Postgraduate research opportunities Understanding & Deploying Nickel Catalysis for Cross-Coupling

Nickel catalysis is an exciting field of research with possible applications across pharmaceutical, agrochemical, and materials chemistry. The underlying mechanisms and structure/reactivity relationships are poorly understood, and so the Nelson Group (http://personal.strath.ac.uk/david.nelson) are undertaking a programme of research in this area. Applicants with their own funding, or who can apply to secure personal fellowships/studentships, are encouraged to contact David and discuss a possible PhD project.

Topics currently under investigation include:

1. Understanding how the structure of the ligand affects reactivity. This includes a recently-established collaboration with the Stradiotto group at Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia (Canada) to understand why the “DalPhos” series of ligands are so effective. A PhD project in this area would involve the synthesis of pre-catalysts and model nickel(0) species to understand how ancillary ligand choice affects the rate of reaction and of fundamental steps such as oxidative addition. We have published a detailed study of the reactivity of dppf-Ni(0) complexes (Organometallics 2017, 36, 1662)
2. Understanding how different functional groups affect reactivity and selectivity in catalysis. Our recent work has highlighted π-acidic functionality as a particular issue for nickel catalysts; this can be a hindrance to otherwise productive reactions or can be leveraged to achieve site-selective cross-coupling (e.g. Chem. Sci. 2020, 11, 1905). A project in this area would explore a wider range of functional groups
3. Understanding the reactivity of sp³­-electrophiles with nickel. A project in this area would involve the synthesis and study of model nickel complexes in reactions relevant to sp³-sp³ and sp²-sp³ cross-couplings
4. Using computational chemistry to probe the reactivity of organometallic complexes of nickel relevant to catalysis. A project in this area would use our ARCHIE-WeSt High-Performance Computing facility and appropriate computational methods (semiempirical, density functional theory, coupled-cluster, ONIOM, etc.) to probe reactivity and selectivity in nickel catalysis by understanding how ligand and substrate structure influence mechanistic pathways

These projects are all somewhat flexible and can be tailored to the applicant’s skillset and interests and can have both experimental and theoretical components.