Professor Guy Bertrand

Dr. Guy Bertrand
UCSD/CNRS Joint Research Laboratory (IRL 3555)
University of California, San Diego

Low-Valent Carbon Species and their Uses in Catalysis

A decade ago, we recognized that due to their lone pair of electrons and accessible vacant orbital, singlet carbenes resemble transition metal centers, and thus are able to mimic their chemical behavior. We will discuss recent results demonstrating that, for some catalytic reactions including those involving single electron transfers, carbenes can indeed compete with transition metal complexes. Carbenes are 6-electron species. To push the boundaries further, we wish to undress carbon atoms even more. As an illustration we will discuss our recent results dealing with dicoordinate carbodications and radical-cations. 

References 

1. Lorkowski, J.; Gojiashvili, L.; Yorkgitis, P.; Pichon, D.; Talcik, J.; Gembicky, M.; Roisnel, T.; Baslé, O.; Jazzar, R.; Mauduit, M.; Bertrand, G. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2025, 147, 14972-14977.
2. Day, A. K.; Abdellaoui, M.; Soleilhavoup, M.; Bertrand, G. Chem Catal. 2025, 5, 101159.
3. Lorkowski, J.; Yorkgitis, P.; Morvan, F.; Morvan, J.; Vanthuyne, N.; Roisnel, T.; Gembicky, M.; Bertrand, G.; Mauduit, M.; Jazzar, R. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2025, 147, 14777-14784.
4. Loh, Y. K.; Gojiashvili, L.; Melaimi, M; Gembicky, M.; Munz, D.; Bertrand, G. Nature Synth. 2024, 3, 727- 731.
5. Abdellaoui, M.; Oppel, K.; Vianna, A.; Soleilhavoup, M.; Yan, X.; Melaimi, M.; Bertrand, G. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2024, 146, 2933–2938.
6. Loh, Y. K.; Melaimi, M.; Gembicky, M.; Munz, D.; Bertrand, G. Nature 2023, 623, 66-70.

Guy Bertrand

Dr. Guy Bertrand received his Ph.D. from University Paul Sabatier (Toulouse, France). After serving as CNRS group leader at the Laboratoire de Chimie de Coordination du CNRS, he was Director of the Laboratoire d’Hétérochimie Fondamentale et Appliquée at University Paul Sabatier from 1998 to 2005. From 2001 to 2012, he served as the Director of the UCR/ CNRS Joint Research Chemistry Laboratory at the University of California Riverside, which he created. Since July 2012, he is Distinguished Professor and Director of the UCSD/CNRS Joint Research Chemistry Laboratory at the University of California, San Diego. He is a member of the French Academy of Sciences, and the German National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina. Among other awards, he has received the ACS Award in Inorganic Chemistry and the Sir Geoffrey Wilkinson Award of the RSC.

Host: Professor Jessica Lamb

This seminar is generously sponsored by the Paul Gassman fund.