeners, such as smaller orbital energy splitting, weaker metal ligand bonding, lower electronegativity, smaller coherent body, and lower reduction potentials. These properties can lead to unique reactivities, such as one-electron redox bond homolysis, high opacity of high-valence species, and strong globality of low-valence species. This reactivity can often lead to mechanistic complications, but also allows for the exploitation of unique mechanistic concepts for catalysis, such as electron transfer, radical relay, redox-active ligands and substrates, oxidative-induced reductive ation, and ligand hydrogen transfer.

Furthermore, these unique properties provide an excellent opportunity for merging with photo and electrochemistry. Readers are encouraged to explore recent volumes on photocatalysis and catalysis. These remarks serve as an introduction to the following invited lectures. The first speaker is Lin Lin Chu from Donghua University. Professor Chu obtained her bachelor's degree in 2007 from Harvard University of Technology and began her PhD studies the same year with Professor F. Lin Qing at SIOC. Her research focused on a new method for isolating a ka mid-oxidated tr.