Professor Zhi-Xiang Yu

Professor Zhi-Xiang Yu
College of Chemistry
Peking University, Beijing, China

Transition Metal Catalyzed Ring Formation Reactions and a Mild Arene Hydrogenation Method

Many natural products and pharmaceuticals have complex polycyclic structures that present synthetic challenges. There are many powerful reactions (Diels-Alder, Pauson-Khand, Grubbs ring-closing metathesis, Wender arene-alkene photocycloadditions, and others), but new ring formations are always in high demand. For the last 20 years, my group has pioneered in the development of more than twenty new Rh-catalyzed ring-forming reactions. Applications of these new reactions in total synthesis has been demonstrated by us and by other research groups.

I will discuss the development and mechanistic elaboration of several transition metal-catalyzed reactions to construct difficult seven- and eight-membered rings, as well as applications of these reactions for the synthesis of natural products.

In the second part of the talk, I will describe our recent discovery of a new mild arene hydrogenation reaction that occurs at room temperature under 1 atmosphere of hydrogen gas, which provides a convenient approach to reach a variety of useful saturated six-membered rings in synthesis.

Zhi-Xiang Yu

Resume of Training and Appointments 

• 2008-now Professor (Chang-Jiang Professor since 2015), College of Chemistry, Peking University (Principal Investigator, Theoretical and Synthetic Organic Chemistry Lab, PKU) 
• 2004-2008 Associate Professor, College of Chemistry, Peking University 
• 2002-2004 Postdoctoral Associate with Professor Kenneth N. Houk 
• 2001-2002 Postdoctoral Associate with Professor Mark Mascal 
• 1997-2001 Ph.D, Department of Chemistry, The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology. Computational Chemistry with Professor Yun-Dong Wu 
• 1994-1997 MS, Department of Chemistry, Peking University, Beijing, China. Synthetic Organic Chemistry with Qingzhong Zhou
• 1987-1991 BS, Department of Chemistry, Wuhan University, Inorganic Chemistry with Jie Wan

Research Interests

Computational and Synthetic Organic Chemistry to advance organic chemistry in the following areas:

1. Studying mechanisms of organic reactions
2. Developing new reactions and catalysts
3. Synthesizing natural products and pharmaceutical molecules

Hosted by Professor Tom Hoye