Friday February 11th, 2022 in Hand 1144

Abstract: Simple fluorinated functional groups play important roles in the life sciences and materials fields, as well as in discovery chemistry in general.  For example, the percentage of fluorinated pharmaceuticals among the total number of registered synthetic drugs is extraordinary (51% in 2018 and 43% in 2019).  Likewise, the percentage of fluorinated agrichemicals is equally impressive (53% from 1998 to 2020).  As such, the development of more effective strategies to introduce fluorinated groups into organic substrates is a high priority in chemical synthesis.  I will outline the challenges of introducing even simple fluorinated groups into organic substrates and present strategies to develop practical trifluoromethylation and fluoroalkylation strategies at a first-row metal like nickel.  The possibility to perform challenging fluoroalkylation reactions using only solvent as the supporting ligands will be discussed, as will the fundamental organometallic chemistry that is operative in many of these reactions.

Bio:  David received his Bachelor’s degree in Chemistry at the Johns Hopkins University and his Ph.D. degree at the University of Rochester working for Bill Jones on hydrodesulfurization chemistry. David was then an American Cancer Society Postdoctoral Fellow in the labs of Jacqueline Barton at Caltech, where he studied electron transfer in DNA.  He began his independent career at the University of Arkansas in 2002, followed by a short stint at the University of Hawaii.  He returned to his home state of Pennsylvania, and is now a Distinguished Professor of Chemistry at Lehigh University.

Please join us for a reception with Dr. Vicic at 3:00 PM in Hand 1134.
Hosted by:  Dr. Vicky Montiel-Palma