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Cover Organometallics on Fe-organometallic species

The journal Organometallics features on its front cover the recently published article “Well-Defined Aryl-Fe(II) Complexes in Cross-Coupling and C–H Activation Processes”. Iron embedded in a tetradentate N3C macrocyclic ligand scaffold allows the stabilization of valuable low-spin aryl-Fe(II) species, permitting the study of the intrinsic organometallic reactivity of these key intermediates in Fe-catalyzed cross-coupling and C-H

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Sustainable catalysis by Mn: Amide synthesis from alcohols leading to generation of hydrogen

Density functional theory calculations unveil the mechanism of the original example of a base-metal-catalyzed synthesis of amides from alcohols and amines, generating H2 as a subproduct. Instead of a convoluted mechanism with the implication of dissociation of some ligand of the manganese catalyst, our DFT calculations describe a facile protocol, where the catalyst only produces

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Cover Nat. Chem. on a three-shell nanoreactor enables record synthesis of functionalized fullerene

Recently, in collaboration with M. von Delius and co-workers from the Ulm University, a new paper was published by E. Ubasart, C. Fuertes-Espinosa, C. Garíca-Simón, L. Gómez, X. Ribas on a three-shell supramolecular complex enables the symmetry-mismatched chemo- and regioselective bis-functionalization of C60. The paper was recently published online in Nature Chemistry: E. Ubasart, O. Borodin,

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Carles Fuertes wins Antoni de Martí i Franquès award from Catalan Chemical Society SCQ

Carles Fuertes won the Antoni de Martí i Franquès de Ciències Químiques award from the Institut d’Estudis Catalans – Societat Catalana de Química for the best PhD thesis in Chemistry in 2020. He did his PhD in the QBIS-CAT group of the Institute of Computational Chemistry and Catalysis (IQCC) under the supervision of Dr. Xavi Ribas

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Chemoselectivity in cytochrome c catalyzed carbene transfer into Si–H and N–H bonds

In a new study published in the Journal of the American Chemical Society, Dr. Marc Garcia-Borràs reports a joint computational and experimental study together with the groups of Prof. Frances Arnold (Caltech, USA) and Prof. Ken Houk (UCLA, USA) to characterize the mechanism and chemoselective formation of carbon–silicon bonds. This process occurs via carbene insertions into

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IQCC Forum: Spring edition 2021

Yesterday took place the Spring edition of the IQCC Forum, a quarterly meeting-place where high-quality science is discussed. The IQCC Forum gives the opportunity for PhD and postdoc members of the IQCC to present their work to a select group of critical researchers, enhancing intra-IQCC collaborations and promoting knowledge exchange within the institute. This will lead to better knowledge of the

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Giorgio Capocasa, new postdoc at IQCC

Dr. Giorgio Capocasa has recently become a new member of the Institute of Computational Chemistry and Catalysis (IQCC). Dr. Capocasa did his PhD at University of Rome La Sapienza (Italy) on a supramolecular approach to hydrrocarbon functionalization under the supervision of Prof. Stefano Di Stefano in 2021. At this moment, he holds a postdoc position

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Muthuramalingam Sethuraman, new postdoc at IQCC

Dr. Muthuramalingam Sethuraman has recently become a new member of the Institute of Computational Chemistry and Catalysis (IQCC). Dr. Sethuraman did his PhD at Madurai Kamaraj University (India) on fixation and sequestration of CO2 by Ni(II) and Cu(II) complexes under the supervision of Dr. Ramasamy Mayilmurugan in 2020. At this moment, he holds a postdoc

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Molecular Russian Doll helps to solve chemical problem

A three-shell nanoreactor enables record synthesis of functionalized fullerene A Catalan-German research team has succeeded in using a three-shell “matryoshka” architecture to solve a long-standing problem in chemical synthesis. The researchers from Girona and Ulm have developed a three-dimensional construct of nested molecules, which is best imagined as a soccer ball stuck in a hula

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Pervasive cooperative mutational effects on multiple catalytic enzyme traits emerge via long-range conformational dynamics

The systematic construction of the so-called protein fitness landscapes and the quantification of non-additive effects observed by mutations (known as epistasis) are rarely reported. However, they provide fundamental insights into the mechanisms of laboratory and natural evolution. When reported, unfortunately, these studies usually consider only a single enzyme trait of a limited number of protein

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