Prof. Paolo Melchiorre

Catalysis / Light in Chemistry

Group Leader:

Paolo Melchiorre, ICREA Professor

Administrative Support:

Núria Planella

Lab. Technician:

Sara Kopf (Feb. – Sep.) / Laia Cuesta Aluja (since October)

Postdoctoral Researchers:

Bartosz Bieszczad (until September) / Giacomo E.M. Crisenza / Giulio Goti (until October) / Catherine M. Holden / Benjamin Laroche (since July) / Dengke Ma (since October) / Danilo Machado Lustosa (since February) / Luca A. Perego (until March) / Bertrand Schweitzer-Chaput (until August) / Xinjun Tang (since January)

PhD Students:

Nurtalya Alandini / Matteo Balletti (since October) / Pablo Bonilla Domínguez / Sara Cuadros Huertas (until October) / Eduardo de Pedro Beato / Adriana Faraone (since October) / Eugenio Gandolfo / Sara Kopf (since October) / Giandomenico Magagnano (until October) / Daniele Mazzarella / Davide Spinnato (since October) / Wei Zhou (since October)

Visiting Students:

Davide Spinnato (until August) / Adriana Faraone (until August) / Oliwia Matuszewska (Sep. – Oct.)

Summary

The research of Prof. Melchiorre aims to connect two areas of molecular activation, photochemistry and organocatalysis, to provide new frameworks for chemical reactivity for the development of light-emitted asymmetric transformations. His group has shown that the synthetic potential of organocatalytic intermediates is not limited to the fundamental state, but can be expanded by exploring their photochemical activity. By bringing an organocatalytic intermediate to an electronically excited state, the light excitation opens the door to different reaction pathways to the conventional organocatalytic pathways of the fundamental state, providing new synthetic routes for the preparation of chiral molecules that can not be achieved with the traditional methodologies.

Publications

‘Photo‐Organocatalytic Enantioselective Radical Cascade Enabled by Single‐Electron Transfer Activation of Allenes’
Alessandro-Perego, L.; Bonilla, P.; Melchiorre P.
Adv. Synth. Catal. 2019, 362 (2), 302-307

‘Photochemistry and excited-state reactivity of organocatalytic intermediates’
Holden, C. M.; Melchiorre, P.
In: «Photochemistry: Volume 47», Royal Society of Chemistry, 2019, 344 – 378

‘Photochemical C‐H Hydroxyalkylation of Quinolines and Isoquinolines’
Bieszczad, B.; Alessandro Perego, L.; Melchiorre, P.
Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2019, 58 (47), 16878-16883

MORE PUBLICATIONS

‘Photochemical Asymmetric Nickel‐Catalyzed Acyl Cross‐Coupling’
Gandolfo, E.; Tang, X.; Raha Roy, S.; Melchiorre, P.
Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2019, 58 (47), 16854-16858

‘Photochemical Organocatalytic Borylation of Alkyl Chlorides, Bromides, and Sulfonates’
Mazzarella, D.; Magagnano, G.; Schweitzer-Chaput, B.; Melchiorre, P.
ACS Catal. 2019, 9, 5876-5880

‘A visible-light mediated three-component radical process using dithiocarbamate anion catalysis’
Cuadros, S.; Horwitz, M. A.; Schweitzer-Chaput, B.; Melchiorre, P.
Chem. Sci. 2019, 10, 5484–5488

‘Mechanistic Studies in Photocatalysis’
Buzzetti, L.; Crisenza, G. E. M.; Melchiorre, P.
Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2019, 58 (12), 3730-3747

‘A Redox Active Nickel Complex that Acts as an Electron Mediator in Photochemical Giese Reactions’
van Leeuwen, T.; Buzzetti, L.; Alessandro Perego, L.; Melchiorre, P.
Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2019, 58 (15), 4953-4957

‘Stereocontrolled Synthesis of 1,4‐Dicarbonyl Compounds by Photochemical Organocatalytic Acyl Radical Addition to Enals’
Goti, G.; Bieszczad, B.; Vega-Peñaloza, A.; Melchiorre, P.
Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2019, 58, 1213-1217

‘Photochemical generation of radicals from alkyl electrophiles using a nucleophilic organic catalyst’
Schweitzer-Chaput, B.; Horwitz, M. A.; de Pedro Beato, E.; Melchiorre, P.
Nat. Chem. 2019, 11, 129–135

Projects

Melchiorre Group
AGAUR | Ref: 2017SGR981

PHOTORGANO CAT
Photochemical Enantioselective Organic Catalysis: Making Biologically Relevant Chiral Molecules with Light
Ministerio | Ref: CTQ2016-75520-P

CATA-LUX
Light-Driven Asymmetric Organocatalysis
ERC Consolidator Grant | Ref: Grant agreement no. 681840

PHOTOTRAIN
Entrepreneuring Dynamic Self-Organized Interfaces in Photocatalysis: A multidisciplinary Training Network Converting Light into Products
MSCA ITN | Ref: Grant agreement 722591 Project Website

 

Theses Supervised

Sara Cuadros
October 18th, 2019
Universitat Rovira i Virgili
«Exploiting Organocatalysis in Photochemical Processes»

Giandomenico Magagnano
October 24thth, 2019
Universitat Rovira i Virgili
«Photochemical Processes Enabled by the Direct Excitation of Organic Intermediates»

 

Features

Paolo Melchiorre joins the journal Chemical Science as an associate editor
http://www.iciq.org/prof-paolo-melchiorre-joins-the-journal-chemical-science-as-an-associate-editor/