More is different: clustered sodium salt for catalysis

Abstract

Catalysis is a pivotal field for modern human society. Higher productivity/sustainability/value and lower pollution/waste/cost for catalytic reactions are always the ultimate goal for synthetic chemists. Sodium is one of the most abundant and least harmful elements in the world, which naturally fits the goal of sustainable chemistry. Clustered sodium salts are underexplored aggregates of sodium salts that exhibit unique chemical and physical properties. For example, sodium tert-butoxide formed dodecameric anion-encapsulating molecular clusters (NaOt Bu)12NaX, or X@t-BuONa, where X is the encapsulated anion. Their components could be designed to customize their catalytic functions. Here we show examples of catalysis using clustered sodium salts as novel customizable catalyst platform in synthetic reactions that were usually accomplished by transition metal catalysis. First, X@RONa was able to promote transition-metal-free polyprenylation of quinones through redox chain mechanism. Many biologically important polyprenylquinones were synthesized from corresponding parent quinone and polyprenyl halide in one step and high yield. Second, X@RONa was capable of catalytically promoting benzyne formation from simple aryl chlorides, as well as the subsequent arylation of amines. From very simple and cheap aryl chlorides, aryl amines can be easily synthesized in large scale. It is also a rare case of large-scale application of benzyne. In addition, new progresses taking X@RONa and other types of clustered sodium salts as catalysts for unique reactions and applications in materials will be reported.

Biography

Professor Zhi Li received BS from University of Science and Technology of China, PhD from the University of Chicago under the supervision of Prof. Hisashi Yamamoto, and performed postdoctoral research at Northwestern University with Prof. Tobin Marks. In 2015, he started his independent career at ShanghaiTech University in China as Assistant Professor in the School of Physical Science and Technology, and was promoted to tenured Associate Professor in 2021. His research interests covered green chemistry and catalysis, in particular new reactions utilizing renewable feedstocks, eco-friendly conditions, and low-cost reagents and catalysts. His personal recognitions include Thieme Chemistry Journal award, Chinese Academy of Sciences Education award, and Chemical Society of Japan Distinguished lecture award.