Invitation to the lecture: Chemistry of Lewis (super)acids, frustrated pairs and positively charged boranes
The lecture of RNDr. Karel Škoch, Ph.D. (Institute of Inorganic Chemistry of the CAS, Husinec-Řež) will take place on Monday, April 8, 2024 at 12:00 in lecture room P8.
Synthetic chemistry received a significant boost in the second half of the 20th century with the use of transition metal atoms as catalysts for various types of coupling reactions. Although significant results have been achieved in this respect and today they are part of the common arsenal of reactions in laboratories and industrial plants, the problems with their use remain the same. Transition metals are toxic, expensive and difficult to obtain. This motivates scientists to search for new processes using more commonly available elements.This lecture will discuss the current trend of looking for synthetic possibilities in the use of main group elements, in this case mainly boron compounds. Due to their position in the periodic table, organic boron derivatives (boranes) represent archetypal Lewis acids whose properties can be modulated by the choice of individual substituents. A suitable combination of Lewis acid and base can give rise to an ambiphilic system in which both antagonists - electrophile and nucleophile - are present simultaneously. In the case that their direct confrontation is prevented we can speak of the so-called "frustrated Lewis pair". The latter is characterized by an unusual reactivity - it discharges its "frustration" on other molecules, activates them and opens up possibilities of use in catalysis in many respects resembling the reactivity of transition metal ions. At the same time, however, it also offers further possibilities in the search for new reactions and processes in synthetic chemistry.
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| Link | https://www.fch.vut.cz/en/faculty/organizational-structure/ims/news/f142507/d256795 |