报告题目（Title）：A Midas touch for catalysis-computational studies on the use of gold
报 告 人（Speaker）：Prof. Brian Yates
报告时间（Time）：2019年6月12日（周三）10：00
报告地点（Place）：校本部E106
邀请人（inviter）：Jeffrey Reimers
报告摘要（Abstract）：
Over the last few years we have studied the mechanisms of synthetic reactions involving gold complexes as catalysts. Using computational chemistry methods, we have identified a number of intriguing processes in which the gold complexes behave in ways that we had not expected. For example, gold complexes traditionally work by activating an alkene substrate towards reaction with the nucleophile. However in the case of gold-catalysed hydrofunctionalisation of non-activated alkenes with phenol, we have found that the coordination of the gold(I) complex to a nucleophile (PhOH) enhances the acidity of the latter’s proton and promotes addition of the nucleophile to the alkene. This insight can be used to design well-defined gold-derived catalysts that follow this mechanism. I will discuss this process and the role of gold as a catalyst in organic chemistry in this presentation.
